Preakness Stakes Trivia: 20 Fun and Interesting Facts About the Preakness Stakes

First run in 1873, The Preakness Stakes is a 149 year old horse race held at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, MD.

The first Preakness Stakes was held in 1873 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Preakness Stakes was named after a winning colt at Pimlico by the former governor of Maryland.

Survivor was the first horse to win the race, ridden by George Barbee.

California Chrome won the 2014 Stakes with jockey Victor Espinoza.

Now, the horse race is limited to 14. Years ago, 26 horses entered the race.

The Preakness is 1 3/16 miles or 9.5 furlongs, making it the shortest of the Triple Crown horse races. Originally, the race was 1 ½ miles, but was changed to its current distance in 1925.

Secretariat holds the record at this horse track with a time of 1:53 in 1973.

The distance of the horse race has actually changed 7 times since its establishment.

Prior to 1931, there were 11 years in which the Preakness preceded the Kentucky Derby. In fact, there were actually two years, 1917 and 1922, where the two horse races were held on the same day.

• Eddie Arcaro: 6 Wins (1941, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1957)
• Pat Day: 5 Wins (1985, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1996)
• George Barbee, Bill Hartack, Lloyd Hughes and Gary Stevens: 3 Wins

If you are superstitious, there have been 16 winning horses with names beginning with B and 17 with C (the most recent being Big Brown in 2008 & Cloud Computing in 2017)

• 14: S (Shackleford in 2011)
• 9: D (Deputed Testamony in 1983)
• 9:H (Hansel in 1991)
• 9:P (Point Given in 2001)
• 9:T (Timber Country in 1995)
• 8: R (Rachel Alexandra in 2009)

There have been 5 fillies, or female horses, to win the horse race.

• Flocarline in 1903
• Whimsical in 1906
• Rhine Maiden in 1915
• Nellie Morse in 1924
• Rachel Alexandra in 2009

Currently, no female jockey or trainer has ever won this horse race.

There have been 9 Kentucky Derby winning horses to have won the Preakness since 1990, and they are:

• Silver Charm in 1997
• Real Quiet in 1998
• Charismatic in 1999
• War Emblem in 2002
• Funny Cide in 2003
• Smarty Jones in 2004
• Big Brown in 2008
• I'll Have Another in 2012
• California Chrome in 2014
• American Pharoah in 2015
• Justify in 2018

Since 1990, only 4 horses have been able to accomplish this feet, further exemplifying how difficult it is to win each horse race.

• Hansel in 1991
• Tabasco Cat in 1994
• Point Given in 2001
• Afleet Alex in 2005

Bob Baffert, one of the most successful horse trainers in horse racing history, has had 5 horses win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes horse races. He could reach 6 if Authentic wins in 2020.

• Silver Charm 1997
• Real Quiet 1998
• War Emblem 2002
• American Pharoah in 2015
• Justify in 2018

History proves that winning can be in your genes. There are 9 horses that have been fathered by previous winners of the Preakness that have gone on to win the race themselves. And they are:

• Bold Ruler (1957) / Secretariat (1973)
• Bold Venture (1936) / Assault (1946)
• Gallant Fox (1930) / Omaha (1935)
• Man o'War (1920) / War Admiral (1937)
• Polynesian (1945) / Native Dancer (1953)
• Citation (1948) / Fabius (1956)
• Native Dancer (1953) / Kauai King (1966)
• Secretariat (1973) / Risen Star (1988)
• Summer Squall (1990) / Charismatic (1999) 

If we are getting superstitious again and you are looking for a lucky color to place your bets on in the next horse race, bay would be your lucky color. Bays have won more than half of the Preakness races, with Chestnut following.

The distance between horses in thoroughbred horse racing is referred to as a length. Each length is approximately 8 feet. With that said, the largest margins of victory in the history of the Preakness horse race are:

• 11 1/2 lengths: Smarty Jones (2004)
• 10 lengths: Survivor (1873)
• 9 3/4 lengths: Funny Cide (2003)
• 8 lengths: Count Fleet (1943)

• #6 has been the most successful post in the history of the Preakness Stakes Horse Race.
• In 2013, Oxbow became the 16th horse to win the Preakness from post 6.
• Posts No.4 and No.7 have both produced 13 winners.
• The inside three posts failed to produce a Preakness Stakes winner for 20 years, that was until Derby winner California Chrome ran to victory from post No.3 in 2014.

Pat Day had three consecutive wins from 1994-1996. In 1991, Pat Day would be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Although Pat Day was the only jockey to win the race three consecutive times, there have been 8 instances where back to back wins have been accomplished.

• 2014-2015: Victor Espinoza with California Chrome and American Pharoah
• 1994, 1995, 1996: Pat Day with Tabasco Cat, Timber Country and Louis Quatorze
• 1950-1951: Eddie Arcaro with Hill Prince and Bold
• 1918-1919: Johnny Loftus with War Cloud and Sir Barton
• 1894-1895: Fred Taral with Belmar and Assignee
• 1881-1882: Tom Costello with Saunterer and Vanguard
• 1879-1880: Lloyd Hughes with Harold and Grenada
• 1877-1878: C. Holloway with Cloverbrook and Duke of Magenta

The most successful trainers for this horse race are:

• 7: Bob Baffert (1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2010, 2015, 2018)
• 7: R. Wyndham Walden (1875, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1888)
• 6: D. Wayne Lukas (1980, 1985, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2013)
• 5: Thomas J. Healey (1901, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1929)
• 4: Jim Fitzsimons (1930, 1935, 1955, 1957)
• 4: Jimmy Jones (1947, 1948, 1956, 1958)

The largest audience at this horse race is 140,327 in 2017.

It may surprise you that the Woodlawn Vase is the most valuable trophy in American sports, valued at $1 million.

Winners of this horse race do not get to keep the vase at all!

In earlier years, winners kept the trophy until the following Preakness (approximately 1 year), however this changed in 1953 when Native Dancer ran to victory. Owner A.G. Vanderbilt’s wife didn’t want the immense responsibility of safekeeping the $1 million vase. Now owners are awarded a $30,000 sterling replica of the vase which they keep permanently while the original is displayed at The Baltimore Museum of Art and brought to Pimlico under guard for the annual running of the Preakness.