Tomorrow’s 151st Preakness will be run at Laurel Park in Maryland, and the race arrives with a twist that would have sounded unlikely a few years ago: the top two finishers from the Kentucky Derby, Golden Tempo and Renegade, are not running. For the second time in 40 years, the Preakness will go forward without the Derby’s top two, turning the middle jewel of the Triple Crown into something closer to a fresh betting puzzle than a sequel to Louisville.
There are 14 horses entered, the biggest Preakness field in 15 years, and none of them has won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 race this year. That is why handicapper Steve Kornacki said, in effect, that this year’s Preakness really is a great betting race. With no dominant name in the lineup, the result is open in a way the race rarely is at this stage of the season.
The setting is different too. The Preakness is not being run at its usual home at Pimlico in Baltimore this year. Instead, it has moved 20 miles south to Laurel Park, just outside Washington, D.C., while Pimlico has been razed for a complete rebuild that is expected to be finished by next year. For many national trainers, Laurel is unfamiliar ground, and that unfamiliarity only adds to the uncertainty around a field already lacking a clear favorite.
One of the horses likely to draw attention is Iron Honor, trained by Chad Brown, a two-time Preakness winner. Brown has been here before, and that history matters in a race where experience can be as valuable as speed figures. Another runner with a backstory is Ocelli, who finished third at the Derby and now gets a chance to show whether that effort translates to a different track and a very different setup.
Then there is Taj Mahal, trained and ridden by a married couple, a detail that gives the race one of its more unusual human angles. In a field without Grade 1 or Grade 2 winners this year, any horse with a compelling profile can suddenly look more dangerous than the form book suggests.
The uncertainty is heightened by the move itself. Laurel Park will stage a Preakness that fans usually associate with Baltimore, and the switch from Pimlico changes more than the address. It changes the rhythm of the week, the feel of the crowd and the assumptions trainers bring into the race. That is why Preakness 2026 Horses Draw to Laurel Park for Historic Triple Crown Shift has become part of the conversation around this year’s running, not just a note about location.
What makes this Preakness stand out is not only who is missing, but what is left behind: a 14-horse field, no proven Grade 1 or Grade 2 winner, and a track that most of the sport’s biggest names do not know well. For one day, the middle leg of the Triple Crown is less a coronation than an opening, and Laurel Park gets the spotlight while Pimlico waits for its return next year.
