For 153 years, the Preakness Stakes meant Pimlico. That run is over. The 151st Preakness Stakes lands at Laurel Park on Saturday, May 16, 2026. Post time hits at roughly 6:50 p.m. ET. Two weeks after Golden Tempo stunned the Kentucky Derby at 23-1, horse racing’s middle jewel gets a new home, a smaller field, and a clean reset on every shortcut the betting public usually leans on for this race.
Here’s the trap most bettors walk into. In hopes of a Triple Crown winner, they project the Derby onto the Preakness. They blast the Derby winner. They back chalk and call it a day. Then they lose their stack. Laurel runs a tighter oval, the field caps at 14, and a Derby skipper or two looks live at fair value. This guide breaks down the 2026 Preakness Stakes odds, the contenders, the wager types, and the books worth your dough before post time. Read it once. Bet sharp. Cash on race day.
Where to Bet Preakness Stakes
Not every offshore sportsbook deserves your action. We’ve vetted dozens over two decades and trimmed the list to a handful that consistently pay out, post sharp prices, and treat winning customers fairly.
Our criteria stay simple:
- Payout speed: Crypto withdrawals processed in 24 hours or less. Fiat methods cleared within a week.
- Track record: 10+ years in operation under stable ownership. No major scandals. No frozen-account horror stories.
- Pricing: Lines and odds at or near full track parity, plus bonuses or rebates that push value higher.
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Five names clear the bar. Each has a different specialty. Match the book to the bet you want to make.
When is Preakness Stakes?
Mark it down. Saturday, May 16, 2026. The 151st Preakness Stakes runs at Laurel Park. Approximate post time is 6:50 p.m. ET. NBC carries the main broadcast window. The race sits exactly two weeks after the Kentucky Derby on May 2. It’s the second leg of the Triple Crown. The Belmont follows on June 6.
The card kicks off in the early afternoon. CNBC handles the early portion of the broadcast starting around 2 p.m. ET. NBC takes over close to 4 p.m. ET. The Preakness itself goes off as the day’s signature race. Plan your evening accordingly. Get your bets in 10 to 15 minutes before post.
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Race | 151st Preakness Stakes (Grade 1) |
| Date | Saturday, May 16, 2026 |
| Track | Laurel Park, Laurel, Maryland |
| Distance | 1 3/16 miles (9.5 furlongs) |
| Purse | $2 million |
| Approximate Post Time | 6:50 p.m. ET |
| Field Size | Maximum 14 horses |
| Post Position Draw | Monday, May 11 |
| TV Broadcast | NBC and CNBC |
| Streaming | Peacock |
| Defending Champion | Journalism (2025) |
| 2026 Kentucky Derby Winner | Golden Tempo |
| Trainer Wins Record | Bob Baffert, 8 |
| First Run | 1873 |
Why The Race Moved From Pimlico To Laurel Park
Pimlico is a construction site. The historic Baltimore track is mid-rebuild. The 2026 Preakness becomes the first running in race history held outside Pimlico’s grounds. Laurel Park, also operated by 1/ST Racing, hosts for one year. The race returns to a refurbished Pimlico in 2027.
What does that mean for bettors? A different surface profile. A different layout. Laurel’s main track configuration runs a shorter stretch run than Pimlico. Speed and tactical position carry more weight here. Horses with home-track miles at Laurel pick up a real edge that the morning line will not fully account for.
