A Complete Guide to The Preakness Stakes

As the second race of the famous and sought after Triple Crown Series, The Preakness Stakes is one of the most famous races in US Horse Racing. Second to only The Kentucky Derby in attendance, The Preakness Stakes packs a massive crowd year after year to enjoy the race event. Nicknamed “The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans” based on the race’s official flower, The Preakness Stakes is surely one not to miss if you’re a horse racing fan.

Since 1932, The Preakness Stakes has been run after The Kentucky Derby. Currently, The Preakness Stakes takes place just two weeks after The Kentucky Derby. For the winner of The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes is the next big test. In order to keep hope for The Triple Crown alive, they must win again at Pimlico Race Course for The Preakness Stakes. If the same horse is lucky enough to finish first in The Kentucky Derby and The Preakness Stakes, they must then take the win and The Belmont Stakes in order to claim their place in history.

The Preakness Stakes is the second oldest of The Triple Crown races having been started in 1873. The Belmont Stakes started six years prior in 1867 in New York. The Preakness Stakes predates The Kentucky Derby by two years.

If you’re looking to watch The Preakness Stakes, NBC will be the place to catch the race for the next five years. NBC has a contract with the ownership group of Pimlico Race Course that will run through the 2022 race. Since 2001, NBC has aired The Preakness Stakes on their broadcast channel. At the time of this article, NBC currently has the rights to all three races of The Triple Crown locked up for years to come. Prior to the NBC deal in 2001, The Preakness Stakes aired on other channels including ABC and CBS.

As with the other two races of The Triple Crown, The Preakness Stakes has a lineup of race traditions that have developed over the long history of the race.  Over the past 144 years since the race’s inauguration, traditions surrounding music, flowers, cocktails, and paint.  We’ll take a deeper dive into each of these traditions below so that you can learn more about each one.

The official flower of The Preakness Stakes is the Black-Eyed Susan. The Black-Eyed Susan was named the official flower of The Preakness Stakes in 1940, and it also serves as the official state flower of Maryland. Each year, the winning horse of The Preakness Stakes is draped in a large blanket of Black-Eyed Susans. This tradition dates back to 1940. One interesting fact is that the blanket itself it actually comprised of Viking Poms painted to look like Black-Eyed Viking Poms are used and painted to look more like Black-Eyed Susans due to the fact that Black-Eyed Susans do not bloom in Maryland until at least a month after The Preakness Stakes is run.

Before the start of The Preakness Stakes, the official song is played while the participants and audience sing along. The official song of The Preakness Stakes is “Maryland, My Maryland” which also serves as the official Maryland state song. This tradition dates back to 1909 when a bugler that was moved by the spirit of the day began to play the song by himself. He was then joined by the band and the crowd and a new tradition was born.

If alcohol is your thing, The Preakness Stakes also has an official drink. The official drink of The Preakness Stakes is the aptly named Black-Eyed Susan. This tasty cocktail is a mix of bourbon, vodka, fruit juices, and sour mix. Attendees at Pimlico Race Course for The Preakness will often enjoy this refreshing cocktail while participating in the race day activities.

A unique tradition of The Preakness Stakes is the painting of the weather vane. Shortly after the official winner of the race is announced, a painter climbs to the top of the clubhouse at Pimlico to paint the weather vane. The weather vane is painted in the colors of the silks from the winning horse and jockey. The updated colors from the winning horse and jockey will stand proudly on display until a new winner is declared one year later at the next running of The Preakness Stakes. The tradition of painting the weather vane dates all the way back to 1909 and has continued every year since.

The home of The Preakness Stakes, Pimlico Race Course, is the 2^nd oldest racetrack in The United States having opened for business all the way back in 1870. Only Saratoga racetrack in New York predates Pimlico. Just three years after Pimlico Race Course was opened, a new spring stakes race was introduced for three-year-olds. Odie Bowen, the former Maryland Governor, named the new race in honor of a colt named Preakness from nearby Preakness Stables in New Jersey and The Preakness Stakes was born. Seven starters joined the first ever Preakness Stakes held on May 27^th, 1873.

Both Pimlico Race Course and The Preakness Stakes have managed to adapt and survive to changes over the last 144 years. Major events such as the World Wars, The Great Depression, and others came and went yet The Preakness Stakes and Pimlico Race Course still stand today. Much has changed over the last 144 years, but the race course and the race itself have adjusted to changing times and still are very relevant and important today.

The race is a pivotal one in US horse racing due to its role as the second race of the Triple Crown Series. Storied horses such as Seattle Slew, Secretariat, and American Pharoah have all won at The Preakness Stakes in order to work their way towards their eventual Triple Crown victory. With a win at The Kentucky Derby and The Preakness Stakes under their belts, these three horses, along with the other 9 Triple Crown winners, all went on to win at The Belmont Stakes to claim their place in history.

Over the last 144 years, The Preakness Stakes has seen thousands of horses compete in an attempt to win it all. As the second race in the famed Triple Crown Series, the Preakness Stakes is the next step in the quest for the Triple Crown. Should a horse win at The Kentucky Derby, they must then prove themselves once again on the track at The Preakness Stakes and The Belmont Stakes in order to earn the coveted title.

In the chart below, you’ll find a bunch of data surrounding the winning horse for each running of The Preakness Stakes. We’ll work to update this chart each year so that it always has the most up to date information contained within it. The chart contains pertinent information such as the jockey, trainer, finish time, and track length. The last column of the chart is our Equalizer formula which we’ll go into more detail below.

You’ll notice below that the track length of The Preakness Stakes has not always been the same distance. In fact, there have been six different track lengths over the 144-year history of the race. If you try to compare finishing times over different track lengths, the results can become confusing and misleading. In order to help even the playing field, we’ve created an equation that helps you compare the winners against one another regardless of the track length that they competed on.

What we came up with is what we call our Equalizer formula. This formula runs the math and gives you a time per mile result. Our Equalizer formula takes into account the track length and the finish time of the winner. For example, the formula for Cloud Computing, the 2017 winner of The Preakness Stakes, would be Finish Time (01:56:0) / Track Length (1.1875 miles) = Equalizer (01:37.7).

Using the Equalizer formula, you can easily stack up the winning horses over time regardless of the track length that they competed on. The slowest winner ever at The Preakness Stakes according to the Equalizer formula was Culpepper all the way back in 1874. The record for the fastest horse ever regardless of track length is the Famous Secretariat who went on to win The Triple Crown that year.