2022 Preakness Stakes Betting Prediction: Epicenter’s Odds to Win the Race

 

Previous Betting News

With the 2018 Kentucky Derby now a thing of the past and the 2018 Preakness Stakes set to get underway this coming weekend on Saturday, May 19, horse racing bettors everywhere need to know whether it’s safe to back the Derby winner to win the second leg of the annual Triple Crown. Well, thanks to some expert 2018 Preakness Stakes betting analysis, you’re going to find out now, if backing the Kentucky Derby-winning Justify at -225 to take another step toward winning the coveted Triple Crown is a good idea.

2018 Preakness Stakes Betting Odds & Prediction

• When: May 19, 2018
• Where: Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
• Distance: 1 3⁄16 mi (9.5 furlongs; 1,900 m)
• Surface: Dirt
• Purse: $1.5 million

2018 Preakness Stakes Betting Odds to Win

• Justify: -225
• Good Magic: +300
• Quip: +1200
• Lone Sailor: +1500
• Bravazo: +2000
• Tenfold: +2000
• Diamond King: +3000
• Sporting Chance: +3000

First of all, there have been just 12 horses to win the Triple Crown. 52 horses have won two of the three races with 23 winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. 18 horses have won the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes and 11 thoroughbreds have claimed the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

The last horse to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown was American Pharoah, who, in 2015, actually went on to become the 12th and last Triple Crown winner. Prior to that, California Chrome won the Derby and Preakness before coming up just short of winning the Belmont Stakes.

Before that, I’ll Have Another won the first two legs of the Triple Crown in 2012. Just after the start of the new millennium, three horses won the Derby and Preakness with War Emblem, Funny Cide and Smarty Jones all pulling off the feat in 2002, 20023 and 2004 respectively, although each failed to win the third and final leg of the Triple Crown. Big Brown also pulled off the feat in 2008 and that means, that, since 2002, seven of 16 Kentucky Derby winners, or 43.75 percent have gone on to win the Preakness Stakes.

What does that mean?

This means that Justify has a really good shot of winning the second leg of the Triple Crown, particularly since he’s being talked about in terms of being one of those ‘rare’ special horses that really has a great shot to win the Triple Crown.

“Not only does he have the talent, but he has the will to win,” trainer Bob Baffert told reporters earlier this week. “For him, what he’s done in such a short period — it will be his fifth race in 13 weeks — it’s just incredible how tough he is.”

Justify, the son of Scat Daddy, a multiple Grade I winner and sire of 69 stakes winners, started racing as a 3-year-old and has gone a perfect 4-for-4 since his debut as a 3-year-old in February.

“I think this horse has a great chance; I wish I had him,” trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who has two horses running Saturday, said about Justify. “There’s no horse out there right now that can stop him on this run. He’s going to get a mile and a half [in the Belmont]. He’s going to run well in the Preakness. It’s his Triple Crown to lose.”

 

 

Previous Betting News

Always Dreaming was the betting favorite to win the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs and did on a sloppy track. On Saturday, Always Dreaming is again the betting favorite (-125) to win the 142 nd running of the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. So is it safe to bet the colt to win a fifth straight race? The Preakness will be contested at 1 3/16 miles and post time is 6:48 p.m. ET.

Is It Safe To Bet On Always Dreaming To Win the 2017 Preakness Stakes?

Always Dreaming will go up against four horses he beat at the Kentucky Derby and five new shooters. Those types of horses, who didn’t run in the Derby, often aren’t a threat in the Preakness. Since 1997, just three Preakness winners did not race in the Kentucky Derby: Red Bullet in 2000, Bernardini in 2006, and the filly Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

It has been the Derby winners and, to a lesser degree, losers in the Derby who have fared best in the Preakness. The Derby winner has won 10 of the past 20 Preakness Stakes, with horses who lost in the Derby winning seven times over that period.

Always Dreaming will start from Post 4 in the 10-horse field – post position isn’t nearly as important in the Preakness with the smaller field as it is in the 20-horse Kentucky Derby. Trainer Todd Pletcher said he might have wanted to be outside Classic Mo Money, a speed horse who will break from the No. 10 post. But Always Dreaming won the Derby from the No. 5 post and the Florida Derby from the No. 4 post. Thirteen winners have started the Preakness from the No. 4 post, most recently Curlin in 2007. Always Dreaming will be only the ninth horse Pletcher has run in the Preakness, a race he has yet to win.

“It’s fine,” said Pletcher of the post position. “He’s usually a very good horse coming away from the gate.”

Four times this decade, the Derby winner failed to take the Preakness, including last year when Exaggerator romped home to a 3 ½ length victory. Triple Crown dreams were dashed as Derby winner Nyquist finished third. Always Dreaming is likely going to have a tougher test here. Now he is the horse everyone else in the race will be trying to beat, and it will be a very tactical affair. Always Dreaming will be racing on two weeks’ rest after normally getting a month in between.

Always Dreaming will be the first Derby runner Pletcher has run in the Preakness since Super Saver in 2010. He’s had just two Preakness starters since then, Dance City in 2011 and Stradivari last year, but neither ran in the Derby.

I believe Classic Empire wins this race, just as I did the Derby. The son of Pioneerof the Nile finished fourth in the Derby. His finish in the Run for the Roses is impressive considering the bumping he took after the start when Irish War Cry veered in.

 

 

Previous Betting News

The Preakness Stakes is the second leg of the American thoroughbred racing Triple Crown held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. It is a Grade I race run over 1 3⁄16 miles on dirt and open to 3-year-olds. Not only is it a steppingstone to the Belmont Stakes and potential Triple Crown glory for Always Dreaming, it’s also an important Grade 1 race for any horse to win. Here’s a look at some key horses to follow on Saturday in the 142nd Preakness. The 2017 Preakness draw is Wednesday.

