Shackleford, a horse named after Shackleford Banks near Beaufort, NC, defeated favorite Animal Kingdom for the Preakness title Saturday.

Shackleford beat the Kentucky Derby winner by a half-length at Pimlico in Baltimore. The chestnut colt was slick from sweat and was fighting against getting in the gate. But once the race began, Shackleford stayed up at or near the top the rest of the way.

The horse’s owners Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge bought the colt at the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale. They thought long and hard before giving him a name.

“We were thinking at the time he needs a good name, because with his pedigree he could possibly be a good horse some day,” said Lauffer, majority owner in the partnership that primarily breeds horses to sell and races those that don’t get sold.

They settled on Shackleford, named for the barrier island off the North Carolina coast that is home to feral horses that have inhabited the land for several hundred years. Lauffer said he and Cubbedge are frequent visitors to Shackleford Banks.