Early Preakness Stakes Odds
Excluding any last-minute scratches, below is the final list of contenders for the Preakness with the original ML odds and the updated futures odds from top betting sites.
| Post Position | Horse | Odds | Moneyline | Win Probability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taj Mahal | 5-1 | +500 | 16.67% |
| 2 | Ocelli | 6-1 | +600 | 14.29% |
| 3 | Crupper | 30-1 | +3000 | 3.23% |
| 4 | Robusta | 30-1 | +3000 | 3.23% |
| 5 | Talkin | 20-1 | +2000 | 4.76% |
| 6 | Chip Honcho | 5-1 | +500 | 16.67% |
| 7 | The Hell We Did | 15-1 | +1500 | 6.25% |
| 8 | Bull By The Horns | 30-1 | +3000 | 3.23% |
| 9 | Iron Honor | 9-2 | +450 | 18.18% |
| 10 | Napoleon Solo | 8-1 | +800 | 11.11% |
| 11 | Corono De Oro | 30-1 | +3000 | 3.23% |
| 12 | Incredibolt | 5-1 | +500 | 16.67% |
| 13 | Great White | 15-1 | +1500 | 6.25% |
| 14 | Pretty Boy Miah | 15-1 | +1500 | 6.25% |
2026 Preakness Stakes: Early Odds, Field, and Contenders
Right after the Kentucky Derby, futures markets reset. Here’s the early read on the 2026 Preakness Stakes odds as of this update:
- Renegade: 5-2 to 4-1 range
- Taj Mahal: 3-1 to 7-2
- Iron Honor: 5-1 to 7-1
- Chip Honcho: 8-1 to 12-1
- Golden Tempo: 12-1 to 40-1 (depending on Preakness commitment)
- Field: 8-1 to 25-1 spread across remaining contenders
These are pre-draw numbers. They move. A lot. The post draw on Monday, May 11 reshuffles the entire board. Expect the favorite to firm up by Tuesday morning. Longshots get fresh prices once trainers confirm starts.
Public money flows to two types of horses on Preakness week. Derby finishers carry name recognition. New shooters with Grade 1 prep wins draw smart money. Fade horses getting overbet purely for Derby visibility. Find the runner with a real angle the public hasn’t priced.
When The Morning Line Is Released
The morning line drops right after the post position draw on Monday, May 11. A track-employed odds-maker sets each horse’s number based on expected public action, not a true probability estimate. That’s a key point. The morning line forecasts how the public bets, not who wins.
Use it as a benchmark. Then watch live tote money. Final pari-mutuel odds get set by actual ticket flow into the win pool. Public money compresses favorites. A horse listed at 5-1 on the morning line often closes at 7-2 or 3-1 by post time. A 12-1 listed runner can drift to 18-1 if action stays soft.
Smart play? Get your live odds read 90 seconds before post. The board updates every cycle. Don’t get cute and wait for the bell. Fingers slip. Tickets get punched late.
How Preakness Odds Move From Friday To Post Time
Patterns repeat year after year. Early Friday money tends to come from track regulars and serious handicappers. That money is sharp. Watch where it lands. Saturday morning brings retail money on Derby narratives, big-name trainers, and TV-friendly stories. Saturday afternoon brings the public flood, which compresses chalk and creates value at the back of the field.
What does that mean for your tickets? Bet your live longshot Friday or early Saturday. Wait on your top pick until 10 minutes before post if the market’s overreacting. Watch for steam moves, defined as a sudden price drop on a runner with no obvious news. That’s late inside money. Tail it carefully. Track our live odds feed for the full Preakness week of price action.
2026 Preakness Stakes Top Contenders
Taj Mahal
Three starts, three wins, all at Laurel Park. Trainer Brittany Russell developed this colt patiently and the results speak. His most recent score in the Federico Tesio Stakes was an 8 1/4-length romp at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles. Same surface. Same track. Same conditions.
Read that again. He’s never raced anywhere else. Every workout, every prep, every win, all on the Laurel main. That’s a structural edge no other contender can match. The class question is real (he hasn’t faced graded company yet) but the home advantage isn’t theoretical. It’s measurable.
Expect Taj Mahal to open as the morning line favorite or co-favorite. Anything north of 5-2 on race day plays as fair value at this track.
Iron Honor
Chad Brown owns this race. Two Preakness wins in the last decade and a clear pattern. Bounce a horse off a Wood Memorial flop, give him a six-week freshener, run him fourth career start in the Preakness. Cloud Computing fit it in 2017. Early Voting fit it in 2022. Iron Honor fits it now.
