The 2025 Preakness Stakes is set for Saturday, May 17, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. The Preakness Stakes 2025 is the 150th edition of “The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans” and many of the top 3-year-old horses in the world will be in the 2025 Preakness Stakes field when post time arrives at 6:50 p.m. ET. Contested at 1 3/16 miles, the Preakness 2025 has a $2 million purse, with $1.2 million going to the winner of this Grade 1 event. Trainers have approached Triple Crown season differently in recent years, and fewer horses opting to run in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. That’s the case for Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty, who will not be among the 2025 Preakness Stakes horses. That leaves Journalism as the 6-5 favorite in the early 2025 Preakness Stakes odds, followed by Sandman at 7-2. Before making any 2025 Preakness Stakes picks, be sure to see the horse racing predictions and 2025 Preakness Stakes futures bets from SportsLine’s elite horse racing expert Jody Demling, considering his domination of Triple Crown races.
A fixture in the horse racing world who has been writing about, talking about and betting on races for years, Demling hit the top three finishers in the Kentucky Derby in the correct order. He also called 10 of the last 20 Preakness winners, including 2023 when he hit the winner, exacta, trifecta and superfecta. He hit the trifecta in the 2024 Preakness Stakes and has predicted the winner of the Belmont Stakes four of the last seven years. Anyone who has followed those picks on sites like FanDuel Racing and TwinSpires is up huge.
Now, with the 2025 Preakness Stakes post positions set and odds on the board, Demling is sharing his 2025 Preakness Stakes betting picks and 2025 Preakness Stakes predictions over at SportsLine. Go here to see them.
Top 2025 Preakness predictions, expert analysis
Will Sovereignty run in the Preakness Stakes 2025? No, Sovereignty won’t run at Pimlico in the Preakness 2025. Sired by Into Mischief out of the Bernardini mare Crowned, Sovereignty captured graded-stakes wins in the Street Sense Stakes and Fountain of Youth Stakes before finishing second to Tappan Street in the Florida Derby. With Tappan Street out because of an injury, he went off as the second favorite (5-1) at Churchill Downs.
Sovereignty was squeezed inside out of the gates but jockey Junior Alvarado got him settled in along the rail. He was 13 1/2 lengths off the pace set by Citizen Bull in the backstretch, where he and Journalism began moving up through the field. The pair swung wide around the final turn and dueled down the homestretch, but Sovereignty pulled away in the final furlong for a 1 1/2-length win.
Demling just revealed his 2025 Preakness Stakes projections for Journalism, the Kentucky Derby favorite who finished a hard-fought second in the first leg of the Triple Crown. Journalism broke his maiden at Del Mar last November and then earned stakes wins at the Los Alamitos Futurity (G2), San Felipe Stakes (G2) and the Santa Anita Derby (G1) to establish himself as the early Derby favorite. However, he’d never run outside of California before and only faced a field larger than five horses once.
Ultimately, he didn’t appear impacted by the travel, but the deep closer found himself in an unfamiliar spot when he made his move late. Sovereignty matched him stride for stride around the final turn and then pulled away in the final furlong. See which other 2025 Preakness Stakes horses to avoid at SportsLine.
One surprise: Demling is high on Clever Again, even though he’s an 8-1 longshot. He’s a target for anyone looking for a huge payday. Trainer Steve Asmussen is certainly not disappointed that Sovereignty is skipping the Preakness, as that lessens the difficulty for his horse in the Preakness Stakes. Clever Again is the son of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, and he is set to make his fourth career start at Pimlico.
Cloud Computing (2017) and Early Voting (2022) are recent examples of horses who skipped the Kentucky Derby and won in their fourth career starts in the Preakness. Asmussen is a two-time Preakness winner and neither of his Kentucky Derby runners will be in the field. Clever Again posted a 101 speed figure and is coming off consecutive victories, so his potential makes him worth backing as an inexperienced horse in the Preakness. See which horses to back at SportsLine now.
How to make 2025 Preakness Stakes picks, bets
Demling is especially high on a huge longshot who “could be a factor” and will spice up your exotics. Demling is sharing which horse it is, along with his entire projected 2025 Preakness Stakes leaderboard, over at SportsLine.
Which horse wins the Preakness Stakes 2025, and which huge longshot is a must-back? Check out the latest 2025 Preakness Stakes odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Demling’s picks for the Preakness Stakes, all from the expert who nailed the top three in correct order at the Kentucky Derby and nailed the last two Preakness trifectas.