Betting on Saturday’s Preakness Stakes dropped by 5% from a report 2021, in line with figures printed by Pimlico Race Course.
Early Voting, with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard, wins Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Betting for the race, the second jewel in thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, was down about 5% from final 12 months. (Picture: Preakness Stakes/Twitter)
All-sources wagering on the second jewel of the Triple Crown totaled $65.3 million. That’s down from the $68.7 million guess final 12 months.
This 12 months’s race didn’t embrace the Kentucky Derby winner, as Wealthy Strike’s connections opted to arrange the colt for the Belmont Stakes subsequent month. Final 12 months’s race featured Medina Spirit, who was awarded the garland of roses after final 12 months’s Kentucky Derby, however then failed a post-race drug check. Medina Spirit, who died throughout coaching final December, was ultimately disqualified because the Derby winner earlier this 12 months and his coach, Bob Baffert, was suspended by the Kentucky Horse Racing Fee.
Early Voting received Saturday’s race, holding off post-time favourite Epicenter by a size and 1 / 4. The Chad Brown-trained horse went off at 5-1 odds and paid $13.40 to win.
All-Day Wagering Down by Almost $9M
Betting on the day’s 14-race card additionally fell from 2021, in line with the Baltimore monitor. On Saturday, Pimlico reported a deal with of $104.3 million. That’s off by 8% from the record-setting $113.4 million guess on final 12 months’s 14-race Preakness Day card.
The lower at Pimlico comes after Churchill Downs posted record-breaking handles for the Kentucky Derby, the Derby Day card, and races for the primary week of its spring meet. Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., additionally posted report handles for its spring meet held final month. As well as, Aqueduct in New York noticed its spring meet deal with bounce up 35.5% from its 2021 meet, and its 21-22 winter meet noticed wagering go up by 2.5%.
Who’s Seemingly for the Belmont?
Whereas Wealthy Strike will get prepared for the June 11 Belmont, the highest two finishers from the Preakness aren’t coaching for that race.
Early Voting did shuttle as much as Belmont Park, the Lengthy Island monitor that serves as Brown’s major secure. Nevertheless, Brown mentioned Sunday that the 1-1/2-mile Belmont Stakes isn’t within the playing cards for his colt and that the horse’s subsequent race stays to be decided.
“He’s solely run 4 instances and he’s performed all the things we requested him to do,” Brown mentioned.
Whereas Early Voting had greater than sufficient factors to run within the Kentucky Derby, Brown and proprietor Seth Klarman opted to maintain him out of that race and prep him for the Preakness.
For Epicenter, it marked the second straight time he completed second, a lot to the chagrin of his coach, Steve Asmussen. Asmussen’s prime assistant, Scott Blasi, mentioned Sunday that Epicenter appeared good on Sunday.
Proprietor Ron Winchell mentioned it’s “a stretch” to carry him again in three weeks for the Belmont. After the Kentucky Derby loss, Winchell mentioned the aim was to make Epicenter the 3-year-old champion at 12 months’s finish.
That’s nonetheless potential, even and not using a win in a Triple Crown race. They may level the Louisiana Derby winner to both the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 23 or the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 27.
He had six weeks between the Louisiana Derby and the (Kentucky) Derby, and that did him nicely,” Winchell mentioned. “I believe there might need been 5 weeks between the Risen Star and the Louisiana Derby, and that did him nicely. Simply taking a look at how he got here again recent, that appears to be the recipe for the time being.”
Inventive Minister, who completed third in his graded stakes debut, would seemingly run within the Belmont, coach Kenny McPeek mentioned.
