Where to watch, how to follow the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes
Where to watch and how to follow Saturday’s Grade I Preakness Stakes, the second leg of North American Thoroughbred Racing’s Triple Crown.
Post time is around 6:50 p.m. (EDT) at Pimlico Race Course (Preakness Day seating capacity 109,748) in Baltimore, Md.
Television
Network: NBC
Announcers: Host, Mike Tirico; race announcer, Larry Collmus; analysis, Jerry Bailey, Randy Moss; handicappers Eddie Olczyk and Matt Bernier; reporters will include Donna Brothers and Kenny Rice, plus, Ahmed Fareed, Britney Eurton and Nick Luck.
TV schedule: Preakness coverage on NBC will run from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. (EDT). Coverage of races on the Preakness undercard will be on CNBC from 1 to 4:30 p.m. (EDT).
Where to find NBC:
Over the air: Channel 18 (in Lexington)
Spectrum cable: Channel 8 (in Lexington)
DISH Network: Channel 18 (in Lexington)
DirecTV: Channel 18 (in Lexington)
U-verse: Channel 18 (in Lexington)
Where to find CNBC:
Spectrum cable: Channel 41
DISH Network: Channel 208
DirecTV: Channel 355
U-verse: Channel 216 (Channel 1216 High Definition)
Radio
Over the air: None in the Lexington market.
Satellite radio: XM Channel 85, Sirius Channel 85, Internet Channel 85
Internet
Live video: After signing in with your cable TV provider, you can livestream the Preakness Stakes at NBCSports.com, on Peacock or on the NBC Sports app.
Twitter: @johnclayiv; @markcstory; @BenRobertsHL; @cdrummond97; @cmakauskas; @kentuckysports; @heraldleader
Facebook: Photos and links on Kentucky.com and KentuckySports.com pages
The Preakness Stakes entries: Click here
The odds: Click here
For postrace coverage: Kentucky.com
Five things to know about the Preakness Stakes
1. In North American Thoroughbred horse racing, the Preakness Stakes is the shortest of the three Triple Crown races. Run over a 1-mile oval, the Preakness is contested at a distance of 1 3/16 miles. The first leg of the Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby is a 1 1/4-mile race, and the third leg, the Belmont Stakes, is 1 1/2 miles.
After being contested at various lengths in its early years, the Preakness Stakes has been run at a mile-and-three-sixteenths every year since 1925.
2. The horse that won the Kentucky Derby has gone on to win the Preakness Stakes 36 times. Of those 36, only 13 have then achieved victory in the Belmont Stakes to lay claim to the Triple Crown.
Bob Baffert trained the two most-recent horses, American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018), to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Both of those horses also went on to win the Belmont and take the Triple Crown.
3. It was announced Friday that Mage, the 2023 Kentucky Derby winner, will run in the Preakness.
Last year’s Derby victor, Rich Strike, did not run in Baltimore.
The 2022 Preakness was won by trainer Chad Brown’s Early Voting, with jockey Jose Ortiz aboard.
4. The total purse for the 2023 Preakness Stakes is $1.5 million. It will be distributed to the connections of the horses that finish in the top five — $900,000 to the winner; $300,000 for second; $165,000 for third; $90,000 for fourth; and $45,000 for fifth place.
5. As the Kentucky Derby winner is wrapped in a “Blanket of Roses,” so the Preakness victor is celebrated with “Black-Eyed Susans.” The official flower of the state of Maryland since 1918, the Black-Eyed Susan is a vibrant yellow daisy.
Alas, Black-Eyed Susans are not in bloom at the time (the third Saturday in May) when the Preakness Stakes is traditionally run. So the flowers that drape the Preakness winner are actually mums that are “dressed up” to look like Black-Eyed Susans.
What happened to horse racing’s rivalries? Triple Crown spacing debate begins again.
Even facing all new shooters, Mage will have to earn Preakness Stakes win
Kentucky Derby winner Mage named the favorite for the Preakness. See the full field.
Keeneland announces deal with Caesars Sportsbook to be sports gambling platform
