BALTIMORE — Horse players had been checking the weather radar all afternoon — there was a storm rumbling toward Pimlico and a wet track, well, that made the Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah a lock to win the Preakness Stakes and the second leg of the Triple Crown.

The colt’s trainer, Bob Baffert, wasn’t so sure. Yes, he knew American Pharoah had sliced his way like a Jet Ski to a six-and-a-quarter-length win two months ago on a sloppy track in Arkansas. But as the colt and his seven rivals stepped onto the track here Saturday, thunder was booming and a deluge had chased thousands of raucous infield revelers to seek cover and made the jockeys in their colorful silks and aboard their horses barely visible.

“I was getting a little leery,” Baffert said. “These horses, you could tell they didn’t like getting pelted.”

Victor Espinoza, American Pharoah’s rider, however, was experiencing a moment of clarity. He was drenched and uncomfortable, and as he walked his colt in a circle, he made a decision. He was going to get American Pharoah out of the gate quickly and take this field gate to wire and to victory and, presumably, to New York and the Belmont Stakes with a chance to become the 12th Triple Crown champion in history, and the first since Affirmed in 1978.