Considering that every Preakness dating to 1985 (at least), save three (Red Bullet in 2000, Bernardini in 2006, and Rachel Alexandra in 2009), has been won by a horse exiting the Kentucky Derby, the first Saturday in May would seem to be a proper place to go looking for the winner of the second leg of the 2016 Triple Crown.
Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist drew post 3 and was installed as the 3-5 morning-line favorite in a field of 11 for Saturday's Grade 1, $1.5 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Grade 1 winners Ring Weekend and Grand Arch head a salty field of 13 as they make their 2016 debuts in the Grade 2, $250,000 Dixie Stakes for older horses on the turf on Saturday at Pimlico.
Peter Fluor and his partner K.C. Weiner have had extraordinary success in their racing partnership thus far with standouts such as Leigh Court and Hard Not to Like. They try their incredible luck in the Preakness with the Bob Baffert-trained Collected.
A year after bringing in the popular American Pharoah off a Derby win and also sending out Dortmund, Baffert comes into the 141st Preakness as mere character actor in a story headlined by the unbeaten Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist.
As trainer Doug O'Neill puts Nyquist and Land Over Sea through their paces leading up to this weekend's Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan stakes, he is accompanied on his morning rounds by Jim Jimenez.
Saturday's 141st Preakness Stakes marks the fifth straight year that Maryland’s signature race will be contested without a statebred runner. This reflects problems that the local Thoroughbred industry has faced, but the good news is that state legislators have instituted measures to reverse these fortunes – plus, there have been other developments recently to reward excellence. Better days for Maryland breeders seem to be on the horizon.
