Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah will be a heavy favorite in Saturday's Preakness Stakes. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
All eyes will be on 2015 Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah on Saturday as he attempts to conquer the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza have had five consecutive wins together since September 2014, and at 4-5 odds on the morning line, it seems the oddsmaker thinks the pair is very likely to make it six.
There are a number of reasons why American Pharoah has a great chance of winning the Preakness Stakes.
Speed: American Pharoah is one of the fastest horses in the field in terms of Beyer Speed Figures, where his career high is 111. Pimlico's track is also known to be a bit kinder to early speed than Churchill Downs. That combined with a potential for some precipitation, which American Pharoah showed he didn’t mind in the Rebel Stakes, might work to his advantage.
Competition: With only eight entries, this is a significantly smaller field than the Derby or and most recent Preakness fields. Although American Pharoah drew the inside post, he has beaten four of his competitors before and did so in the Derby despite breaking from a far outside post.
Distance: At a distance of 1 3/16 miles, the Preakness is the shortest of the Triple Crown races, a sixteenth of a mile shorter than the Kentucky Derby. Having less ground to cover but keeping the same speed figures from Kentucky Derby could easily result in a comfortable win.
With American Pharoah being such a heavy favorite, it can be challenging to find the right combination to make a winning ticket that provides a decent payout. For the Kentucky Derby, I managed to cash on both the exacta and trifecta, so let’s try to do it again! Here are three ways that I would play American Pharoah in the Preakness Stakes using #2 Dortmund, #4 Danzig Moon, #7 Divining Rod, #8 Firing Line
$10 exacta: 1 with 2,8 = $20
$5 trifecta: 1,8 with 1,8 with 2,4 = $20
$1 superfecta: 1,8 with 1,2,8 with 2,4 with 2,4,7 = $9
Best of luck!
$1.5-million Xpressbet.com Preakness StakesSaturday, Pimlico Race Course, Post time 6:18 p.m. ET1 3/16 miles, dirt, 3-year-oldsT.V.: NBC 4:30 p.m. ET
PP
Horse
Jockey
Trainer
Owner
M-L
1
American Pharoah
Victor Espinoza
Bob Baffert
Zayat Stables
4-5
2
Dortmund
Martin Garcia
Bob Baffert
Kaleem Shah
7-2
3
Mr. Z
Corey Nakatani
D. Wayne Lukas
Calumet Farm
20-1
4
Danzig Moon
Julien Leparoux
Mark Casse
John Oxley
15-1
5
Tale of Verve
Joel Rosario
Dallas Stewart
Charles Fipke
30-1
6
Bodhisattva
Trevor McCarthy
Jose Corrales
Jose Corrales
20-1
7
Divining Rod
Javier Castellano
Arnaud Delacour
Lael Stables
12-1
8
Firing Line
Gary Stevens
Simon Callaghan
Arnold Zetcher
4-1