This year’s Preakness Stakes will be here before you know it. The Preakness Stakes has the second-largest audience of a Grade I race in the US, outclassed only by the Kentucky Derby. Since the Kentucky Derby is held two weeks prior to the Preakness Stakes, the Preakness Stakes will offer punters the perfect opportunity to recover any losses suffered at the Kentucky Derby. But in order to do that, online horse betting fans have to get acquainted with the biggest racebook favorites ahead of the Preakness Stakes.

Latest Online Horse Betting & Predictions

Heading into the Preakness Stakes, most punters will want to pick Always Dreaming, winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby. Always Dreaming opens as the racebook favorite, and rightfully so considering his stellar performance at the Kentucky Derby. However, his performance still raised some concerns, specifically; is Always Dreaming the rightful favorite? A good thing to do in this situation is to look back at recent horses who were favorites ahead of the Preakness Stakes to see how they fared. Let’s take a look.

142^nd Preakness Stakes – Saturday, May 20^th

When: Coverage Begins at 5 pm ET

Where: Pimlico Race Course, Maryland

TV: NBC

Purse: $1.5 million

Distance: 1 ³/₁₆ miles

Post Time: 7:35 pm ET

Record: 1:53 Secretariat (1973)

Recent Kentucky Derby Winners Who were Favored Ahead of Preakness

Nyquist (2016)

Nyquist’s career is highlighted by a victory at the Kentucky Derby . But before that the steed had posted an impressive 8 win streak that had all online horse betting eyes fixed firmly upon Nyquist. Unfortunately, all that hype and fame came crashing down at the Preakness Stakes, where an early lead gave way to a 3^rd-place finish. Nyquist was unable to find glory after that, posting two lousy performances at the Haskell and Pennsylvania Derby before retiring.

American Pharoah (2015)

A Triple Crown winner who was absolute dynamite in rainy weather. At Preakness, American Pharoah grabbed an early lead and never looked back.

California Chrome (2014)

Another success story, California Chrome started slow and made his push into the final turn. It wasn’t easy, and there were plenty of challengers, but Chrome proved too much and too fast for all of them.

Orb (2013)

An impressive performance at the Kentucky Derby ensured that Orb would enter the Preakness Stakes as the racebook favorite. The colt had an iffy start that seemed promising but Orb was never able to break up the traffic jam. Orb ended up finishing fourth.

Animal Kingdom (2011)

A shoddy start proved too much for Animal Kingdom to overcome. He had a good run, but in the end he was way too far behind Shackleford, who had an eleven-horse lead over Animal Kingdom.

Super Saver (2010)

Super Saver hung back during the Preakness and decided to save his efforts for a final push once turning home. Ultimately this proved to be misguided as Super Saver finished 8^th and completely exhausted.