Saturday’s Preakness Day Features 146th Middle Jewel of Triple Crown
Advance Wagering for Entire Preakness Program Available Friday
Special $1 Black-Eyed Susan/Preakness Double Wager Returns
Preakness LIVE Entertainment Experience Part of Saturday Festivities
BALTIMORE – A weekend of world-class racing and entertainment is set to get under way with spectacular back-to-back 14-race programs at Pimlico Race Course highlighted by Friday’s 97th running of the $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan (G2) and Saturday’s 146th Preakness Stakes (G1), the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Preakness Weekend – the richest and most visible on the Maryland racing calendar which this year features 10 stakes, six graded, worth $3.25 million in purses over the two-day span – returns to its traditional spot in mid-May after being pushed back to early October 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, the latest in its history.
Black-Eyed Susan Day gets under way at 11:30 a.m. and will have six stakes, four graded, worth $1 million in purses anchored by the prestigious 1/8-mile race for 3-year-old fillies that has produced seven Hall of Famers and four other divisional champions including one Preakness winner (Nellie Morse, 1924) since first run as the Pimlico Oaks in 1919.
The Black-Eyed Susan is carded as Race 13 with a scheduled post time of 5:47 p.m. EST. Among its supporting stakes are the historic $250,000 Pimlico Special (G3) for 3-year-olds and up at the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles; $150,000 Allaire du Pont for fillies and mares 3 and older going 1 1/8 miles; and $150,000 Miss Preakness (G3), a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies.
Advance wagering for the entire Preakness Day program will be available on Friday’s Black-Eyed Susan Day. There will also be a special double wager linking the Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness, with a $1 minimum bet.
The Early Pick 5 begins in Race 2 (12:01 p.m.) while the Late Pick 5 covers Races 9-13 and includes the $100,000 The Very One, Miss Preakness, $100,000 Hilltop, Pimlico Special and Black-Eyed Susan.
Saturday’s Preakness Day begins at 10:30 a.m. with the $100,000 Sir Barton for 3-year-olds leading off a lineup of 10 stakes, six graded, worth $2.25 million in purses. The Preakness, mid-point for 11 of the 13 Triple Crown winners including its two most recent in American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018), was won in historic fashion last fall by Swiss Skydiver, just the sixth filly to accomplish the feat in a race that dates back to 1873.
Post time for the Preakness, carded as Race 13, is scheduled for 6:47 p.m.
Other graded-stakes on the Preakness Day program are the $250,000 Dinner Party (G2) for 3-year-olds and up and $150,000 Gallorette (G3) for females 3 and older, both 1 1/16 miles on grass; $200,000 Chick Lang (G3) for 3-year-olds sprinting six furlongs; $150,000 Maryland Sprint (G3), a six-furlong dash for 3-year-olds and up; and $100,000 UAE President Cup (G1) for Arabian horses.
The Early Pick 5 begins in Race 2 (11:05 a.m.) while the Late Pick 5 spans Races 9-13 and includes the $100,000 Runhappy Skipat, $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint, Maryland Sprint, Dinner Party and Preakness.
Irad Ortiz Jr., winner of the past three Eclipse Awards as North America’s champion jockey, has 15 mounts over Preakness Weekend including 14 of the 15 Thoroughbred stakes. He is named on stakes winner The Grass Is Blue in the Black-Eyed Susan and Jan. 16 Lecomte (G3) winner Midnight Bourbon in the Preakness.
Mike Maker will look to claim the top prize of $50,000 for a second straight year in the Maryland Jockey Club’s Preakness Weekend stakes bonus program. Maker entered eight horses in six different stakes, including Army Wife in the Black-Eyed Susan and the pair of Last Judgment and Treasure Trove in the Pimlico Special.
Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, the top prize winner in 2017 and 2018, entered horses in 10 stakes, led by Midnight Bourbon in the Preakness. Reigning Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox has horses entered in five stakes, among them is Adventuring in the Black-Eyed Susan.
A total of $100,000 in bonus money is available to trainers who run a minimum of five horses in the 15 Thoroughbred stakes races during Preakness Weekend. The trainer with the most points will receive $50,000, second $25,000, third $12,000, fourth $7,000, fifth $4,000 and sixth $2,000.
Points are accumulated for finishing first (10 points), second (seven), third (five), fourth (three) and fifth through last (one).
There will also be bonus money totaling $50,000 for trainers with the most points in non-stakes races during Preakness weekend. The points are accumulated in similar fashion with $25,000 going to the leader, $10,000 to second, $7,000 to third, $4,000 to fourth, $2,500 to fifth and $1,000 to sixth.
Preakness LIVE, a wholly reimagined entertainment experience featuring legendary DJ and 2021 NAACP Image Awards Entertainer of the Year D-Nice, Grammy Award-winning rapper 2 Chainz and 2020 breakout rapper Jack Harlow, will be part of the Preakness Day festivities.
Excerpts of Preakness LIVE performances will be shown on NBC during the live race day broadcast from 5-7 p.m. EST and live on D-Nice’s #ClubQuarantine Instagram, which will also live stream the Preakness 146 JockeyCam, a thrilling ‘second screen experience’ that will give fans at home a real-time view of what it is like to be a jockey riding in the Preakness Stakes.
With standardized COVID-19 protocols in place, Preakness 146 weekend will host 10,000 fans for a socially distant entertainment event. Preakness LIVE will offer socially distanced pods for groups of eight to provide a unique and private concert viewing environment for concertgoers. To amplify the experience, food, drinks, merchandise and more will be accessible via mobile phone ordering and served directly to guests in their seated pods along with contactless wagering via the 1/ST BET app.
Tickets for Preakness LIVE can be purchased online at www.preakness.com
Preakness Press Release
