You can’t capture the heavyweight title or win the Masters and still be regarded as a piker, but it turns out the Kentucky Derby comes with no such guarantee. Just ask the humans connected with Giacomo, who Saturday will try to capture the Preakness Stakes and head to New York with a chance of sweeping the most-coveted prize in racing — the Triple Crown.

To listen to the stinging commentary that has erupted in the wake of Giacomo’s shocking Derby victory at odds of 50-1, you’d think the gray son of Holy Bull ran to victory like a fat man with his pants around his ankles.

Washington Post racing columnist Andy Beyer led the chorus, pronouncing Giacomo’s winning effort as “among the worst Derbies of recent decades” and a race that “produced more bewilderment than exhilaration.”

Beyer, who created the Beyer Speed Figure as a way of measuring racing performance, said that the 100 that he assigned to the winner was the worst for the race in at least 20 years.

‘Unraveled like a cheap sweater’
ESPN racing analyst Randy Moss was similarly disdainful: “This Derby was an equine cave-in,” he wrote on NTRA.com. “It unraveled like a cheap sweater, with a final half-mile in 53.16 seconds. Standardbreds run almost that fast pulling a buggy.”

INTERACTIVE Computer helps you pick winner

If you buy into this school of thought, Giacomo has virtually no shot at winning the Preakness, much less joining the revered ranks of the 11 Triple Crown winners.

There is no disputing that the final half mile of the Derby was pedestrian, to put it kindly. But before jumping on the “No on Giacomo” bandwagon, consider the oldest saw in racing: “Time only matters when you’re in jail.”

That may sound like heresy in a sport where so much accomplishment is measured by the clock, but the platitude springs from a well-documented phenomenon: Fast horses are regularly defeated by rivals that, according to all available evidence, are slower than they are.

The flip side of this is that good horses sometimes run subpar races that, when examined by themselves, could lead one to conclude that the horse in question isn’t all that talented.

FREE VIDEO Preakness preview May 20: NBC’s Bob Neumeier talks with “Today” show anchor Katie Couric about the 130th running of the Preakness Stakes. Today show

Therein lies the question about Giacomo and the other Derby horses: Is this generation of 3-year-olds simply a slow bunch or were there extenuating circumstances in the race that could account for the speed-figure deficit?

The answer is that there was one obvious factor that had to have an effect on the outcome: The insanely fast early pace set by Spanish Chestnut.

A ‘rabbit,’ but no tortoise
That was all by design. Owners Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor entered Spanish Chestnut in the race not to win but to act as a “rabbit” and burn out the front-runners in order to benefit their highly regarded closer, Bandini.

The plan worked to perfection – to a point. Spanish Chestnut went to the front and carved out fractions of :22.28, :45.38 and 1:09.59 (the second-fastest 6 furlong time in Derby history) and cooked the horses whose riders tried to stay close, including favored Bellamy Road. Unhappily for Smith and Tabor, Bandini didn’t run a step and finished 19^th out of 20 horses, three placings behind their spent speedster.

MORE FROM PREAKNESS STAKES

Filly gives racing what it desperately needed

Filly gives racing what it desperately needed You go, girl! Filly wins Preakness Stakes thriller   Video: Filly Rachel Alexandra wins Preakness thriller   Video: Overhead cam of Rachel Alexandra's win Mine That Bird 'proved that he was no fluke'   Iso cam: Mine That Bird nearly catches 'Rachel'   Video: Jockey Smith talks about finishing 2nd Litke: Borel proving to be a real horse whisperer   Video: Borel wins another Triple Crown race Brunker: This man trying to save horse racing   Add Preakness Stakes headlines to your news reader: