Total betting on the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Saturday was a record $68.69 million, up 8.6 percent over the record set in 2005 for the same race and up 10.7 percent over the total amount bet the last time it was held on its traditional date, in 2019, according to charts of the races. The Preakness posted the record after a week of outsized media coverage focusing on one of the entrants in the race, the Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, due to the horse’s post-race positive for a regulated corticosteroid. In addition, a number of racetracks that operated on the third Saturday in May in 2019 did not run on Saturday, giving horseplayers fewer options for their bankrolls. Still, the records were set despite the existential threat seemingly bearing down on the sport due to the Medina Spirit positive, and despite Pimlico having to limit ontrack attendance due to coronavirus protocols to 10,000 people, no more than 10 percent of its normal crowd. In addition, the handle records were set even though handle on the Derby and its blockbuster supporting card two weeks ago were down marginally this year, when compared to 2019. This year’s Preakness Stakes had 10 horses, including Medina Spirit. The 2019 edition, which was won by War of Will two weeks after Maximum Security was disqualified from first in the Derby due to interference entering the stretch, had 13 horses.  Overall, according to charts, handle on the 14-race Preakness card also set a record, at $113.41 million, the first time total handle on the card exceeded the $100 million mark and up 13.6 percent over the previous full-card record of $99.85 million, which was set in 2019. On Friday, total betting on a 14-race card at Pimlico that included four graded stakes, including the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, was a record $27.68 million, a 29.6 percent increase over the previous record of $21.35 million set in 2019. Comparisons to last year’s edition of the Preakness are not reasonable due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the Preakness was held in October and as the third leg in the Triple Crown, and the race drew approximately half as much in betting as in a normal year, as did the other races in the series. Pimlico posted the record handle numbers on a day in which it faced less competition from other tracks in the simulcast marketplace. In 2019, three tracks in the same time zone as Pimlico – Delaware Park in Delaware, Parx Racing outside Philadelphia, and Monmouth Park in New Jersey – held race cards on the same day as the Preakness. Due to schedule changes, all three tracks were dark on Preakness Day this year. Earlier in the day, as the handle gains on the earlier races of the Preakness card began to solidify, an official at 1/ST, the company that owns Pimlico, said that the reach of the track’s simulcast signal was no more extensive than in previous years. The gains at Pimlico occurred in contrast to the Kentucky Derby and its undercard, held two weeks earlier at Churchill Downs. With attendance limited to approximately one-third of normal, handle for the Derby was $153.7 million, down 3.7 percent compared to the 2019 race, while the full-card handle was down 5.3 percent.   Going into the Preakness, total handle on the 12 races already run at Pimlico was up 23.7 percent when compared to the first 12 races on the 2019 card, according to charts of the races.  The broadcasts of the Preakness and Pimlico’s undercard races on NBC and NBCSN devoted considerable attention to the Medina Spirit positive and to the colt’s trainer, Bob Baffert, who had announced the positive last Sunday prior to a split sample confirming the result. Baffert did not attend the Preakness. Medina Spirit, the Preakness favorite, faded to third after leading the field into the stretch.