The Gotham Stakes winner ran seventh in the Wood Memorial off the favorite’s chalk. Brown skipped the Derby. Six weeks of rest line up to race day. Fourth career start. The angle prints when the public hasn’t caught up. Watch the price. If Iron Honor opens 6-1 or longer, that’s your bet.
Renegade
Todd Pletcher’s Into Mischief colt entered the Derby unbeaten in 2026. He drew post 1 at Churchill, broke a beat slow, and finished second to Golden Tempo. The trip was bad. The pace shape was worse. He still ran a competitive race against a closing-style winner.
Pletcher saddles him back in two weeks at Laurel. Better post draw odds. Smaller field. Cleaner trip. The Sam F. Davis and Arkansas Derby winner gets the right setup at the right time. Public money will hammer him as a Derby runner-up. Sharp money will too. Expect 5-2 to 7-2 at post time.
The question isn’t if he runs well. It’s whether the price still pays.
Chip Honcho
Steve Asmussen pulled the trigger early. Chip Honcho bypassed the Derby entirely after a fifth-place run in the Louisiana Derby. The reason? Distance fit. The Risen Star at 1 1/8 miles drew his best race, a half-length defeat at the wire. The Derby’s 1 1/4 miles asked too much. The Preakness at 1 3/16 miles asks just enough.
Two-time Preakness winner Asmussen knows how to set up for this race. Chip Honcho gets six weeks of rest, a perfect distance, and a likely live pace scenario where his tactical speed plays. Expect 8-1 to 12-1.
Golden Tempo
Golden Tempo just won the Kentucky Derby at 23-1. Trainer Cherie DeVaux hasn’t confirmed Preakness plans. Word out of Churchill points to the Belmont as the target. The Belmont’s 1 1/2 miles suits a deep closer. The Preakness doesn’t.
Owner Vincent Viola has been quiet. The structural case says skip Laurel and rest for Belmont on June 6. That’s likely how this plays out. If Golden Tempo enters anyway, he’ll go off at 8-1 or shorter on name recognition. Skip the bet. The pace shape at Laurel will not deliver him.
Triple Crown chase? Probably off the table the moment Golden Tempo doesn’t enter. That’s bad for casual TV interest, good news for bettors who don’t want public chalk eating their value.
Field Fillers, Longshots, And Live Pricing
The bottom of the field matters. Watch for late entries from barns with cheap speed: Brad Cox, Kenny McPeek, Dale Romans. The 12-1 to 25-1 range on the Preakness board is where exotic-ticket value lives every year.
Last year’s winner, Journalism, went off at 8-1 in the 2025 Preakness. The year before, Seize the Grey paid $20.40 to win at 9-1. Don’t sleep on the second tier. Build your trifecta key around them.
How To Bet The 2026 Preakness Stakes
Straight Bets: Win, Place, And Show
The basics. Three options. One winner.
- Win: Your horse finishes first. Pays the most. Toughest to hit.
- Place: Your horse finishes first or second. Smaller payout. Safer.
- Show: Your horse finishes first, second, or third. Smallest payout. Easiest hit.
A $2 win bet on a 5-1 horse pays $12 (your $2 stake plus $10 profit). A $2 place bet on the same horse pays $4 to $7 depending on the place pool. A $2 show bet typically returns $3 to $5.
New bettor? Start here. Pick one runner. Bet $5 to win. Watch the race. Learn the rhythm. Build up from there.
Exotic Bets: Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta
This is where serious horseplayers do the work.
- Exacta: Pick the top two finishers in exact order. $1 minimum. Payouts run $20 to $400 depending on the chalk involved.
- Trifecta: Pick the top three in exact order. 50-cent minimum at most tracks. Payouts run $50 to several thousand.
