American Pharoah Still Horse Racing Betting Favorite To Win Preakness

The troubles in the city of Baltimore have spread their way into the sports world in recent weeks, with the Orioles in baseball being the most heavily affected. While things seem less explosive than they have been of late, there was still some talk that the Preakness Stakes may be moved away from its home at Pimlico racetrack. That will not be the case, and the horse racing betting event will be a go on Saturday May 16, albeit with the smallest field in over a decade. A total of 8 horses have been entered into the running of the 140th Preakness Stakes, with the top 3 finishers at the Kentucky Derby all set to run. In fairness to the rest of the horses in the field, the most likely winner of the race is likely to be one of those three. Let’s take a look at those horses and see what they need to happen in order to win.

Two days before the Preakness, American Pharoah is ready to run. pic.twitter.com/8KDFFUgQJm

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 14, 2015

The favorite for the race is sure to be American Pharoah, the winner of the Derby. The Bob baffert trained horse put in a gutsy performance in the Derby, gamely holding off Firing Line coming down the stretch. Despite that effort, there are still plenty of people who point to the comparatively slow winning time as being a sign that this horse is not as great as many suggest. In fairness, though, the finish time was a half second quicker than what California Chrome posted when winning the Kentucky Derby last year, and he went on to win the Preakness in truly comfortable fashion. The pace at this year’s Derby was set by Dortmund, a horse that many people felt was a shoe-in to win the race and be a Triple Crown contender. Dortmund went into Churchill Downs unbeaten, and as they turned for home, it certainly looked like the race was his to lose. He faltered coming down the stretch, though, and it was only a game effort that allowed him to hold off Upstart, who was coming hard at the end. Dortmund will almost certainly be the horse that sets the pace once again, and it would not be a huge surprise to see him get back to winning ways on Saturday. The performance of Firing Line in the Derby is sure to make him one of the favorites in the Preakness, but I see him as the least likely of the top three to get the job done. He only has a single stakes race win (Sunland Derby) under his belt, and has come up short in 3 others. He seems to struggle to get his nose in front and keep it there when up against the elite horses in racing.   Sources WashingtonPost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/american-pharoah-draws-the-rail-for-the-140th-preakness-stakes/2015/05/13/573d8d00-f9c6-11e4-a47c-e56f4db884ed_story.html) Wikipedia.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dortmund_%28horse%29)