Preakness Stakes Future Bet opens Friday
?q=100)
The inaugural Preakness Stakes Future Bet will include a field of 28 individual horses and an “all others” entry, according to a list of horses distributed Tuesday night.
The field includes many of the top choices for the May 6 Kentucky Derby, plus a handful of horses whose trainers have indicated that they are shooting for the May 20 Preakness after the post-Derby shakeout. But the timing of the Preakness Future Bet will require players to make their selections prior to that shakeout – the pool will close on the afternoon of May 6, prior to the running of the Derby.
This is the first time that a Preakness future bet will be offered. Officials of 1/ST Racing, which owns Pimlico Racecourse, site of the Preakness, have said they modeled the bet after the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which has been offered for almost 25 years and now includes sire pools and exacta pools.
The minimum bet for the Preakness future wager will be $2, and no refunds will be offered. Takeout for win bets at Pimlico is 18 percent.
The betting will open Friday, giving bettors an eight-day window to assess the field. It’s likely that most, if not all, of the individual horses listed in the bet will not run in that window.
In alphabetical order, the field is: Angel of Empire, Blazing Sevens, Chase the Chaos, Confidence Game, Continuar, Cyclone Mischief, Derma Sotogake, Disarm, First Mission, Forte, Hit Show, Instant Coffee, Jace’s Road, Kingsbarns, Lord Miles, Mage, Mandarin Hero, Practical Move, Raise Cain, Red Route One, Reincarnate, Rocket Can, Skinner, Sun Thunder, Tapit Trice, Two Phil’s, Verifying, and Wild On Ice. The last entrant is “all other three year olds.”
Forte, winner of the Florida Derby, is the morning-line favorite, at 4-1. The horse is listed at 3-1 to win the Derby on Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch. Tapit Trice, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes, is listed at 6-1, compared to 5-1 to win the Derby. The “all other” entry is listed at 8-1. Practical Move and Derma Sotogake are both listed at 10-1.
Skinner, the third-place finisher in the Santa Anita Derby who is currently outside the Derby field, is listed at 20-1.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.