Preakness Stakes 2024

The second jewel of the Triple Crown is the Preakness Stakes, run at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. The Grade 1 race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds is run over 1 3/16 miles and has a purse of $1.5 million. The Preakness is a proving ground for the Kentucky Derby winner, who tries to take the second leg and head into New York with a shot at the Triple Crown. But it is also a place where “fresh” horses that bypassed the Derby offer a new challenge. The Preakness Stakes is also only two weeks after the Derby, which is a turnaround most horses haven’t faced, and won’t ever again. Some of the best Preakness Stakes winners include horses that did go on to take the Triple Crown, such as Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and American Pharoah. It is a race that has been won by fillies - female horses - twice in the last 15 years: Swiss Skydiver and Rachel Alexandra. Trainer Bob Baffert is tied for the most wins in the Preakness with 1870s trainer R. Wyndham Walden; they each have seven. D. Wayne Lukas has six victories.

The horse who wins the Preakness receives a blanket of Black-Eyed Susans, the official flower of the Preakness Stakes and the state flower of Maryland. The flower also lends its name to the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for top 3-year-old fillies, which is traditionally run the day before the Preakness. The official drink of the Preakness is also named the "Black-Eyed Susan", and features a combination of orange juice, sour mix, vodka and bourbon.