The 148th running of the Preakness Stakes is set for Saturday, May 20, at 5:45 pm Eastern time, with the call on NBC. Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course is the venue, and the distance is 1 3/16 miles. The field is small this year, with just seven horses set to run after First Mission was scratched according to a veterinarian’s orders. Mage enters as the first Kentucky Derby winner to enter a Preakness Stakes with a chance at the Triple Crown since Justify did it in 2018. Country House, the 2019 Kentucky Derby winner, had to miss the Preakness because of illness. The Preakness was the third leg of the Triple Crown in 2020 due to COVID-19 rescheduling, and no horse entered as an eligible Triple Crown winner, In 2021, Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby and entered the Preakness but later had his title stripped because of a failed drug test. The 2022 Kentucky Derby went to Rich Strike, but his connections decided to skip the Preakness and focus on the Belmont. Let’s take a look at the latest Horse Racing betting odds on the eve of the race.
Horse Racing Betting News: Updated Odds for the 2023 Preakness Stakes
| Post | Horse | Odds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Treasure | 4/1 |
| 2 | Chase the Chaos | 50/1 |
| 3 | Mage | 8/5 |
| 4 | Coffeewithchris | 20/1 |
| 5 | Red Route One | 10/1 |
| 6 | Perform | 15/1 |
| 7 | Blazing Sevens | 6/1 |
Which post position is optimal? At the Preakness States, the #6 gate has produced 16 winners since the starting gate was put in place in 1909. The #4 and the #7 gates have each produced 14 winners. The shortest route to victory comes from Gate #1, but that can be challenging because horses have the rail on one side and the rest of the field on the other, which reduces the amount of room for maneuvring. Some horses feel claustrophobic in that situation and may start to move away from the pack if they do not see a clear way forward. That forces them to drop back and lose the edge of starting on the rail. Starting outside gives horses more space and a quicker jump out of the starting gate. Early Voting, the 2022 champion, came from the #5 gate in a nine-horse field. Since 2000, Gates 1, 4, 5 and 7 have all produced at least three winners.
First Mission was drawing a lot of interest before being scratched. His Equibase Speed Figure of 103 is right there with the 104 that Mage posted, and he won two of his first three races, including a win at 1 1/16 miles by 6 ¾ lengths and another win at 1 1/16 miles in which he chased down the leader on the backstretch and won by a length. He can take an early lead and he can close, and his sire was Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense. However, vets identified a problem with his left hind ankle. Coming after a Kentucky Derby that saw five scratches and a 10-day period at Churchill Downs that saw seven horses die, medical scrutiny is elevated.
Mage obviously showed that he can win at Churchill Downs, which is a longer course than the Preakness. He will have to make his last move a bit sooner, but jockey Javier Castellano has the experience to get him running.
Want a dark horse (no pun intended)? Consider Red Route One. He has nine races on his resume, with two wins, two second-place finishes and a third-place finish, and he has always shown solid closing speed. In his last two races, he finished second in the 1 ⅙-mile Rebel Stakes, rallying from the back of an 11-horse field to miss out by half a length. He did take sixth in his most recent race, but most of the horses ahead of him won in the Kentucky Derby. Can he stay close enough to the pack to close effectively?
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