Preakness Stakes Expert Predictions and Betting Advice

2013 Preakness Stakes Betting Profile: Orb
by Trevor Whenham - 5/13/2013

As you probably know if you are reading this preview, Orb was last seen wearing roses after winning this year’s Kentucky Derby. He was the post time favorite and seemingly the class of the field. He proved that to be true.

2013 Preakness Stakes Handicapping Profile: Goldencents
by Trevor Whenham - 5/13/2013

Everyone connected to this horse — owner, trainer, jockey, bettors and fans — would like to pretend that the last race just never happened. The Kentucky Derby was about as much of a disaster as it could possibly have been.

Preakness Stakes Handicapping Trends
by Trevor Whenham - 5/8/2013

When you are looking to identify the winner heading up to the Preakness Stakes, trends can be your friend. Looking back at the recent history of the race can help you pinpoint opportunities and avoid mistakes. Here are three valuable Preakness Stakes handicapping trends to keep in mind:

How to Bet the Preakness Stakes 2013
by Trevor Whenham - 5/8/2013

Part of what makes the Triple Crown so fascinating as a betting challenge is how different each race is. The Preakness Stakes comes just two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, but it couldn’t be more different for bettors — even though it features many of the same horses. If you approach the two races in the same way, you are going to be in trouble in at least one of them. Here are four adjustments to keep in mind as you try to figure out how to bet the Preakness this year:

2013 Preakness Stakes Betting Tips
by Trevor Whenham - 5/7/2013

I want to see a Triple Crown winner more than I want to see anything else in sports. That can blind me to all horses other than the one who was just wearing roses. For many years I had a strict policy. I made just one Preakness bet no matter what — the Derby winner to win. At times that has been a profitable approach — even over longer periods — but it isn’t generally a strong approach. For every time you get to bet on a horse like Big Brown or I’ll Have Another, you also end up with a real dud like Giacomo or Monarchos.

Can Orb win the Triple Crown?
by Trevor Whenham - 5/6/2013

Every year as soon as the Kentucky Derby ends there is only one question that I ask myself — can the winner win the Triple Crown? There is nothing I want to see more in sports than a Triple Crown. I automatically become the biggest fan of the Derby winner, but some years that is easier to get behind than others. So, can Orb end the long drought and become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978? Yes. Will he? That’s a more complicated question. Let’s look at the arguments on both sides:

2013 Preakness Stakes Handicapping: Early Look
by Trevor Whenham - 5/6/2013

There will be plenty of changes between now and post time of the Preakness on Saturday, May 18. At this point, though, it doesn’t seem like the very impressive Kentucky Derby win by Orb has scared too many people off — other than Todd Pletcher. Pletcher had five horses in the 20-horse Derby field, but he is planning to send none to Pimlico.

2012 Preakness Stakes Betting Props with Odds and Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 5/18/2012

There isn’t nearly as much prop betting action for the middle leg of the Triple Crown as there is for the Kentucky Derby. Sportsbooks do offer some different Preakness props, though, and some can provide interesting value. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones from BetUS this week:

2012 Preakness Stakes Post Positions Analysis and Handicapping
by Robert Ferringo - 5/17/2012

The Preakness Stakes post position draw and analysis has become a convenient talking point for mainstream sports media bobbleheads and wannabe horse racing handicappers over the past 24 hours. But the truth of the matter is that after the Kentucky Derby the post draw really has very little to do with how the second and third legs of the Triple Crown are run.

2012 Preakness Stakes Jockeys: Analysis and Handicapping Profile
by T.O. Whenham - 5/17/2012

You could argue — probably quite convincingly — that the jockeys don’t play quite as important a role in the Preakness as they do in the Kentucky Derby or the Belmont. In the first race of the Triple Crown the jockey has to stay out of an incredible amount of potential trouble, while in the Belmont they have to judge how to handle the potentially crippling distance.

2012 Preakness Stakes Handicapping Advice: Fresh Horses
by T.O. Whenham - 5/16/2012

If you want to have a pretty good chance of picking the Preakness winner in any given year you should almost always concentrate on the horses that ran in the Kentucky Derby two weeks earlier. Of the last 40 Preakness winners only seven did not run in the Derby. In the last 28 editions there have only been three fresh horses that won, so the trend is becoming even more pronounced recently.

Early Look at the 2012 Preakness Stakes Field
by T.O. Whenham - 5/8/2012

That wasn’t a perfect Kentucky Derby, but it was more satisfying than the last few have been. It featured a flawless ride by a totally unheralded rider who had only won 14 races all year to win, and the most heroic performance a horse may have ever shown in defeat by Bodemeister.

2012 Preakness Stakes Betting Tips
by T.O. Whenham - 5/8/2012

As we move beyond the Kentucky Derby, won by I’ll Have Another, and look towards the Preakness our focus is on only one thing — finding the winner. To help in that pursuit here are four 2012 Preakness Stakes betting tips to guide you:

Preakness Stakes Odds and Props Predictions
by T.O. Whenham - 5/20/2011

The Preakness is a good place to look for value in the props offered by sportsbooks — especially if you like the Derby winner. The public throws all of their money at one horse most years, so there is no value betting him in the pari-mutuel — at least not betting him straight up. Sometimes the props can offer different ways of looking at the race that can balance risk and reward more effectively. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting Preakness props on offer this year:

Animal Kingdom Preakness Stakes Favorite – Odds and Profile
by T.O. Whenham - 5/20/2011

Last race: He’s coming off a win in the toughest race any three year old will ever run in -- the Kentucky Derby. If this horse continues to impress then his story will become the thing of legends. He had never even been on a dirt track until a week before the Derby, and he had only run four times previously, so there were lots of strikes against him heading into that race.

Dialed In Odds For Preakness Stakes Win With Analysis
by T.O. Whenham - 5/20/2011

Last race: Dialed In was badly beaten as the Kentucky Derby favorite last time out. As a deep closer he relies on a fast early pace to tire out the horses at the front and make them vulnerable to his late charge. The early fractions in the Derby were historically slow, though, so when he made his move he was trying to catch horses that had lots of gas left and he couldn’t do it. He passed some stragglers, but wound up a non-threatening eighth. It wasn’t a total disaster of a result, but given that he was the favorite and that he didn’t run into any traffic or serious problems it was a long way from impressive.

2011 Preakness Stakes Post Position Analysis
by Robert Ferringo - 5/19/2011

The Preakness, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, will be run around 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore. On Wednesday the track officials drew the Preakness Stakes post positions for the 14-horse field and the results have helped to clarify what is already a murky lineup of mounts.

How to Bet the Preakness Stakes
by T.O. Whenham - 5/19/2011

The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes are the first two legs of the Triple Crown, so people might assume that they are similar races. From a betting perspective, though, they really aren’t. Here’s a look at four differences that have an impact on how you should handicap this race and some tips on how to bet the Preakness Stakes:

2011 Preakness Stakes Pace Scenarios
by T.O. Whenham - 5/19/2011

Pace, or the projected shape of the race, is always a big part of handicapping horse races, but it is especially important in the Triple Crown races because young horses are being asked to do things they have never done before.

2011 Preakness Stakes Handicapping Trends
by T.O. Whenham - 5/18/2011

The Preakness Stakes hasn’t produced as many strong trends over the years as the Kentucky Derby has, but given what has happened at the Derby in recent years -- every long-term trend seems to have been rendered meaningless -- that’s not really a bad thing. Like every recurring, event, though, there are still some Preakness Stakes handicapping trends for us to grab onto in our search for a winner: