2012 Preakness Ticket Sales Up

Good news for the 2012 Preakness.

Ticket sales are up by 6 percent for the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

The 137th Preakness Stakes is set to run on May 19 at Pimlico Race Course.

On Friday the Maryland Jockey Club announced that the band Maroon 5 and rapper Wiz Khalifa are scheduled to play during the InfieldFest.

InfieldFest was part of an effort to lure people back to the race after bringing outside beverages into the infield during Preakness was banned in 2009. 

Before the ban on outside alcohol being enforced, the infield had become infamous for the drunken antics of some attendees. The event may have reached its nadir when some infield ticket holders began the tradition of running across the tops of portable toilets while dodging beer cans thrown by other spectators. 

But as the Baltimore Business Journal points out, there's still no word if the beer-swilling centaur, and last year's InfieldFest mascot, will return.

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