- Superfecta: Pick the top four in exact order. 10-cent minimum. Payouts run $200 to five figures.
Box vs straight ticket: A straight exacta bets one specific order. A boxed exacta bets every possible order of your selected horses. A two-horse box on an exacta is two bets ($2 at $1 minimum). A three-horse trifecta box is six combinations ($3 at 50 cents).
Smaller fields help. The Preakness caps at 14 versus the Derby’s 20. Fewer horses, fewer combinations, sharper tickets. A trifecta key (one top pick over four others over six others) costs $12 at 50 cents and covers serious ground.
Multi-Race Wagers: Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 4
- Daily Double: Pick the winners of two consecutive races. $1 minimum. Pairs the Black-Eyed Susan winner with the Preakness winner for a strong Friday-Saturday weekend play.
- Pick 3: Pick three straight winners. 50-cent minimum.
- Pick 4: Pick four straight winners. 50-cent minimum. The late Pick 4 on Preakness day usually closes with a big carryover pool.
The late Pick 4 is the smart bankroll play of the day. Carryover money inflates the pool. Public money chases favorites. Sharp tickets that include one or two longshots in tough spots cash for serious loot.
The Preakness Future Wager
The Preakness Future Wager opens the week before the Kentucky Derby. It closes Saturday, May 2 at 6 p.m. ET, before the Derby goes off. You bet on a Preakness contender at locked-in odds.
Why bet futures? Two reasons. First, the price beats race-day pari-mutuel pricing on horses the public will hammer. Second, the futures pool includes “All Other 3-Year-Olds,” meaning you can hedge on a Derby finisher if you think they’ll skip the Preakness.
The downside? If your horse doesn’t enter the Preakness, you lose the bet. Renegade was the morning line favorite at 10-1 on the futures pool. Iron Honor and Taj Mahal also drew action. The futures wager is a sharp tool for prepared bettors who do their work early.
Preakness Match-Up And Prop Bets
Offshore racebooks shine here. Domestic ADWs typically only offer pari-mutuel betting. Offshore books add fixed-odds props:
- Head-to-head matchups: Pick which of two listed horses finishes higher
- Margin of victory: Pick the winner’s margin (1/2 length, neck, length, etc.)
- Winning post position: Pick the gate the winner breaks from
- Trainer/jockey props: First trainer to win on the card, jockey wins, etc.
Match-ups are pure handicapping skill. No public chalk inflation. No track takeout. Got a strong opinion on Iron Honor over Renegade? Take the matchup at -110 instead of betting Iron Honor to win at 5-1.
Wager Types Compared: A Quick Payout Reference
| Bet Type | Min Stake | Skill Required | Payout Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Win | $2 | Low | 2-1 to 30-1 |
| Place | $2 | Low | 1-1 to 8-1 |
| Show | $2 | Low | 0.10-1 to 4-1 |
| Exacta | $1 | Medium | $20 to $400 |
| Trifecta | $0.50 | High | $50 to $5,000+ |
| Superfecta | $0.10 | High | $200 to $20,000+ |
| Daily Double | $1 | Medium | $10 to $200 |
| Pick 4 | $0.50 | High | $100 to $50,000+ |
Bookmark this. Print it out. Match the bet to your goal.
2026 Preakness Stakes Betting Strategy And Tips
Why Laurel Park Changes The Handicapping Equation
Laurel Park is not Pimlico. Laurel’s main track runs a one-mile oval with a 1,002-foot stretch. Pimlico’s main track is a one-mile oval with a 1,152-foot stretch. That 150-foot difference matters. Closers at Pimlico get a longer runway. At Laurel, the stretch ends faster.
Surface holds firm. Maintenance crew at Laurel has run a fast main track all spring. Speed bias has shown up in card after card during the prep season. Front-runners and stalkers win at a higher rate at Laurel than at most American main tracks.
What does that mean? Fade pure closers. Back tactical speed. Hunt for horses that have raced effectively in the 1 to 4 length back position at the first call.
