Preakness Stakes 2024 Betting
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Last Updated: The Preakness Stakes is the middle jewel in the US Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, run on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Preakness Stakes is the middle jewel in the US Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, run on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland. It is run over the unusual distance of 1 mile and 1 1/2 furlongs, the winner earning a flower blanket of yellow Black-Eyed Susans and the coveted Woodlawn Vase - the most expensive trophy in American sports.
Swiss Skydiver became the first filly to win the race since 2009 and just the sixth in the 145 Preakness Stakes that have been held.
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Established 2007Must be 21+ to participate. T&Cs apply. - 2
Established 2023Must be 21+ to participate. T&Cs apply.
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How To Bet On The Preakness Stakes
First run in 1873, the Preakness Stakes purse is $1.5 million and always attracts the Kentucky Derby winner, as well as many of the US’s premier three-year-old thoroughbreds. It is the feature event across Pimlico’s three-day May meeting and music concert Infield, generating a carnival atmosphere around Baltimore, rockstars and racegoers mingling at the betting windows.
The Preakness Stakes day total horse race 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 betting attracts more than $55 million in bets each year. Preakness Stakes betting markets include the ‘win’, ‘place’, and ‘show’ standard horse racing wagers, and also have these exotic bets:
- Exacta - Pick the first and second horse home in any race, in the correct order.
- Trifecta - Predicted the first three home in the right order.
- Superfecta - Select the first four to finish the race in the right order.
- Quinella - This bet boxes an Exacta, meaning you still win as long as the two picks finish in the first two, regardless of their order. You can also box a Trifecta and Superfecta.
You can bet on the Preakness Stakes at the racecourse and online, including on betting sites outside the US, with many of the NJ betting sites and PA betting sites offering Preakness Stakes betting markets, such is the international appeal of the Second Jewel.
Top Preakness Stakes Betting Trends
The Preakness Stakes betting is dominated by the Kentucky Derby winner and other purse earners, those horses just about always winning the prize. But there can be surprises, like when Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra won in 2009.These betting tips can help:
- The draw - Pimlico is a fair track and no post position is a major negative, though the higher the gate, the wider the draw - and the longer a horse has to gallop. Triple Crown winners have won from each of the most-used gates: 1-8.
- Kentucky form - In the past two decades, every Kentucky Derby winner has run in the Preakness and 11 have won both. Only four Preakness winners did not run in the Kentucky Derby, one of them instead won the Kentucky Oaks.
- Top jockey - Three active jockeys have won the Preakness three times - Kent Desormeaux, Gary Stevens, and Victor Espinoza
- Top trainer - Bob Baffert is the winning-most active trainer with six victories. In contrast, Todd Pletcher goes into the 2019 Preakness Stakes 0-9
Recent Preakness Stakes Odds
The Preakness Stakes odds can often throw up a shock, as the nature of the course, and the placement on the calendar makes it notoriously tricky to win. The most recent recipients of the famed carnations have not all been favorites in the Belmont Stakes Odds:
| Year | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Odds / $2 Payout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Rombauer | Flavien Prat | Michael W. McCarthy | 12/1 / $25.60 |
| 2020 | Swiss Skydiver | Robby Albarado | Kenny McPeek | 11/1 / $25.40 |
| 2018 | War of Will | Tyler Gaffalione | Mark E. Casse | 6/1 / $14.20 |
| 2018 | Justify | Mike Smith | Bob Baffert | 2/5f / $2.80 |
| 2017 | Cloud Computing | Javier Castellano | Chad Brown | 134/10 / $28.80 |
| 2016 | Exaggerator | Kent Desormeaux | J. Keith Desormeaux | 13/5 / $7.20 |
| 2015 | American Pharoah | Victor Espinoza | Bob Baffert | 9/10f / $2.80 |
| 2014 | California Chrome | Victor Espinoza | Art Sherman | 1/2f / $4.50 |
| 2013 | Oxbow | Gary Stevens | D. Wayne Lukas | 154/10 / $32.80 |
The Preakness Stakes Course Information
The Preakness Stakes is run over 1 mile 1 1/2 furlongs on the dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in the US state of Maryland. The track is 1 mile oval with a rise on the infield that gives the racetrack it’s 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 inauguration of the Preakness Stakes in 1873.
As well as the Preakness Stakes, Pimlico is famous as the venue at which the incredible match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral took place on November 1, 1938. A crowd of 43,000 watched on as 1937 US Triple Crown hero War Admiral was defeated by plucky Seabiscuit in the Pimlico Special, run over the same distance as the Preakness.
How is the Preakness Stakes field decided?
The Preakness Stakes field is limited to 14 runners, but there can often be more than 300 horses nominated for the race. In order to take part in the Preakness Stakes, horses must first be entered at a cost of $15,000 to pass the entry box, and $15,000 to start the race. If more than 14 horses pay to start, the final line up will be decided by prize money already won.
The first seven places are filled by horses accumulating the highest earnings in Graded races. The next 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 in 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.
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