Updated Preakness Favorites and Contender Rankings

The Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, happens Saturday, May 16, at Laurel Park. Laurel is a new place for the Preakness, but it’s visiting there for one year while Pimlico Race Course is rebuilt, and then the race will return to its traditional home in 2026.

The Kentucky Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs was one of the most thrilling races of the year. 23-1 longshot Golden Tempo rallied into a red-hot pace, making trainer Cherie DeVaux the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby. Though Golden Tempo is pointing directly to the Belmont Stakes after his Kentucky Derby win, the eyes of the horse racing world are still turned to Maryland for good reason. The 2026 Preakness drew a full field of 14 contenders, and it’s so wide open that any horse who wins the Preakness is going to pay his backers handsomely.

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2026 Preakness Stakes Post Draw and Contenders

The post draw for this year’s Preakness Stakes happened on Monday, May 11. The race drew a full field of 14, the maximum allowed in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. The narrow 9-2 favorite is Iron Honor, who won the Gotham Stakes (G3) but will need to rebound from a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Wood Memorial (G2).

Three horses are just behind Iron Honor at 5-1: Kentucky Derby sixth-place finisher Incredibolt, Risen Star (G2) runner-up Chip Honcho, and Federico Tesio winner Taj Mahal. Ocelli, the only maiden in the field, is 6-1 on the morning line off of his close third-place finish in the Run for the Roses. The top of the market stands to be very close among these five horses.

This is the official draw for the 2026 Preakness Stakes, including post positions, trainers, jockeys, and morning-line odds:

Preakness Contender Rankings

The 2026 Preakness Stakes is wide-open, with a field of 14 and no horse who is a hulking standout on class, form, or even how well the pace stands to suit them. Here are the Preakness Stakes horses ranked by what tier of the market they are likely to be a part of on race day – favorites, middle-market horses, or long shots.

Preakness market leaders

• Iron Honor (9-2 ML): In such a tightly-bunched top of the market as there is in the 2026 Preakness Stakes, the deciding factor for the likely post-time favorite is one of the basic precepts in graded-stakes races of the last decade or so: trainer Chad Brown attracts money at the windows. He’s won the Preakness twice with lightly-raced horses coming from New York preps, meaning people may project that history onto Iron Honor. Add to that the fact that leading big-race rider Flavien Prat has the call, and the connections will attract the closest thing to betting confidence possible in this wide-open Preakness.
• Incredibolt (5-1 ML): A draw-day addition to the Preakness field, Incredibolt comes out of a credible sixth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Despite the last-minute nature of his entry, there’s reason for optimism: he handled the 1 ¼ miles of the Kentucky Derby decently enough to think 1 3/16 miles will be fine, he’s one of the few likely to come from well off the pace in the Preakness, and he’s going to get another good setup.
• Ocelli (6-1 ML): He’ll almost certainly be underlaid in the win pool – he’s a maiden, after all, and no maiden has won the Preakness since 1888. And, unlike being the 70-1 longshot he was at Churchill Downs, he’ll be one of the market leaders here. Still, he isn’t out of contention for a piece: he almost got there at 1 ¼ miles two weeks ago, now he cuts back half a furlong, and he’ll be one of the few honest-to-goodness closers in a pace-heavy race.
• Taj Mahal (5-1 ML): The leading Maryland local, he is undefeated in three starts, all at Laurel Park. His final prep was weird but impressive: he keenly opened up by ten lengths, calmed down enough to take a breather and let the field come back to him, and then ran clear again to win by 8 ¼ lengths. It showed plenty of talent, but now he’ll have to deal with a lot more pace in front of him, as well as a rail draw. It’s not impossible for him to run well – especially since he rallied from off the pace after drawing gate 2 in his sprint debut – but it’s a lot to ask in his graded-stakes debut, and he’s getting enough wise-guy steam that a short price seems likely.
• Chip Honcho (5-1 ML): Trainer Steve Asmussen could have run in the Kentucky Derby with Chip Honcho, but decided to reroute him to the Preakness instead. He was hit or miss on the Fair Grounds spur of the Kentucky Derby trail but always picked up at least a minor share of points. The presence of Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Jose Ortiz may attract some money, but his inconsistency at Fair Grounds and the likelihood of him being on or very close to a roaring pace could chill his action a little.

