3 Best Bets for the 2025 Preakness Stakes

Key Takeaways:

• Journalism (8-5) is the favorite with the most consistent form in the field, showing tactical versatility in the Kentucky Derby and proven wet-track ability.
• The 9-horse Preakness field features three Derby runners (Journalism, Sandman, American Promise) and 6 fresh horses entering the Triple Crown series, with rainy conditions forecast for race day at Pimlico.
• River Thames (9-2) benefits from Todd Pletcher's decision to skip the Derby and target the Preakness, giving him additional recovery time after his Blue Grass Stakes third-place finish.
• Speed horse Clever Again (5-1) has potential at Pimlico with Jose Ortiz aboard, who is undefeated since his juvenile debut.

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The 2025 Preakness Stakes happens Saturday, May 17, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. The 1 3/16-mile dirt race is the second jewel of the Triple Crown, and it drew a field of nine to compete for a $2 million purse and a place in horse racing history.

Although Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty is sitting out the Preakness and being pointed for a return in the Belmont, the top two betting choices from the Derby return in the Preakness: Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Journalism and Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Sandman. Journalism was the Derby runner-up, while Sandman comes back from a seventh-place finish in the Run for the Roses. American Promise, 16th in the run for the roses, also presses on to the Preakness.

The other six Preakness Stakes runners are new faces. Some of them are familiar from the Kentucky Derby trail, like Blue Grass (G1) third-place finisher River and UAE Derby (G2) runner-up Heart of Honor. Some are later bloomers like Hot Springs winner Clever Again, Lexington (G3) winner Gosger, and Federico Tesio winner Pay Billy. There’s even Goal Oriented, a Bob Baffert trainee who makes his stakes debut in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

The Preakness Stakes is an interesting betting puzzle this year. Unlike in the Derby, where a bumper crop of one-way speed made a hot pace a virtual guarantee, many of the contenders in the Preakness field have shown more tactical ability. There will also be weather to consider, as forecasters from the National Weather Service call for a wet week, including Preakness day. So, horses with wet-track experience or mud pedigree could have an advantage.

These three best bets are all likely to be near the top of the market on Preakness Stakes day, but all of them have serious reasons that they can win the race. As you build your Preakness Stakes wagers and start to consider long shots, make sure to check out our dark-horse Preakness picks to find out horses who can strengthen your exotic tickets at bigger odds.

1. Journalism: 8-5 ML

No horse in the current three-year-old dirt route class keeps showing up like Journalism, and there is no reason to think this should change in the Preakness Stakes. He has never missed the board in six starts, and that includes three straight graded-stakes wins in California and a quality second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

In terms of pace, Journalism has just the kind of running style that should work well in the Preakness. His most typical race is a stalking style, and he has the tactical speed that plays so well at Pimlico. He can change course if necessary -- he rallied from further back than usual in the chaos of the Derby, and he handled significant trip trouble in the Santa Anita Derby. Jockey Umberto Rispoli has been through a lot with Journalism, and knows he has options.

Though it took a couple of days for trainer Michael McCarthy to decide whether to send Journalism to the Preakness or not, it made sense. McCarthy has a cautious reputation, and there wasn’t the instant clamor to watch whether Journalism was going to go to the Preakness since he did not win the Derby. A few days elapsed, Journalism was in good form, and McCarthy decided to send the colt to Pimlico. The race is hardly new territory for McCarthy, either: in 2021, he went to the Preakness for the first time with Rombauer, the well-prepared upset winner of the Triple Crown’s second jewel.

The rainy weather is also a minimal worry for Journalism. Being by Curlin out of an Uncle Mo mare, the pedigree is there. And, in his only start over an off track, he ran a competitive second in the Kentucky Derby -- though he didn’t win, he proved he could run a strong effort on a wet track.

In short, even though Journalism should be the favorite on the Preakness day odds board, he has the resume to back it up.

2. River Thames: 9-2 ML

After a second-place finish in the Fountain of Youth and a third-place effort in the Blue Grass, trainer Todd Pletcher could have run River Thames in the Kentucky Derby. His 50 points put him 17th among all points earners, leaving a spot for the taking. However, Pletcher and the horse’s owners decided in mid-April to give him a bit more rest after the Blue Grass and point him to the Preakness instead.

The Preakness Stakes is an uncommon spot for trainer Todd Pletcher, especially nowadays: he has not run a horse in the Preakness since 2021, and this will only be his fourth Preakness runner since 2012. However, given how late the Blue Grass was (April 8), taking the extra two weeks gives him a bit more time to bounce back from the Blue Grass, his longest and toughest race yet.

River Thames has the perfect running style for the Preakness, as he time and again shows tactical speed. He was able to sit a little further back than usual in the Blue Grass under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr, a positive given just how fast East Avenue was going on the early pace that day. Still, no matter what, River Thames has found a place in range of the pace, and Ortiz should be able to take good advantage of that in Baltimore.

The distance is a question. The female family raises some questions, at least since the class has been seven-furlong horses like Dads Caps and Paulassilverlining. However, on top, sire Maclean’s Music has already produced a Preakness winner, and River Thames’ own two-turn efforts have suggested that he can handle distance. Maclean’s Music is also a positive sign for the wet forecast -- his foals win at 20% on off tracks, making him a worthy heir to his own sire Distorted Humor’s penchant for producing mudders.

3. Clever Again: 5-1 ML

Speed is a dangerous tool to have at Pimlico, and Clever Again has it in his arsenal. The Preakness Stakes has every chance of becoming a jockey’s race, and if horses with a stalking gear end up being taken back for fear of a torrid pace like what unfolded at Churchill Downs, Clever Again is the most likely candidate to take full advantage.

Jose Ortiz has ridden Clever Again in both of his starts this year, and they have both unfolded in a similar way. They make the lead, they dare the field to chase, they keep going. Clever Again broke his maiden by 3 ¼ lengths with Ortiz in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Oaklawn on February 23, and then a similar trip led to a four-length victory in the Hot Springs Stakes there on March 30.

Though both of Clever Again’s races this year have been decisive front-end romps, he suggested in his lone start as a juvenile that he can fight. He made his career debut in a 4 ½-furlong baby race at Keeneland in April of last year, dueling all the way around and missing by a head to Dreamaway, a precocious Wesley Ward first-timer who romped in stakes company next out.

Distance is a question just because he has never tried anything past 1 1/16 miles, but the choice to stretch him out is supported well by his pedigree. Clever Again is by American Pharoah, a Triple Crown winner whose progeny tend to want to go a route of ground—and who tend to handle off tracks well. Looking underneath, he is out of the Galileo mare Flattering. Not only is Galileo one of Europe’s best sources of turf stamina, Flattering herself was a Group 3 winner at 1 ½ miles. Flattering’s full sister Love won the 1 ½-mile Oaks (G1) at Epsom, as well as the 1 ¼-mile Prince of Wales’s (G1) at Ascot.

Especially if speed is playing well at Pimlico on Preakness weekend, there is strong reason to think a game of catch-me-if-you-can with Clever Again could be, well, clever.

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