Preakness Stakes Odds & News
Preakness Stakes is a 13/16-mile flat race held at Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., annually in mid-May two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. The Preakness Stakes is the second (and shortest) race of the Triple Crown of American horse racing, which also comprises the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes.
This racetrack is at 5201 Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland. Pimlico was established in 1870, and was constructed on 70 acres. This is the second oldest racetrack in the nation behind Saratoga, which debuted in 1864 in upstate New York. “Pimlico” was the name given to the area by English settlers in Colonial times, the colonist were from a town near London, and had memories of a famous site called “Olde Ben Pimlico’s Tavern.”
Secretariat is the owner of the fastest time in the Preakness Stakes. As arguably the greatest racehorse of all time, Secretariat completed the 1 3/16th miles in an astounding time of 1:53.00. This winning time was actually awarded to Secretariat retroactively in 2012 when a timer malfunction was recalibrated.
Facts and trivia
The Preakness Stakes was named after a winning colt at Pimlico by the former governor of Maryland.
Preakness Stakes has run without a break each year at Pimlico and has remained throughout history, a true test of a horse’s ability and class, a race where remarkable horses meet one another in a great classic.
Preakness traditions include the singing of “Maryland, My Maryland,” the official state song; the “painting of the colors,” in which a painter, right after the winner has been officially announced, climbs a ladder to the top of the replica Old Clubhouse and applies the colors of the winning team’s silks to the cupola’s jockey-and-horse weather vane; and the draping of the winning horse with a blanket of “black-eyed Susans.”
The Maryland Jockey Club reported a total attendance of 131,256, the second-highest attendance for an American thoroughbred race in North America during 2019. However last year attendance was capped at 10.000 due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Qualification
Unlike the Kentucky Derby, which uses a points system to determine up to 20 starters, the Preakness is limited to 14 horses, and eligibility is determined by earnings in previous races.
The Preakness becomes a logical target for horses excluded from the Kentucky Derby due to insufficient points. Those horses either didn’t perform well enough in prep races during the spring or they’re late bloomers who ran out of time to qualify.
Last winner
Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy and ridden by jockey Flavien Prat, won the 146th Preakness Stakes.
The Preakness Stakes is scheduled for May 21, 2022.
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