Preakness wagering rises from last year; full-card betting about even

Total betting on Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore was up 6.7 percent compared to last year, when handle on the race suffered from a short field, according to charts of the races.

Total betting on the race, including all multi-race bets ending in the Preakness, was $57.93 million this year, a far cry from the $68.69 million record set in 2021. However, the total was up $3.8 million over last year’s race, where a field of seven horses led to steep declines in the single-race exotic pools, such as the exacta, trifecta, and superfecta.

Last year, Preakness betting was down 16.4 percent compared to the 2022 race, which had nine runners.

This year’s Preakness had eight horses, and the field was tightly bunched in the wagering pools. Mystik Dan, the Derby winner, went off as the 5-2 favorite, followed by three horses lower than 5-1. No horse went off at greater than 18-1 odds.

The rebound in Preakness wagering was a bright spot on a day when rainy conditions in Baltimore led to multiple scratches from the undercard races, which included eight stakes. Going into the Preakness, total betting on the card was down 9.7 percent compared to last year, when wagering was relatively robust on the undercard. Through those 12 races, 94 horses had competed, compared to 102 horses on the undercard last year.

For the Preakness, total betting in the win, place, and show pools was up 9.9 percent, aided perhaps by the growth in sports-betting apps over the past two years. Most sports-betting apps focus their racing promotions on bets in the straight pools.

According to data compiled by Daily Racing Form, the total share of single-race betting in the Preakness straight pools was 50.2 percent this year, compared to 43.4 percent two years ago, coinciding with the largest period of growth in sports-betting apps.

Exacta betting on the race was up 4.9 percent, and trifecta betting was up 3.2 percent, according to the compiled data. Betting in the superfecta was down 4.3 percent, while the Super Hi-5 was down 18.3 percent.

The Preakness was won by Seize the Grey, the sixth choice in the eight-horse field, at 9.80-1.

Two weeks earlier, the Kentucky Derby and the Derby’s supporting card both set records for handle. Total commingled betting on the Derby this year was $198.3 million, up 10.1 percent over last year, while total betting on the Derby card was $306.9 million, up 9.6 percent over last year.

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For the entire 14-race card at Pimlico on Saturday, total betting of $99.64 million was down 0.5 percent compared to total betting for 14 races last year, according to the charts. A total of 107 runners competed in the 14 races this year, for an average field size of 7.64 horses, compared to 117 runners last year, for an average of 8.36.

This year’s Preakness will be the last held in front of the track’s aging grandstand, part of which has been condemned. Although the track will be torn down between Saturday and next year’s Preakness, the race will again be held at the Pimlico property next year, with temporary ticketing areas.

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