On May 18, Pimlico Race Course will host the second jewel of North American horse racing’s Triple Crown, as a talented group of 3-year-olds including Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve winner Mystik Dan will contest the Preakness Stakes.

The race historically has been one of the most important in deciding champion 3-year-old male honors at year’s end, and the Preakness determines if a Triple Crown will be on the line in the Belmont Stakes three weeks later. Get get ready for this year’s running with some fun stats and facts below.

0 – The number of times the Preakness has been held on a Sunday. The race has been held at least four times on every other day of the week since its inception in 1873. The Preakness has been held on a Saturday every year since 1931; Tuesday ranks second with 14 editions of the Preakness conducted on that day of the week.

1 3/16 miles – The distance of the Preakness since 1925. It’s a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby.

1:53 – Secretariat’s winning time in the 1973 edition of the Preakness, a stakes record. The race was originally timed in 1:54 2/5, but that error was corrected in 2012, giving “Big Red” the stakes record for all three Triple Crown races. Read more about the 39-year controversy.

2 – The number of people who have both ridden and trained a Preakness winner. Louis J. Schaefer won the 1929 edition as a jockey aboard Dr. Freeland and later trained Challedon to victory in 1939. Johnny Longden duplicated the feat by winning the 1943 Preakness on Count Fleet before training 1969 winner Majestic Prince.

Swiss Skydiver (inside) defeats Authentic in 2020. (Eclipse Sportswire)

6 – The number of fillies (females) who have won the Preakness: Flocarline, 1903; Whimsical, 1906; Rhine Maiden, 1915; Nellie Morse, 1924; and then an 85-year gap before eventual Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra won in 2009. Swiss Skydiver became the sixth in 2020 when she outfinished Kentucky Derby winner Authentic to win an unforgettable Preakness for trainer Kenny McPeek, who won the 2024 Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan.

7 - The number of geldings who won the Preakness Stakes with the most recent being Funny Cide in 2003.  Geldings were not permitted to compete in the Preakness from 1920 through 1934.

8 – The number of times a 3-year-old bred in Maryland has won Maryland’s signature race: Cloverbrook (1877), Dunboyne (1887), Refund (1888), Sly Fox (1898), Challedon (1939), Kauai King (1966), Bee Bee Bee (1972), and Deputed Testamony (1983).

8 – The record number of Preakness victories for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who won the race with Silver Charm (1997), Real Quiet (1998), Point Given (2001), War Emblem (2002), Lookin At Lucky (2010) Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (2015), Triple Crown winner Justify (2018), and National Treasure (2023).

10 – The number of Preakness winners who were sired (fathered) by a Preakness winner, including 2016 winner Exaggerator, by 2007 Preakness victor Curlin.

11 – The number of times in its illustrious history that the Preakness Stakes was run prior to the Kentucky Derby, and twice, in 1917 and 1922, both races were on the same day. 

Smarty Jones relaxing a day after Preakness win. (Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO)

11 ½ lengths – Smarty Jones’ winning margin in the 2004 Preakness, a stakes record. The previous mark was 10 lengths by Survivor all the way back in 1873. Read more about the buzz Smarty Jones created in the Mid-Atlantic region that spring.

12 – The number of instances in which the Belmont Stakes has been held before the Preakness, most recently in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic when the Belmont Stakes was held in June with the Kentucky Derby in September and the Preakness in October. Prior to 2020, the standard order of the Derby followed two weeks later by the Preakness followed three weeks later by the Belmont Stakes had been in place since 1969.

15 – The number of Preakness winners whose name began with the letter ‘S’. These include the very first winner, Survivor (1873), Triple Crown winners Sir Barton (1919), Secretariat (1973), and Seattle Slew (1977), and dual classic winner Smarty Jones (2004). Another famous ‘S,’ Sunday Silence, is the most recent Preakness winner to prevail by the slimmest of recorded margins, a nose. He defeated Easy Goer in their classic 1989 rivalry by a nose. Swiss Skydiver in 2020 is the most recent winner whose name began with the letter ‘S’. 

17 – The number of times a horse breaking from post position No. 6 has won the Preakness. Rombauer was the last to do so, in 2021. National Treasure won the race last year from post-position one.

19 – The race has been decided by a head or less on 19 occasions, the last such occurrence when National Treasure edged Blazing Sevens by a head last May.

22 – The number of Preakness winners named Horse of the Year, racing’s highest year-end honor, the same year. Triple Crown winner Justify (2018) is the most recent such horse.

36 – Total number of horses who won the Preakness after a Kentucky Derby victory. Just 13 of them went on to win the Belmont Stakes and sweep the Triple Crown.

$48.80 – The biggest win payout ever in the race, coming when 23-1 Master Derby won in 1975.

73 – In 149 races (the Preakness was run in two divisions in 1918), 73 winners have started the race as the betting favorite. The last favorite to win the Preakness was Justify, who prevailed at 2-to-5 odds in 2018. Citation in 1948 and Spectacular Bid in 1979 won at 1-to-10 odds, tied for the shortest-priced winner in Preakness history.

California Chrome winning 2014 Preakness. (Eclipse Sportswire)

104 – The number of Preakness winners who were bred in Kentucky, including the last eight since California-bred California Chrome won the race in 2014.

149 – This year is the 149th running of the race. As mentioned previously, it was first contested in 1873 but wasn’t run from 1891 through 1893.

$2,050 – Purse of the first Preakness in 1873.

140,237 – The record attendance for the Preakness, set in 2017 when Cloud Computing posted an upset while Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming faded to eighth as the 6-to-5 favorite.

$1.5 million – Total purse for the race in 2024. The winner gets 60% of that.

$112,504,509 – Dollars bet on Preakness day in 2021, the highest all-sources handle ever for the Preakness card. Last year's handle for Preakness day was more than $101.6 million.