The Preakness Stakes on Saturday won’t have many of the stars of the Kentucky Derby but will have some of the personality of that race two weeks ago.
It’s a Preakness, like the recent Derby, distinguished by the lack of a standout horse, leaving fans without an easy top pick to build betting tickets around – or a short-odds favorite to try to beat in pursuit of big payoffs.
The horses to consider from the field of 14 running at Laurel Park, while Pimlico is being renovated, fall into familiar categories. Derby graduates: Ocelli (third), Incredibolt (sixth) and Robusta (14th). Earlier Derby-qualifying stakes winners who missed the Derby: Iron Honor, Napoleon Solo and Chip Honcho. A local, Maryland product: Taj Mahal.
Then there are others with lighter résumés but signs of quality – and tantalizing odds: The Hell We Did (15-1), Pretty Boy Miah (15-1) and Corona de Oro (30-1).
Narrowing down those 10 possibilities starts with deciding how you think the race will be run. A lot of horses in the 1 3/16-mile race have early speed. That doesn’t guarantee a fast pace, but it does suggest solid early fractions. Taj Mahal, from the No. 1 post with jockey Sheldon Russell, and Napoleon Solo, from No. 10 with Paco Lopez, could try to lead. A lot of others will want to be close up early.
All of that gives an extra edge to horses with experience dealing with traffic, and is a reason to be skeptical of horses who’ve run their best races when they took clear early leads or got fast paces to set up their rallies.
The pick here is Iron Honor, who’s the 9-2 favorite on Laurel’s official morning line but is listed at 6-1 – behind 4-1 Incredibolt, 9-2 Ocelli and 5-1 Taj Mahal – by the Daily Racing Form’s authoritative linemaker David Aragona.
The angle on Iron Honor involves Chad Brown, the colt’s trainer and a future Racing Hall of Famer. In the past decade, five horses won the Preakness after missing the Kentucky Derby. Brown trained two of them, Cloud Computing ($28.80) in 2017 and Early Voting ($13.40) in 2022, opting to skip the Derby after losing efforts in the Wood Memorial and aim for the Preakness. With Iron Honor this year, Brown opted to skip the Derby after a losing effort in the Wood and aim for the Preakness. That’s a respectable decision from any good trainer, but especially from Brown.
The New York-based horse measures up too. Iron honor, a son of 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist and a dam by 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame, was 2 for 2 after a hard-fought victory in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct in February. With jockey Manny Franco, he went into the Wood Memorial at the same track in April as the betting favorite but lost his chance from the No. 13 post in the short run to the first turn. He was bumped and forced wide while running close to a sharp pace, had to stay outside all the way, and faded to finish seventh as 11-1 Albus took an inside path to a come-from-behind win. After that excusable, learning-experience kind of defeat, Iron Honor is the Preakness horse most likely to improve on his latest result.
It doesn’t hurt that Flavien Prat, the nation’s highest-percentage jockey, replaces Franco aboard Iron Honor for the Preakness.
A high-odds horse to consider, at least to include in multi-horse bets, is The Hell We Did, with Luis Saez riding for trainer Todd Fincher. The son of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic hasn’t won at the stakes level or run beyond 1 1/16 miles, but he flashed potential in a sprint win from off the pace in New Mexico and ran a creditable second on a fast pace in the Lexington Stakes. He can improve and has the tactical versatility to adapt to the pace.
The Preakness doesn’t have Derby winner Golden Tempo or second-place Renegade. Third-place Ocelli may have fired his best shot at 70-1 at Churchill Downs and is hard to get excited about at 6-1.
What’s left should be an entertaining race in which winning bettors will earn their money.
The Preakness picks: 1. Iron Honor, 2. Incredibolt, 3. The Hell We Did, 4. Taj Mahal, 5. Napoleon Solo.
AT SANTA ANITA
Queen Maxima, fourth in her bid for a repeat win in the Unbridled Sidney Stakes at Churchill Downs, returns to the hillside sprint course she dominates when the 5-year-old mare heads Saturday’s Mizdirection Stakes. Juan Hernandez rides for trainer Jeff Mullins. The field of nine includes 4-year-olds Spirited Boss (Mike Smith) and Amorita (Antonio Fresu), 1-2 in last month’s Monrovia as Queen Maxima ran third with an excuse.
Charlie’s Curlin, taking a two-race win streak into his stakes debut, gives Hernandez and Mullins a shot at Santa Anita’s Sunday feature as well when the son of Curlin faces four opponents in the Cinema Stakes turf mile for 3-year-olds. Bust Out (Emisael Jaramillo) and Go Ralph (Kyle Frey) run for trainer Michael McCarthy, seeking his fifth stakes win in May, and Later Than Planned (Hector Berrios) and Iriseach (Fresu) represent Santa Anita leading trainer Phil D’Amato.
First post is 1 p.m. each day. The simulcast of the Preakness, set for 4:01 p.m. PDT, is scheduled to fall between Santa Anita’s sixth and seven races Saturday.
AT LOS ALAMITOS
Under Jose Rosario Alcala, a 20-year-old jockey with only two previous quarter-horse victories, Call Me Candela won the Grade II Robert Adair Kindergarten Futurity on Sunday in a 300-yard duel with Monday Dynasty and Jaque.
Call Me Candela led a 1-3-4-6 finish for leading Los Al quarter-horse trainer Jose Flores in a race reduced to six starters when four horses were scratched by the stewards over, the Daily Racing Form reported, track medication rule violations.
Alcala, a Fontana native, also has 10 thoroughbred wins since he began riding at Los Al in 2023.
SHORTENING UP
• Joel Rosario rode the 6-year-old California-bred Boss Sully ($8.20) to a front-running victory for trainer Brian Koriner in the Siren Lure Stakes on Sunday, the first day of the Hall of Fame jockey’s return to Santa Anita after several years on the East Coast. “It didn’t take me long to have someone like Brian put me in the winner’s circle, so thank you, Brian, for that,” Rosario said. “It is just nice to be back. We’re happy and blessed.”
• Cristian Torres could replace Paco Lopez as the face of whipping-rule controversy in the United States. Torres received a five-day suspension and $5,000 in fines after the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority found he exceeded the six-strike limit in both the May 1 Kentucky Oaks, riding 10th-place Search Party, and the May 2 Kentucky Derby, aboard 14th-place Robusta. Torres is appealing the penalties.
• Danon Bourbon, fifth in the Kentucky Derby (and this column’s pick to win), came out of the race with a chipped knee and will have season-ending surgery, according to reports from Japan.
Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.
SANTA ANITA LEADERS
(Through Sunday)
Jockeys / Wins
Armando Ayuso / 13
Antonio Fresu / 12
Juan Hernandez / 11
Emisael Jaramillo / 11
Kazushi Kimura / 10
Ricardo Gonzelez / 8
Trainers / Wins
Phil D’Amato / 9
Mark Glatt / 7
Steve Knapp / 6
Jeff Mullins / 5
Richard Baltas / 5
Michael McCarthy / 5
UPCOMING STAKES
SANTA ANITA
Saturday
• $100,000 Mizdirection Stakes, fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up, about 6-1/2 furlongs on turf
Sunday
• $100,000 Cinema Stakes, 3-year-olds, 1 mile on turf
LOS ALAMITOS
Sunday
• $30,000 California Derby Challenge, 3-year-old quarter horses, 400 yards