Preakness 2024 draw: Posts, odds for Saturday at Pimlico
The last time a Kentucky Derby winner showed up only to have another horse favored in the Preakness Stakes was 12 years ago. That was when I’ll Have Another had pulled off a 15-1 upset at Churchill Downs, and Bob Baffert rolled into Pimlico two weeks later with the bettors’ choice in Derby runner-up Bodemeister.
History is expected to repeat itself this week. Muth, who won the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, was made the 8-5 morning-line favorite, and Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan was given program odds of 5-2 for what could be a wet running of the 149th Preakness Stakes.
Video: See Mystik Dan get his 1st jog around Pimlico.
The two top choices were drawn next to each other Monday evening with Muth in post 4 and Mystik Dan in 5. They were among the nine 3-year-old colts who entered to race for $2 million in purse money Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
“I thought it was perfect. Right next to Muth. Perfect,” Mystik Dan’s trainer Kenny McPeek told the Maryland Jockey Club.
The Arkansas Derby on March 30 was the only previous meeting of Muth and Mystik Dan, who finished third that day.
“Hopefully, we leave there clean and get a little better trip than we did last time,” said McPeek, who has called on Brian Hernandez Jr. to keep the ride on Mystik Dan. “I think it’s a very level playing field. I think we could stalk right behind (Muth) or be off of him. We will leave that up to Brian. He knows the horse really well.”
Just Steel, who was second in the Arkansas Derby, also will race in the Preakness after finishing 17th in the Kentucky Derby. Trained by six-time Preakness-winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas, 88, he was assigned post 7 with odds of 15-1.
Catching Freedom, who was fourth in the Kentucky Derby, and Seize the Grey, Just Steel’s stablemate who won the Pat Day Mile (G2), also are wheeling back after racing two weeks ago at Churchill Downs. Catching Freedom drew post 3 and was assigned program odds of 6-1 by morning-line writer Brian Nadeau. Seize the Grey was made 15-1 after getting post 6.
Muth and his stablemate Imagination, the runner-up in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), come in fresh for the Preakness. They were ineligible to be entered in the Kentucky Derby because of Baffert’s suspension that Churchill Downs handed him for Medina Spirit’s failed drug test from 2021. Imagination drew the widest post and was installed at 6-1 on the morning line.
“I think it’s fine. Nine horses. That’s manageable,” Baffert told the MJC from his home base in California. “It’s a very competitive field. I’d like to have drawn a little closer with Imagination. Whatever, he can work a trip.”
The favorite has won 73 of the first 149 times in the Preakness, which was split into two divisions in 1918. However, it has not happened since Justify prevailed in a foggy renewal in 2018 on his way to the Triple Crown.
By the way, that last time the Derby winner was a Preakness underdog, I’ll Have Another at 3-1 won again over Bodemeister at 8-5.
”At the end of the day, Mystik Dan is going to get a lot of support” Baffert said. “Just being there with two nice horses, to me, with a competitive field, it’s going to be a good race.”
The National Weather Service forecast for a wet week was updated to indicate more optimism for a dry Preakness, specifically a 50 percent chance of showers Saturday with high near 78 degrees.
Post time for the Preakness, the 13th of 14 races at Pimlico, is Saturday at 6:58 p.m. EDT, according to a Maryland Jockey Club spokesperson.