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Preakness Stakes
Stakes:
Grade I For 3-year-old thoroughbreds and fillies;
1 and 3/16 mile
Race type: Thoroughbred
Purse: $1,000,000 US
Location: Pimlico Race Course -
Baltimore, Maryland USA
Inaugurated: 1873
Track: Dirt, Left-handed
Weight: Colt/Gelding:
126 lbs (57.2 kg) Filly:
121 lbs. (54.9 kg)
Race Nickname: "The Run for
the Black-Eyed Susans"
Website: Preakness
Stakes
 The
Preakness Stakes is the second and shortest leg
in thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown race (at 1
3/16 mile), and always attracts Kentucky Derby winners
and contenders.
Held every third Saturday of May, Preakness is known
as the Race for the Black Eyed Susans. The Pimlico
Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland is home of the
Preakness Stakes, which offers $1 million purse
up for grabs.
This second jewel of the Triple Crown is sometimes
looked at as the lesser of the three races because
it lacks the media hoopla of Churchill Downs. But
that doesn't diminish the glory that Preakness offers.
In fact, the race is often a breather for horsemen
on the Triple Crown trail because it doesn't have
the same feeding frenzy of the Kentucky Derby, which
can be overwhelming to rookie participants.
Preakness Stakes has a rich history, even longer
than the Kentucky Derby. It was first run two years
before the Derby, in 1873, and was named after the
horse who won the 1870 Dinner Party Stakes, Preakness.
During that time Pimlico was one of the most respected
tracks in America, far more important than Churchill
Downs and 12,000 horse racing fans attended the
first running.
The 'Triple Crown' phrase was not coined until the
1930s, and the best of the Derby horses gather at
the Preakness Stakes to see if there's a window
of opportunity for a Triple Crown prospect, making
Preakness a major prize for any horse to win.
The Preakness has been run at seven different distances:
1-1/2 miles (2.41 km) : 1873-1888, 1890
1-1/4 miles (2.01 km) : 1889
1-1/16 miles (1.71 km) : 1894-1900, 1908
1 mile 70 yards (1.67 km) : 1901-1907
1 mile (1.61 km) : 1909, 1910
1-1/8 miles (1.81 km) : 1911-1924
1-3/16 miles (1.91 km) : 1925-present |
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