2024 Preakness Stakes Odds

By TVG Staff
Updated April 13, 2024

The flagship race of the Pimlico Race Course meet, the Preakness Stakes will be run on Saturday, May 18. The race goes 1 3/16 miles on the dirt track, and is open to three-year-old colts, geldings, and fillies. The purse is a soaring $2 million, up from the $1.5 million base of previous years, and the winner not only earns a big payday but also a place in horse racing history.

For bettors, the Preakness presents one of the most interesting challenges of the year. And the race got even more challenging Friday morning with the scratch of one of the favorites, original morning-line second choice First Mission, who was removed from the race Friday morning due to a left hind ankle issue.

Preakness Stakes Contenders

We’re still a few weeks away from the 2024 Kentucky Derby. Once that race happens, we’ll have a better view of who the contenders are for this year’s Run for the Black-Eyed Susans. Which horse will be revealed to have a chance of becoming the 14th Triple Crown winner? Check back soon to find out!

2024 Preakness Stakes Odds Updates

The Preakness field does not take concrete shape until after the Kentucky Derby. It will be drawn on May 13, with morning line odds released that day. Once that has been released, we will have that information here to help inform your bets!

2024 Preakness Stakes Futures Odds

In addition to the morning line, futures odds can provide a picture of what the prices in the Preakness Stakes may look like. One way to try to estimate how well the morning line odds will hold on the day of the race is to track the trends in future books as the race draws closer.

Preakness Stakes Future Wager

Pimlico expanded its Preakness Future Wager offerings this year. In 2023, the debut of the wager, it offered one pool in the days leading into the Kentucky Derby. That pool will be offered in 2024, but the track also offered an early futures pool that was open from February 29 through March 2.

That pool was so early, though, that it will not be an accurate predictor of race-day odds. For example, Nysos was the 5-2 favorite in that pool. Muth, who would probably be favored in a Preakness futures pool after his Arkansas Derby (G1) win, was a staggering 19-1 in that late-winter wager. Some of the likely Kentucky Derby favorites were also far longer prices in that early Preakness pool than they would be now: Fierceness was 25-1, while Sierra Leone was 14-1.

Preakness Stakes Sportsbook Futures

Since morning-line odds are not a guarantee of what you’ll actually see on the third Saturday in May, Preakness futures odds at international sportsbooks can also provide a clue about who bettors may think will be the Preakness winner. These tend to open soon after the Kentucky Derby. They are liable to fluctuate as horses train toward the race and the field takes final shape, but they can provide betting clues.

How the Preakness Odds Are Formulated

Morning line odds are an estimate of how the betting public will approach a race. Preakness odds will be estimated based primarily on the results of the other major sophomore horse races from 2024, including Kentucky Derby preps, the Kentucky Derby itself, and other stakes races including Preakness preps like the El Camino Real Derby, the Federico Tesio Stakes, and the Oaklawn Stakes.

Preakness Stakes Connections

Some horse racing reputation enters calculations as well. Horses trained by people who have won a lot of Triple Crown races or other major horse races like Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown, Brad Cox, and Steve Asmussen for example, are always highly regarded. The Kentucky Derby winner is usually the favorite, though may not be in a year when the Kentucky Derby winner was a distant long shot. Any horse who is able to win a major Grade I race is also typically well-fancied by the bettors at Pimlico Race Course.

Preakness Stakes Race Day Odds

On May 18, the Preakness Stakes live odds will be calculated by the pari-mutuel system. The final odds are determined by how much is in the pool from bettors around the country divided by the number placed in wagers on each horse.

It makes sense to watch the odds in the pool on race day, since sometimes you get a better price than the morning line forecasts. For example, when War of Will went on to win the 2019 Preakness Stakes, he wasn’t the most popular, meaning his morning line odds of 4/1 became starting odds of 5/1.

Odds on the Preakness will fluctuate a lot on the pari-mutuel system as the event gets closer, especially right before the gates open, so be prepared not to know what odds you will get on your picks for the Preakness until the last moment.

Major Preakness Prep Races And Kentucky Derby Race Winner

The Preakness Stakes is the second jewel in the Triple Crown and carries immense importance, as not every horse will make the cut.

And many other top-stakes races will have also taken place in 2023, stretching back to the major Kentucky Derby preps and other important sophomore events, all of which are tough to win. The eventual Preakness winner often comes out of one of these major stakes races.

Preakness Stakes odds are partly shaped by the results of these major races, though for handicapping purposes, be sure to go back and check out how well other horses ran underneath these winners as well. After all, the winners often do not go to the Preakness, but underneath finishers may.

Betting the 2024 Preakness Stakes with TVG

Our team is always on hand to offer in-depth analysis and expert Preakness Stakes picks as we head towards post time for the race.

Find out who is in the running to run down the 149th Preakness Stakes and keep it TVG for Pimlico, your trusted one-stop destination to bet on the Preakness, to the Belmont Stakes, and on horse racing all year long.