Preakness 2026: Napoleon Solo holds off Iron Honor for victory

Laurel, Md.

The race nobody believes in was won by a horse and connections nobody believed in either, at least to hear trainer Chad Summers tell it.

As questions loomed about the Preakness Stakes future on Saturday at Laurel Park, Napoleon Solo answered some questions of his own with a 1 1/4-length win over Iron Honor in the middle jewel of American Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

It was a long and winding road to the winner’s circle for the Liam’s Map colt owned by Al Gold’s Gold Square after Summers decided to skip the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with the Champagne Stakes winner but then had some hiccups on the Kentucky Derby trail to start his three-year-old season.

“I’m so proud of my team for staying the course on this horse,” Summers said. “There were people out there who said we shouldn’t run-he can’t get the distance, he’s not ready-but we knew what we had.”

To be fair, Gold himself was among those asking whether Napoleon Solo, who was badly beaten a combined 14 ½ lengths in both his starts around two turns, could get the Preakness distance of 1 3/16 miles. And as usual, people have questions, but horses have answers. Napoleon Solo completed the 9 ½ furlongs on a track rated as fast in 1:58.69.

“Anyone think this horse could go this far? Anybody? One guy, maybe? Well, I didn’t think he could go this far either,” Gold said. “It was actually [jockey] Paco [Lopez]’s idea. We were unsaddling after the wood and he told Chad, ‘Go to the Preakness.’ So Paco’s idea and Chad’s training got us here. Chad was enthusiastic and determined.”

Lopez had the right idea during the running of the race as well, guiding the 7.9-1 fourth choice in the full field of 14 in the clear behind race favorite and pacesetter from the rail Taj Mahal. Napoleon Solo tracked Taj Mahal through fractions of :22.66, :46.66 and 1:12.08 before making his move on the far turn and putting away Taj Mahal while having plenty in reserve to hold off Iron Honor. It was another 3 ¼ lengths back to Chip Honcho in third.

“I feel very comfortable with where the horse was,” Lopez said. “We were comfortable from the paddock, going to gate and in the gate. Then we got a perfect position early, and when I asked him to run home he gave me everything.”

“The more we looked at the race, the more we saw our high cruising speed as a weapon,” Summers said. “There were front-end horses in this race but not a lot who could do blistering fractions. We loved having a target, but if not then that would have been us setting the fractions. Paco rode a perfect race.”

After Napoleon Solo’s upset win in the Champagne, Summers began plotting a course not toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but to the Kentucky Derby, and that course meant skipping the Juvenile.

Napoleon Solo went on the shelf for the remainder of his two-year-old season and returned in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, but it was a rough start.

Napoleon Solo finished 5th that day beaten 11 ¾ lengths at 17-5 odds. Things did not get much better after that as a foot issue kept him out of the Arkansas Derby, and that hampered his training enough that he was not at full capacity for the Wood Memorial Stakes where he again finished fifth at 7-2.

“I told a lot of people this [the Preakness] would be his best performance,” Summers said. “He breezed great for the Arkansas Derby but then we were set back. We were actually a little behind even for the Fountain of Youth, but I knew if we were going to make Derby I’d want two preps.

“So after the Wood we had to decide between cutting back to the Pat Day Mile or stretch out to the Preakness. The ultimate goal for Mr. Gold as a New Jersey guy is the Haskell, so that’s where we want to get to from here. Every since I started buying horses for him, these types of races are the goal.”

Gold said winning the Preakness ranks second on his list of racing accomplishments between winning the 2023 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park with Cyberknife.

Iron Honor completing the Chadxacta marks the 38th time a Chad has finished first and second in a Grade 1 race, but it’s the first time it was with different Chads, as Chad Brown trains Iron Honor. Both horses in the exacta and three horses in the superfecta all came out of the Wood.

“I am proud of the horse; he ran a big race,” Brown said of Iron Honor. “He had a challenging trip from post 9 as it turns out ending up a little wide on the turns, and that probably took enough starch out of him when it mattered late. You really have to acknowledge how well the winner ran, though; hats off to him.”

WIth Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo not even in the Preakness, this was always going to be the eighth consecutive year that the Derby winner did not win the Preakness. Before that, though, the Derby winner was four-for-seven in the Preakness.

“I’m excited to see what happens the rest of the year,” Summers said. “I think champion three-year-old male is wide open. I don’t say that to take anything away from Golden Tempo’s Derby win. It’s unfortunate he didn’t make it here, but that’s fine. We’ll hope to face him down the road.”

No three-year-old this year has won multiple Grade 1 races. The final stop on the Triple Crown trail is the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course with the top two finishers in the Derby-Golden Tempo and Renegade, respectively-expected for a rematch. This was the first Preakness win for all three connections of Napoleon Solo.