Preakness 2027 will be run 8 days later than usual at Pimlico

Preakness 2027 will be run at Pimlico on Sunday, May 23, eight days later than usual under a plan to preserve the race’s prestige as the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

The Maryland Jockey Club and NBC Sports issued a joint statement before governor Wes Moore led the announcement Wednesday afternoon at the Maryland State House in Annapolis. NBC, which has televised every Preakness since 2001, extended its contract through 2032 for an undisclosed amount of money.

Reaction to the new Thoroughbred Championship Series.

“We are going to move it back to be able to ensure that the winner of the Kentucky Derby will then be prepared to compete in the second leg of the Triple Crown, because the Triple Crown will continue, and it will continue to be Preakness,” Moore said.

There was no mention made of any adjustments in the Preakness purse, and the dollar figure was absent from news releases. The race has awarded $2 million each of the last three years.

“It’s all under consideration,” MJC president and general manager Bill Knauf said in a text message to Horse Racing Nation. “We have not determined any purse increases or bonus structure just yet.”

Wednesday’s announcement came two days after the introduction of the new Thoroughbred Championship Series with its $5 million bonus. The six-race package was built around the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes while conspicuously excluding the Preakness. The series was introduced jointly Monday by Churchill Downs Inc. and the New York Racing Association. It attracted plenty of social-media critics who thought it would doom the Preakness and the Triple Crown.

“The Preakness is focused on the Triple Crown,” Knauf said. “The Triple Crown has been going for 100 years, and it’s going to be around for 100 more. And it will always run through Pimlico.”

The CDI-NYRA alliance did not alter the beginning and end of the Triple Crown schedule. It left the Kentucky Derby locked into the first Saturday in May and the Belmont five weeks later. Since Sovereignty and Golden Tempo skipped the last two runnings of the Preakness after winning the Derby, pressure was mounting on the MJC to push the middle jewel of the Triple Crown back from its traditional third Saturday in May.

“We recognize that change should always be examined,” Knauf said. “Other professional sports constantly reevaluate their rules, and now is this time for change. Moving the Preakness one week later, as the governor alluded to, it’s going to allow us for greater participation. That is simply the goal, but I think at three weeks, it also maintains the test of a champion. It’s going to take a lot to do it.”

Even without the Derby winner, this year’s Preakness drew 7.1 million viewers, keeping it locked in as the second-most-watched horse race on the U.S. calendar. The Derby, also on NBC, had 24.4 million viewers for the race itself. Fox has the rights to the Belmont and peaked at 4.7 million viewers.

The new Preakness date was welcomed by the network negotiator who hammered out the new deal with the MJC.

“It enables the horses to recover,” NBC Sports executive Jon Miller said. “It enables us to take better advantage of the horses that are at the Derby to come here. It also gives NBC an extra week of promotion.”

Even though Miller said moving the date of the race was not a condition for renewing the contract, he said it was something NBC wanted for some time.

“We actually surfaced this over 10 years ago with the former owners, The Stronach Group, and tried to make this move 10 years ago,” he said. “We saw horses are being trained differently. There’s a lot of factors that are going into the recovery and whatnot. We really were trying to push this forward. Unfortunately we were not able to get them to see and not able to get them to move.”

The Thoroughbred Championship Series will pay its $5 million bonus to connections of the horses who finish first through eighth in its standings. In addition to the Derby and Belmont, the schedule includes July runnings of the Grade 3 Matt Winn at Churchill Downs and the Jim Dandy (G2) at Saratoga. The Travers (G1) in August at Saratoga and a championship at Churchill in September will complete the series.

Intellectual-property rights for the Preakness were retained by the state of Maryland on June 18 when it matched an $85 million bid made April 21 by Churchill. Still not known is whether the new racing series would have included the Preakness had CDI been successful with its bid. When asked about it at a Monday news conference, NYRA president David O’Rourke deferred to CDI CEO Bill Carstanjen, who did not answer or make himself available for reporters’ questions.

Asked if he thought CDI might have moved the Preakness out of Maryland, Moore said, “We’ll never know. That was the point. I think the whole point of continuing to maintain ownership is we are trying to remove any uncertainty.”

After one running at Laurel Park in May, Preakness 2027 is planned for Pimlico, which is being rebuilt in a project costing more than $400 million financed by Maryland Stadium Authority bonds. The MJC said the grandstand will not be completed by May, so temporary seating and hospitality areas will be put in place.

With the Preakness moving to a Sunday, the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) will be run Saturday, May 22.

“In most years this new date falls on Memorial Day weekend,” Knauf said. “We believe this creates tremendous excitement for our local economy and businesses.”

The contract renewal with NBC Sports includes multiplatform rights involving NBC, Peacock and NBCSN. Knauf said the deal adds live coverage of Maryland Million day in October and the Federico Tesio Stakes card in April.

The Maryland Jockey Club was advised on the deal by Sports Media Advisors of New Cannan, Ct.

HRN covered Wednesday’s announcement by monitoring a live YouTube stream provided by Moore’s office.