Don’t Project The Derby Onto The Preakness
Different races. Different demands. The Derby’s 20-horse field forces traffic problems and pace meltdowns. The Preakness’s 14-cap field allows clean trips. The Derby’s 1 1/4 miles taxes stamina. The Preakness’s 1 3/16 miles (one furlong shorter) rewards speed that holds.
Public money? Hammers Derby finishers. They’re the names everyone knows. They’re also the names everyone overbets. New shooters and Derby skippers carry better fair value at Preakness post.
The 2024 Preakness winner (Seize the Grey) skipped the Derby. The 2022 winner (Early Voting) skipped the Derby. The 2017 winner (Cloud Computing) skipped the Derby. Pattern hasn’t changed.
Pace Handicapping On A Tighter Oval
Pace makes the race. Always has. Always will.
How to read it for Preakness day:
- Identify the pacesetters: Which horses go to the lead? How do they handle pressure?
- Map the second flight: Stalkers sit 2 to 4 lengths back. Who’s tactical enough to hold position?
- Project the early fractions: Slow first quarter favors the speed. Fast first quarter helps closers (rare at Laurel).
- Pick your trip: Bet horses with the best projected trip, not the fastest figure.
A horse who can sit 1-1 to 1-2 (first call by half a length, second call by a length) is the type who wins at Laurel. Find that horse on Monday after the post draw.
Reading The Morning Line Versus Live Tote Odds
Morning line predicts public action. Live tote odds reflect real money in the pool. The two often disagree by post time. That gap is where value lives.
A horse listed at 6-1 on the morning line who closes at 4-1 is overbet. The public is hammering him on a name. A horse listed at 12-1 who drifts to 18-1 is underbet. The public has dismissed him and the pool’s fixed payout just got fatter.
Watch the board. Watch the cycle. Bet your value horse 90 seconds before post. Never chase a favorite that has firmed up below its fair price.
Preakness Stakes Post Position Draw
Best Overall Sportsbook For The 2026 Preakness
After ranking books across odds, bet menu, deposit speed, customer service, and reputation, BetOnline tops OddsTrader’s list for the 2026 Preakness Stakes. Three reasons.
First, BetOnline runs a full racebook with pools commingled directly into track pools at Laurel. Same odds as the windows. No house markup, no shaved payouts on your winning tickets.
Second, the sign-up bonus delivers real value. New depositors grab a 50% match on first funding up to $1,000 with a clean rollover, plus race day promos that stack on top of the welcome offer.
Third, the racebook covers every bet type from win to Pick 6, plus Preakness-specific match-ups, prop bets, and futures. One book, one account, full ticket coverage on Triple Crown weekend.
Best Sign-Up Bonus For New Horse Racing Bettors
Bonus offers vary wildly across books. Most are smaller than they look. Read the rollover.
Top current Preakness sportsbook offers:
- BetOnline: 50% match up to $1,000, 6x rollover on bonus + deposit
- BetAnything: 100% match up to $1,000, 10x rollover on bonus
- MyBookie: 50% match up to $1,000, 10x rollover on bonus + deposit
- Bovada: 75% sports welcome bonus up to $750 (crypto deposit), 5x rollover
The headline number isn’t the bonus value. Rollover is. A $1,000 bonus at 10x rollover means betting $10,000 in stakes before you withdraw. That’s a lot of action. A 5x or 6x rollover on a smaller bonus often pays out more real cash than a 10x on a fat one.
OddsTrader’s full sportsbook bonus calculator shows the actual playthrough math.
Best Offshore Sportsbooks For Horse Racing
Offshore racebooks accept bettors in all 50 states, including markets where domestic ADWs can’t operate. They run as licensed operators in jurisdictions like Panama, Curaçao, and Costa Rica.
