BALTIMORE—Not once but twice, jockey Kent Desormeaux sneaked a peek to see if anyone was gaining on Big Brown.

“I looked between my legs, under my arms, and they were eight (lengths) behind me,” Desormeaux said. “I stopped pushing. I said, ‘That’s enough.”’

His big bay colt ran away with the Preakness on Saturday and now is pointed squarely down the path toward the Triple Crown.

The 3-year-old with the perfect record heads for the Belmont Stakes in three weeks as the fourth horse this decade to try for the triple, a sweep last accomplished by Affirmed in 1978. The last to try was Smarty Jones in 2004.

“Wow is all I can say,” Steve Cauthen, who rode Affirmed, said by telephone from Kentucky. “He looks pretty special. It was like a cakewalk for him. The important thing to me is he keeps passing all the tests.”