The 151st Preakness will be run tomorrow at Laurel Park in Maryland, and the race arrives without the two horses that defined the Kentucky Derby. Golden Tempo and Renegade, the top two finishers in Louisville, are not in the field, leaving the middle leg of the Triple Crown without its biggest names and shifting the focus to who can seize the moment at preakness 2026.
The field of 14 horses is the largest in 15 years, and it gives the race a depth it has not had in a while. Among the entrants are Iron Honor, trained by two-time Preakness winner Chad Brown, Ocelli, who finished third at the Derby, and Taj Mahal, a horse trained and jockeyed by a married couple. The race is being run 20 miles south of its traditional home in Baltimore because Pimlico has been razed for a complete rebuild that is hoped to be finished by next year.
That relocation is only part of what makes this Preakness unusual. No horse in the field has won a Grade 1 or Grade 2 race this year, and that leaves the race open in a way horseplayers rarely see at this stage of the spring. As Steve Kornacki put it, this is only the second time in 40 years that the top two finishers from the Derby are not running the Preakness, and he called it a Preakness devoid of star power.
For bettors, though, the uncertainty is the draw. Kornacki said this year’s Preakness really is a great betting race, a fitting description for a field in which the usual hierarchy is missing and the most accomplished names are not as established as they would be in a normal year. That is the story of Preakness 2026: a historic move, a crowded gate and a race that is likely to be decided by form that still has to prove itself.
The rebuilt Pimlico is hoped to be ready by next year, which would return the Preakness to Baltimore after a one-year detour to Laurel Park. For now, the race will be run at a track just outside Washington, D.C., with the same old question hanging over it: which horse can turn a wide-open field into a winning one?