Top offshore picks for the 2026 Preakness:
- BetOnline: Best for full track odds and the deepest bet menu
- Bovada: Best mobile racebook and live race streaming for crypto bettors
- MyBookie: Best for prop and match-up betting on the Preakness card
- BetAnything: Best for combined sportsbook plus racebook accounts and rebates
What to hunt for in a racebook:
- Full track odds: Your bet pays the actual track payout, not a house-modified number
- Bet variety: Win/Place/Show, exotics, multi-race, props, futures
- Rebates: Cash back on losing tickets (BetAnything and BetOnline run rebate programs on horse racing action)
- Live streaming: Watch your race directly inside the racebook
- Fast payouts: Crypto withdrawals in 24 hours, bank wire in 3 to 5 business days
Head-To-Head: BetOnline vs BetAnything vs MyBookie vs Bovada
| Feature | BetOnline | BetAnything | MyBookie | Bovada |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus | 50% up to $1,000 | 100% up to $1,000 | 50% up to $1,000 | 75% up to $750 |
| Rollover | 6x | 10x | 10x | 5x |
| Full Track Pools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Match-Up Props | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Live Race Streaming | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| Horse Racing Rebates | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Crypto Deposits | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Credit Card Deposits | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Mobile App Quality | Strong | Solid | Strong | Strong |
Pick your book based on what you actually need. Heavy bettor chasing rebates? BetOnline or BetAnything. Crypto-only bettor wanting clean mobile? Bovada. Casual prop and match-up player? MyBookie. New to horse racing and want maximum bonus dollars? BetAnything’s 100% match leads the field, just keep that 10x rollover in mind.
How OddsTrader Rates Sportsbooks For Preakness Betting
Five-point rubric. Equal weight on each axis.
- Odds Quality: Full track pools, fixed odds availability, prop pricing
- Bet Menu: Win/Place/Show, exotics, multi-race, props, futures
- Deposit and Withdrawal Speed: Crypto, credit card, person-to-person, wire timing
- Customer Support: Live chat hours, phone support, email response time
- Reputation: Years in operation, complaint volume, payout track record
We test every book on every axis ourselves. No paid placements affect rankings. BetOnline, BetAnything, MyBookie, and Bovada all pass on all five.
Preakness Stakes History And Past Winners
A Brief History Of The Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes ran for the first time in 1873 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Named after the colt Preakness, the original winner of the Dinner Party Stakes at Pimlico in 1870, the race quickly took its place as one of America’s premier thoroughbred contests.
The Preakness was added to the Triple Crown sequence in 1931, slotted between the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes. The race’s signature traditions include the painting of the winner’s silks on the Old Clubhouse weathervane and the Black-Eyed Susan blanket draped over the winner.
The 2026 running marks 153 years since the inaugural race. Bob Baffert holds the trainer wins record with 8 Preakness victories, most recent in 2023 with National Treasure. Two of those wins (American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018) led to Triple Crown sweeps.
Recent Preakness Stakes Winners
| Year | Winner | Trainer |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Journalism | Michael McCarthy |
| 2024 | Seize the Grey | D. Wayne Lukas |
| 2023 | National Treasure | Bob Baffert |
| 2022 | Early Voting | Chad Brown |
| 2021 | Rombauer | Michael McCarthy |
| 2020 | Swiss Skydiver | Kenny McPeek |
| 2019 | War of Will | Mark Casse |
| 2018 | Justify | Bob Baffert |
| 2017 | Cloud Computing | Chad Brown |
| 2016 | Exaggerator | Keith Desormeaux |
Preakness Stakes Betting Markets
Straight Bets: Win, Place, And Show
The basics. Three options. One winner.
- Win: Your horse finishes first. Pays the most. Toughest to hit.
- Place: Your horse finishes first or second. Smaller payout. Safer.
- Show: Your horse finishes first, second, or third. Smallest payout. Easiest hit.
A $2 win bet on a 5-1 horse pays $12 (your $2 stake plus $10 profit). A $2 place bet on the same horse pays $4 to $7 depending on the place pool. A $2 show bet typically returns $3 to $5.
