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.

BALTIMORE, Md. — Saturday’s Preakness Stakes card is still set to begin at 10:30 a.m. at a drizzly Pimlico Race Course, having not been affected by a minor incident the fire department responded to at the facility late Friday night. 

A dryer in the basement of the facility where linens are washed began smoking late in the evening, following the Friday card which concluded at about 6:30 p.m. According to spokesperson David Joseph, this triggered the fire alarms, a response from the local fire department, and a building evacuation. 

BALTIMORE, Md. – Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan was favored for tomorrow's Preakness Stakes after a day of advanced wagering.

Wagering on the Preakness Stakes opened on Friday morning, and as of 6:10 p.m., Mystik Dan was the 5-2 favorite, with $695,624 in the win pool. The colt, who returned $39.22 for his victory in the Derby, inherited 8-5 morning-line favoritism with the scratch of Muth, the original morning-line favorite when posts were drawn Monday, two days ago. 

BALTIMORE, Md. -- Multiple Grade 1 winner Muth, the original morning-line favorite for the Preakness Stakes before a temperature forced his scratch midweek, had improving bloodwork on Friday morning, trainer Bob Baffert told Pimlico.

Muth arrived in Baltimore late Tuesday night after traveling from his California base. On Wednesday morning, he was declared out of the Preakness after spiking a 103-degree temperature.

Paul Valery, a trainer based in South Florida with 11 wins in 55 starts over the past two years, has been issued a provisional suspension by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit after steroids were found in the post-race samples of two of his horses that raced at Gulfstream Park in March and April.

The two horses, Pure Speight and Quincy Cafe, tested positive for 4-hyrdoxytestosterone, a synthetic steroid, and formestane, a treatment for breast cancer that is not approved for use in the United States. Both drugs are banned in equine sports.

With a mid-June deadline approaching, California racetracks and horsemen’s organizations have yet to finalize a budget for the California Horse Racing Board’s 2024-2025 fiscal year, an obligation that could affect the viability of smaller tracks, the racing board was told on Thursday.

The fiscal year begins on July 1 and a financial formula must be finalized by the racing board at its next meeting on June 20 in Sacramento.

Peter Callahan, a publishing executive who for four decades owned and bred horses, including the filly Swiss Skydiver, the winner of the 2020 Preakness Stakes, died on May 9, according to family members and friends. Callahan, who died after suffering a brain tumor and battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for 10 years, was 82.

George Weaver, the East Coast-based trainer, has been provisionally suspended by the Horseracing Integrity and Wagering Unit after a confirmation test was positive for metformin, a drug used to treat diabetes in humans, according to his attorney, but he plans to challenge the suspension on the grounds of accidental contamination.

BALTIMORE -- Mystik Dan took another leisurely stroll over the Pimlico main track Tuesday morning, galloping about 1 1/2 miles over a fast main track as preparations for Saturday’s $2 million Preakness continued on a quiet, overcast morning.

Mystik Dan came on the track following the 8 a.m. renovation break and jogged about seven furlongs the wrong way from the gap at the three-sixteenths pole to about the sixteenth pole. After standing a few minutes, Mystik Dan broke into an easy, controlled gallop over a dry track unlike the sealed muddy surface that greeted him Monday.