Wagers include a Black-Eyed Susan-Preakness double
BALTIMORE – The two-day Preakness weekend amounts to a horseplayer’s delight as Pimlico will offer a wide variety of wagers Friday and Saturday.
There’s a two-day double linking the Black-Eyed Susan and the Preakness, along with a slew of multi-race wagers ending Friday with the Black-Eyed Susan and Saturday with the Preakness. And there’s always the multitude of vertical wagers, including superfectas available in 10-cent increments.
The Saturday card ends with a race for Arabians, the Grade 1 UAE President’s Cup (race 14), but the most important multi-race wagers of the card end with the Preakness (race 13) so that bettors unfamiliar with Arabian racing don’t have to involve themselves with the finale.
Asmussen has the numbers
This is the fifth straight year Pimlico has offered trainer incentive bonuses totaling $100,000, and surely Steve Asmussen is a heavy favorite to earn the $50,000 first prize. Asmussen has starters in 10 stakes over two days, including several major contenders, whereas Mike Maker has the second-most starters (six races), followed by Brad Cox and Mike Trombetta (five each).
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Points are assigned according to how horses finish in stakes, with cash awards derived from the final standings. Asmussen had the most points in 2017 and 2018, while Cox led in 2019 and Maker in 2020.
Romans takes a pass
It’s been 10 years since Dale Romans notched arguably the most important win in his stellar training career when Shackleford held off Derby winner Animal Kingdom in the 2011 Preakness.
“I love Pimlico, if only because of that race,” Romans said.
Romans had toyed with the idea of running Sittin On Go as a longshot in this Preakness, but only if trainer Bob Baffert had not been permitted to run his horses. Romans will be here this weekend to run Lady Traveler in the Black-Eyed Susan, a race he won in 2015 with Keen Pauline and in 2016 with Go Maggie Go.