We've compiled the ultimate Preakness Stakes betting guide, including offers, betting tips, and historical trends.
You can bet on the Preakness Stakes at the racecourse and online horse betting sites. Check out U.S. sports betting sites to learn about the sign-up process, where you can bet online, what markets you can bet on, and more.
Preakness Stakes betting markets include the standard horse racing wagers, and also have these exotic bets:
The Preakness Stakes betting is dominated by the Kentucky Derby winner and other purse earners; those horses always win the prize. But there can be surprises, like when Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra won in 2009.
These betting tips can help:
The Preakness Stakes field is limited to 14 runners, but there can often be more than 300 horses nominated for the race.
To participate in the Preakness Stakes, horses must first be entered for $15,000 to pass the entry box and $15,000 to start the race. If more than 14 horses pay to start, the final lineup will be decided by prize money already won.
The first seven places are filled by horses accumulating the highest earnings in Graded races. The following four places go to horses accumulating the highest earnings in stakes races whose conditions contain no restrictions other than age or sex. The final three places are given to horses with the highest total earnings in all races.
In addition, no horse finishing in the first five in the Kentucky Derby shall be denied a place in the Preakness Stakes, or the third Triple Crown race, the Belmont Stakes.
There are also two "also-eligible horses," or reserves chosen. They become a starter should any of the first 14 be scratched before the scratch deadline.
The Preakness Stakes is the middle jewel in the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, run on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland. The winner earns a flower blanket of yellow Black-Eyed Susans and the coveted Woodlawn Vase, the most expensive trophy in American sports.
First run in 1873, the Preakness Stakes purse is now up to $2 million and attracts many of the U.S.'s premier three-year-old thoroughbreds. It is the featured event across Pimlico’s three-day May meeting, which includes a music concert in the infield. The race cultivates a carnival atmosphere around Baltimore, with rock stars and racegoers mingling at the betting windows.
The Preakness Stakes day total betting handle exceeds $90 million, a further $19 million bet on the previous day’s Black-Eyed Susan race day, as more than 120,000 ascend the "Old Hilltop."
The Preakness Stakes is run over 1 mile 1 1/2 furlongs on the dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland. The track is a 1-mile oval with a rise on the infield, giving the racetrack its nickname, "Old Hilltop." It opened in fall 1870, with the colt Preakness winning the first running of the Dinner Party Sakes. Three years later, that colt was honoured with the inaugural Preakness Stakes.
Pimlico is famous for the incredible match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral on Nov. 1, 1938. A crowd of 43,000 watched as plucky Seabiscuit defeated 1937 U.S. Triple Crown hero War Admiral in the Pimlico Special, run over the same distance as the Preakness.
Bob Baffert is the winningest active trainer with six victories. Three active jockeys have won the Preakness three times—Kent Desormeaux, Gary Stevens, and Victor Espinoza.
The Preakness Stakes odds can often throw up a shock, as the nature of the course and the placement on the calendar make it notoriously tricky to win.
Year | Horse | Trainer |
---|---|---|
2024 | Seize the Grey | D. Wayne Lukas |
2023 | National Treasure | Bob Baffert |
2022 | Early Voting | Chad C. Brown |
2021 | Rombauer | Michael W. McCarthy |
2020 | Swiss Skydiver | Kenny McPeek |
2018 | War of Will | Mark E. Casse |
2018 | Justify | Bob Baffert |
2017 | Cloud Computing | Chad Brown |
2016 | Exaggerator | J. Keith Desormeaux |
2015 | American Pharoah | Bob Baffert |
2014 | California Chrome | Art Sherman |
2013 | Oxbow | D. Wayne Lukas |