Watch The Preakness Stakes 2011 Online

The 136th running of the Preakness Stakes is mere hours away. NBC has the television coverage, and if you're not near a TV, NBC will make the Preakness available to watch online.

Coverage on both NBC and NBCsports.com begins at 4:30 p.m. ET. Post time, for the time being, is listed at 6:18 p.m. In the past, NBC has done a great job of streaming horse races online -- the Kentucky Derby from earlier this month was shown online in high video and audio quality.

As 4:30 p.m. nears, NBC Sports should make a link available on its website. This online broadcast, along with NBC Sports' live streaming of Sunday Night Football, the events broadcast by ESPN3, and CBS Sports' March Madness On Demand, signals a growing trend toward offering fans an opportunity to watch events online for free. We can only hope that this catches on with other networks and sports leagues.

Our horse racing blog And Down The Stretch They Come has two must-read resources for Derby fans: A Beginner's Guide To Following Horse Racing and a glossary of horse racing terms