Preakness fair odds: Big race win pool offers opportunity

We're handicapping the handicappers a bit here, but if the past few editions of the Preakness Stakes – and Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes as well – are any indication, then Journalism will be greater than even money on Saturday at Pimlico.

There are a lot of ways to express your Preakness opinion: win, exacta, trifecta, superfecta, super high 5, Black-Eyed-Susan double, terminal leg of a trio of Pick 5 wagers and a Pick 4 and part of a pair of Pick 3 and double wagers as well plus a mandatory payout Pick 6. I can't imagine there will be an opportunity better than in the win pool.

That said, two of those pick 5 sequences are two-day affairs that involve a pair of stakes on Friday and a trio of stakes on Saturday with the only common race betwixt the two being the Preakness as the last leg. The two pick 5s cover nine different races, and takeout is just 12%.

I mention these pick 5 sequences in particular because the two-day format with 12% takeout means Journalism is much more usable as a single in those wagers than he would be in the Preakness day sequences. If you really like a horse other than Journalism, your best opportunity is on Preakness day only.