New bettor? Start here. Pick one runner. Bet $5 to win. Watch the race. Learn the rhythm. Build up from there.
Exotic Bets: Exacta, Trifecta, Superfecta
This is where serious horseplayers do the work.
- Exacta: Pick the top two finishers in exact order. $1 minimum. Payouts run $20 to $400 depending on the chalk involved.
- Trifecta: Pick the top three in exact order. 50-cent minimum at most tracks. Payouts run $50 to several thousand.
- Superfecta: Pick the top four in exact order. 10-cent minimum. Payouts run $200 to five figures.
Box vs straight ticket: A straight exacta bets one specific order. A boxed exacta bets every possible order of your selected horses. A two-horse box on an exacta is two bets ($2 at $1 minimum). A three-horse trifecta box is six combinations ($3 at 50 cents).
Smaller fields help. The Preakness caps at 14 versus the Derby’s 20. Fewer horses, fewer combinations, sharper tickets. A trifecta key (one top pick over four others over six others) costs $12 at 50 cents and covers serious ground.
Multi-Race Wagers: Daily Double, Pick 3, Pick 4
- Daily Double: Pick the winners of two consecutive races. $1 minimum. Pairs the Black-Eyed Susan winner with the Preakness winner for a strong Friday-Saturday weekend play.
- Pick 3: Pick three straight winners. 50-cent minimum.
- Pick 4: Pick four straight winners. 50-cent minimum. The late Pick 4 on Preakness day usually closes with a big carryover pool.
The late Pick 4 is the smart bankroll play of the day. Carryover money inflates the pool. Public money chases favorites. Sharp tickets that include one or two longshots in tough spots cash for serious loot.
The Preakness Future Wager
The Preakness Future Wager opens the week before the Kentucky Derby. It closes Saturday, May 2 at 6 p.m. ET, before the Derby goes off. You bet on a Preakness contender at locked-in odds.
Why bet futures? Two reasons. First, the price beats race-day pari-mutuel pricing on horses the public will hammer. Second, the futures pool includes “All Other 3-Year-Olds,” meaning you can hedge on a Derby finisher if you think they’ll skip the Preakness.
The downside? If your horse doesn’t enter the Preakness, you lose the bet. Renegade was the morning line favorite at 10-1 on the futures pool. Iron Honor and Taj Mahal also drew action. The futures wager is a sharp tool for prepared bettors who do their work early.
Preakness Match-Up And Prop Bets
Offshore racebooks shine here. Domestic ADWs typically only offer pari-mutuel betting. Offshore books add fixed-odds props:
- Head-to-head matchups: Pick which of two listed horses finishes higher
- Margin of victory: Pick the winner’s margin (1/2 length, neck, length, etc.)
- Winning post position: Pick the gate the winner breaks from
- Trainer/jockey props: First trainer to win on the card, jockey wins, etc.
Match-ups are pure handicapping skill. No public chalk inflation. No track takeout. Got a strong opinion on Iron Honor over Renegade? Take the matchup at -110 instead of betting Iron Honor to win at 5-1.
Preakness Stakes History
A Brief History Of The Preakness Stakes
The race was first run in 1873. It stands proudly as the second jewel of the Triple Crown. The winning horse receives the iconic blanket of Black-Eyed Susans. The race has produced legendary moments from Secretariat to American Pharoah.
Recent Preakness Winners
2025: TBD
2024: Seize the Grey (D. Wayne Lukas)
2023: National Treasure (Bob Baffert)
2022: Early Voting (Chad Brown)
2021: Rombauer (Michael McCarthy)
2020: Swiss Skydiver (Kenny McPeek)
2019: War of Will (Mark Casse)
2018: Justify (Bob Baffert)
2017: Cloud Computing (Chad Brown)
2016: Exaggerator (J. Keith Desormeaux)