My Preakness weekend tip: Play the 2-day Pick 5 wagers

With two days of Preakness wagering upon us one of the things that often gets lost is something I look forward to the most: The two-day Pick 5 wagers. With 14 races on Friday and Saturday, there are five Pick 5s each day that start on the odd races: 1,3,5,7,9. But the most lucrative wagers may be the two-day Pick 5's that start on Friday with a super-low 12% takeout. 

I've written before how wagers that skip races, such as turf Pick 3s and other special wagers, pay very well. The great Coast-to-Coast Pick 5 payouts are probably the best example of this with those Pick 5s routinely paying double or triple the win parlay. 

The same pattern exists for two-day wagers. On Preakness 2023 weekend, I was the beneficiary of this. I wasn't having the best weekend of wagering, but I had started the two-day All Stakes Pick 5 with a couple decent prices on Friday, including Taxed who paid $24.00 in the Black-Eyed Susan. The rest of the winners were very logical contenders and while I was a big Mage fan, I played National Treasure as more of a backup play. 

There were several scratches in a couple of the turf races, so that ended up doubling my one combination. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that even with the scratches the will pays were very good. 

2023 2-day All-Stakes Pick 5 results

The National Treasure combination ended up paying $3,217.65, which I had twice and made my Preakness weekend a winning one. That payoff calculated to 288% of the parlay value, mostly on the value of selecting Taxed in the Black-Eyed Susan. That's just one example of how well these wagers can pay. 

Two-day wagers this year 

On this year's wagering menu, we have the All Dirt Pick 5 starting Friday on race 10 and the All Stakes Pick 5 starting Friday on race 11. If you're choosing between the two, I would simply go with the races prefer. The first four legs of each wager are different, but both end in the Preakness.

Much of your strategy comes down to your opinion on Journalism. The problem is that in niche Pick 5 wagers like these, he may represent more like 4/5 whereas he could be 3/2 in the win pool with so much public money on all the contenders. 

If you're with Journalism, the best strategy is probably to find some prices in the other legs and I would single them and Journalism. It wouldn't cost much to do this with a couple prices. Using combinations like 3x4x1x5x1 for example would cost $30. 

If you're against Journalism, then by all means go strongly at one or both of the two-day Pick 5 wagers as they should pay extremely well if Journalism loses.

All-Dirt Pick 5 strategy

The all-dirt pick 5 has payout potential with fields of 13, 10, 11 and 9 leading into the Preakness. The Grade 3 Miss Preakness is fairly wide-open with a 7-2 favorite so there is price potential right off the bat. I like the no. 4 G W's Girl at 12-1 morning line, as well as no. 8 Echo Sound at 5-1 as options to get past the favorites and no. 11 You'll Be Back merits a look at 15-1 as well. 

The next leg, the Pimlico Special has a lot of speed so I'm looking for either the favorite no. 7 Pyrenees to clean things up or no. 9 Red Route One to come from the clouds late and will use no. 8 Star of Wonder, the 7-2 second choice defensively. 

On Saturday, in race 8, the Chick Lang Stakes, I'm looking to no. 9 Perfect Force and no. 3 Ancient World as my top plays. 

Race 10, the Sir Barton Stakes features a 9-5 favorite in Invictus. I will use that one defensively but hope to beat him with the no. 9 Just a Fair Shake or the no. 7 Hymn. 

My ticket: 4,6,8,11,12 with 7,9 with 3,9,10,11 with 6,7,9 with 2 = $60 

All-Stakes Pick 5 strategy

The all stakes Pick 5 also has good fields of 12, 9, 10 and 13 leading into the Preakness and has the additional appeal of some turf racing. 

It leads off with race 11 on Friday, The Very One Stakes where I am most interested in the logical contenders of 2,9,14 to get through this leg while in the Black Eyed Susan, race 13, I want to lean on closers 5,8 to get the job done. 

On Saturday, in race 11, the James Murphy Stakes, I prefer the 4, 6 or 7 as closers in here and no. 4 Barbadian Runner is a great price at 12-1. In race 12, the Grade 3 Dinner Party, my top choices are the favorite no. 13 Trikari and no. 8 Crystal Quest who is 10-1 on the morning line. That one ran a very strong race at Tampa last time off the layoff so could be sitting on another nice race here at a price. 

My ticket: 2,9,14 with 5,8 with 4,6,7 with 8,13 with 2 = $18 

Good luck in all your Preakness weekend plays!