Preakness Stakes Favorites, Dark Horses & Smart Betting Picks

Always Dreaming (-140)

The only horse with a chance to become the second Triple Crown winner in three years, the Todd Pletcher-trained colt was made the betting favorite in the Kentucky Derby and then backed it up with an impressive performance at Churchill Downs. With back-to- back Grade 1 wins, including a Florida Derby win in his first stakes race, Always Dreaming will be the heavy favorite to head into the Belmont Stakes if he wins here. Always Dreaming’s aggressiveness means that he likes to stalk, or just flat out get in front. He’s got speed and he’s shown us that he can run tactically. At 1 3/16 miles, a football field shorter than the Derby’s 1¼ miles, the Preakness requires that everybody needs to get in position a little bit earlier. Always Dreaming excels at that. A total of 35 horses have won the Preakness after a Kentucky Derby victory. Just 12 went on to win the Belmont Stakes and sweep the Triple Crown.

Classic Empire (+250)

A victory in the Preakness would make Classic Empire only the eighth juvenile male champion to capture the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown since the Eclipse Awards were created in 1971. Of the seven others, four are Triple Crown winners: Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978) and American Pharoah (2015). Classic Empire endured a terrible trip in the Kentucky Derby, pinched well back after a chain reaction collision at the break and emerging from the race with swelling in his right eye. Classic Empire was in Post 14 and McCraken was breaking from the 15 – which is in the auxiliary gate. There was that little bit of extra space we talked about between those two positions. So because of the gap, McCraken had more room to run in on him, and Classic Empire took a harder blow than he would have had they been right next to each other in the same gate. It nearly knocked him down. It cost him a lot of position that he couldn’t make up in the stretch. Despite the circumstances, the Pioneerof the Nile colt managed to rally for fourth, beaten less than nine lengths.

Lookin at Lee (+1000)

Lookin At Lee got an ideal rail-skimming trip in the Kentucky Derby, saving ground while far back in the early stages before finding room around the far turn and surging past tiring horses to finish second at odds of 33-1, five lengths ahead of Battle of Midway. Looking At Lee is son of 2010 2010 Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky. There have been 10 Preakness winners who were sired (fathered) by a Preakness winner, including 2016 winner Exaggerator, by 2007 winner Curlin.

Conquest Mo Money (+2000)

The late-blooming son of Uncle Mo sat out the Derby. Conquest Mo Money didn’t run as a 2-year- old, but managed to make it to the Arkansas Derby, where he ran a game second to Classic Empire at 15-1, finishing ahead of Lookin At Lee. He’s the ultimate outsider in this race. His only stakes win came in the Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico. A horse from New Mexico conquered the run for the roses eight years ago when Mine That Bird delivered a stunning victory at 50.60-to- 1 at Churchill Downs. But he also may have run just as well two weeks later in a second-place finish in the Preakness, his rally coming just a length short of the wire-to- wire filly sensation Rachel Alexandra. Mine That Bird’s trainer, Chip Woolley, has watched Conquest Mo Money closely and thinks his talent and running style will make for a dangerous combination in the Preakness. “He should be at or on the lead, and I would not be surprised if he runs a big race Saturday,” Woolley said.

2017 Preakness Stakes Betting Prediction

Classic Empire to win, Always Dreaming to show, Conquest Mo Money to place.

 

 

Previous Betting News

One of the traps that bettors often fall into is looking at the performance of a horse in the Kentucky Derby and assuming that it has no shot in the Preakness. It’s easy to forget that the Derby is a race that is longer than most horses are used to, and also has number of runners that is also uncommon. Pimlico Race Track is very different from Churchill Downs, and it’s well-known that some horses are just more comfortable on certain tracks. Creator is a horse who has something to prove after a disappointing run in the Kentucky Derby. A closer look at the race summary shows that he was bumped and had to be checked, which is something that will totally throw off any horse. He will be looking for a clean trip this time out, and if he gets it, don’t discount this horse. Let’s take a closer look at Creator and its online betting odds to win the Preakness.

Creator’s 2016 Preakness Stakes Odds Review and Prediction

Creator’s History

Creator is a Kentucky-bred colt out of Tapit and Morena, by Privately Held. Other than his bloodline, there was nothing to suggest that this horse would be a Kentucky Derby participant, as he went through 4 races in hi 2-year old year without breaking his maiden. He finally got a win in his second race in 2016, and followed that up with a 3rd place finish in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes. He then followed that up with a win in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.

2016 has definitely been a good year for Creator, with $740,000 in earnings, but the knock on him may be that he is a one-track pony. All of his best performances have been saved for Oaklawn Park, which makes you wonder how he is going to fair at Pimlico. All of his recent workouts have been at Churchill Downs, but he will likely get one in at Pimlico before the week is out.

Jockey, Trainer, and Owner Info

Creator will be ridden, as always, by Ricardo Santana, Jr. who has a number of graded stakes wins under his belt. It should be noted, though, that he only has one win at the Grade 1 stakes level, which was the Arkansas Derby with this very horse earlier in the season. That said, this is a jockey who knows how to win and get in the money, as he has been in the top 100 jockeys in wins and earnings over the past 3 years.

Steven M. Asmussen is a 2-time Eclipse Award winning trainer, and he has also had wins as a trainer at the Preakness. Those victories came in 2007 with Curlin, and 2009 with Rachel Alexandra. Creator is owned by WinStar Farm, who picked him up at auction for $440,000.

Preakness Outlook

If truth be told, Creator really only has 1 major win under his belt coming into the Preakness, which suggests he may not be in the best position to cause the upset. When handicapping this race, throw out his performance in the Derby, as being bumped changes everything for a horse.