Preakness middle prices

• Talkin (20-1 ML): Though Talkin is one of the longest prices on the morning line, he may shorten significantly from this figure based on early international action, perhaps to something as short as 10-1 or 12-1. That’s no surprise: he has been racing in graded stakes ever since his winning debut at Saratoga and was running against high-quality Kentucky Derby prep company in the Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and the Blue Grass Stakes (G1). He also gets Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the irons, a rider who always takes money, and is getting some attention after a sharp bullet work at Keeneland.
• Napoleon Solo (8-1 ML): He is the only Grade 1 winner in the field thanks to his blowout score in the Champagne (G1) last fall at Aqueduct, but a pair of two-turn starts at age three have not gone nearly so well. The likelihood is strong that he’ll be a bit longer price than his morning-line odds: he’s yet another horse who will be on or near the lead, especially under aggressive rider Paco Lopez, and he still has to prove he has trained on.
• Great White (15-1 ML): The reason he is likely to be a mid-priced horse and not a long shot comes down to one simple fact: fan favorites get bet. If there’s one horse capturing the attention of horse racing casuals during this Triple Crown season, it’s the massive, eye-catching grey Great White. Public interest in him only seemed to increase when he flipped behind the gate and had to be scratched before the Kentucky Derby, and even though that won’t put enough money on him to make him a favorite, it’ll be enough to make a horse unproven on the dirt a serious underlay, even with a decent post draw and the fact that he is better a bit off the pace than right on it.
• The Hell We Did (15-1 ML): He started in the Southwest, in Oklahoma and New Mexico, but proved he could handle graded-stakes company after battling on the pace and running on for second in the Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland. Horses who run well in the Lexington often do take some interest in the Preakness. That early speed is a concern, but he could take some interest between his off-pace win in an allowance at Sunland two back as well as the fact that he’s got some pedigree potential, being an Authentic half-brother to Senor Buscador.

Preakness long shots

• Pretty Boy Miah (15-1 ML): The morning line seems a little low for a horse who hasn’t tried stakes company. He won’t be the longest shot on the board, mainly because the speed figures in his maiden win and his starter-allowance win came back good enough to draw the interest of players who lean heavily on them. But, he hasn’t faced this level of company, he hasn’t gone two turns, and he’ll be one of the many battling on the pace in this.
• Bull by the Horns (30-1 ML): He hasn’t raced since winning the Rushaway Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile stakes on the undercard of the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G1) at Turfway. He has a lot of class to prove, especially since he never fired in his only graded-stake try, but he may take a bit of interest from bettors by virtue of being one of the only closers in the field, and because trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. has been a force of nature with his shippers this year.
• Robusta (30-1 ML): Even though Robusta is one of the trio coming out of the Kentucky Derby, he is unlikely to take much money off of a never-competitive 14th. That holds especially true since he was never near the lead, suggesting he is a horse who needs to be on or near the pace and is therefore going to be in big trouble in this pace-laden Preakness.
• Corona de Oro (30-1 ML): The third-place finisher in the Lexington, he was the one horse on the also-eligible list for the Kentucky Derby who was left high and dry at the scratch deadline and had to reroute to the Preakness. Despite having been entered in the Derby, he should be one of the longest shots in the Preakness, given his relative lack of stakes experience and the fact that he stands to be burned up on the pace.
• Crupper (30-1 ML): Crupper comes into the Preakness off his best race yet – a win in the Bathhouse Row on April 18 at Oaklawn. It was his stakes debut, and at 1 ⅛ miles, it was the longest distance he had run to date. However, the Donnie von Hemel trainee has a lot to find in terms of speed figures compared to most of his Preakness foes, and he is one of many horses who does his best work on or close to the lead.

What are the Preakness best bets and picks for 2026?

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.