How To Bet On The Preakness

Aug 25, 2020 While the Preakness Stakes has the shortest running-distance, you can review the top Belmont finishers to find the right bets. This year’s Belmont winner is Tiz The Law. He is then followed by Dr Post, Tap It To Win, Max Player, and Pneumatic. If you want to take a chance on a big payoff in the Preakness race, you can attempt to predict the finishing order. Exacta betting means picking the first two, or you can place Trifectas (first three) and even Superfectas (first four). Tons of Preakness Stakes bets are available if you’re feeling a little exotic. May 09, 2019 Daily Double: You pick the winner of this race and the winner of another race - typically the race right before or right after this one. At the Preakness you can also bet a double that includes the. Sep 24, 2020 How to Bet on the Preakness Stakes. Betting on horse races can be a bit confusing for those who have done it before. But it’s really a simple system once you get the hang of it. Once you do understand, you’ll be able to make wagers on the 2020 Preakness Stakes and just about any horse race that you can imagine. Betting apps: TVG is the most popular and convenient form of wagering for a majority of bettors. You can wager online on the Preakness Stakes via the TVG website or using the TVG iOS app from the App Store. At this time, there is no app for Android, but the website is enhanced for mobile betting.

The Preakness Stakes has been a major part of the racing schedule in America pretty much since it first came into existence. It was first held in 1873 as a way to pit top three-year-old horses against each other. And for the most part, it has continued uninterrupted since then, becoming one of the great traditional horse races in the United States.

What gave it even more importance was when it was first included as part of the three most important three-year-old horse races in the country. Once this “Triple Crown” gained more popularity, the Preakness Stakes became a must-win for horses (and their handlers) who wanted to achieve horse racing accolades.

On this page, we’ll be going over the race’s history, a few of the big contenders, how to place horse racing bets, as well as go over the types of bets you’ll be able to make at the best 2020 Preakness Stakes betting sites. As you can see, this will give you plenty of insight into making winning wagers on the 2020 Preakness Stakes. Keep reading below to learn more.

A Brief History on the Preakness Stakes

For most of its history, the Preakness Stakes has served as the second leg of the Triple Crown, in between the Kentucky Derby ahead of it and the Belmont Stakes. The order was shuffled this year, of course, and it is now the anchor race in the series.

The Triple Crown caught the attention of racing fans because of how difficult it is for a horse to win all three races in the same year. In most years, the three races take place in a span of five weeks. In addition to that, they are all contested at different distances, meaning that any horse able to win all three races would have to be extremely versatile.

In the case of the Preakness Stakes, it takes place at a distance of 1 3/16 miles. Generally, that is the shortest distance out of the three Triple Crown races. 1 3/16 miles is a somewhat unusual distance for Thoroughbreds, requiring a bit more getaway speed than the typical distance race.

The Preakness Stakes is a major cultural event in the state of Maryland. It is a race associated with the Black-Eyed Susan, which is the type of flower presented as a kind of trophy to the winning horse. Pimlico Race Course, which hosts the event, also has a rich tradition in the area.

Obviously, some of the traditions that people associated with the Preakness Stakes might be upended this year. But the delay in the race, from May to October, shouldn’t slow down the betting rush. Expect millions to be bet on the 2020 Preakness Stakes.

2020 Preakness Stakes Contenders

The horse to watch at the 2020 Preakness Stakes is undoubtedly Authentic. This is because of the dominant performance that he delivered in the Kentucky Derby a few weeks ago. In that race, the colt overcame an outside post and led most of the way as he gained a convincing victory.

In addition, Authentic was able to dispose of the challenge of Tiz The Law. That horse, trained by Barclay Tagg, was looking like a prohibitive favorite not just to win the Derby, but to go on to the Preakness as well. If he had managed that, it would have been a Triple Crown achievement, since Tiz The Law had already captured the Belmont Stakes in June.

But Authentic never got the memo and interrupted the coronation. And now, he goes into the 2020 Preakness Stakes as a likely favorite. It doesn’t hurt that he is trained by Bob Baffert, who has broken just about every major trainer record for stakes races.

Authentic won’t get the chance for a rematch with Tiz The Law. That horse’s handlers have decided to skip the Preakness Stakes and look ahead to future races (like perhaps the Breeders’ Cup). That means Authentic should be a heavy favorite.

The odd thing is that we’ll never know what might have been in terms of Authentic’s Triple Crown aspirations. Remember that Baffert kept him out of the Belmont Stakes back in June, believing that the race didn’t quite fit well with the horse’s training schedule. Instead, Authentic will have to settle for trying to win two out of three.

But he won’t be alone in this quest. Expect other horses who have competed in the Triple Crown to line up against Authentic in the 2020 Preakness Stakes. And expect some newcomers, who have perhaps been less tested throughout the year and might be fresher, to enter the field as well.

Here is a look at a few of the possible contenders for this year’s race, a week ahead of the official announcement of the field and the official field with their post positions.

Art Collector: Winner of five consecutive races, Art Collector seemed like one of the top Derby contenders but was held out at the last minute due to a foot injury. Luckily, the injury seems to be healing in time to have him trained for the Preakness. If he can shake off the rust, it could be interesting to see how he handles a matchup with Authentic.
King Guillermo: Much like Art Collector, he was a hot sleeper pick heading into the Derby, only to be scratched right before the race because of injury. Unlike Art Collector, King Guillermo’s injury might not be healed in time for the Preakness. If he does run, he has already proven to be game when not given much of a chance to win.
Dr Post: The good news is that he has had good experience facing graded stakes horses this year. But the bad news is that this horse hasn’t seen the winner’s circle since April. Dr Post has to prove that he can step up against classier competition and be more than just best of the rest.
Big News: Nobody gave him much of a chance when he entered the Kentucky Derby. Yet there he was, coming from nowhere for a surprising third-place finish. If he can build on that, he could present an interesting challenge for Authentic.
Finnick The Fierce: This horse might get some name recognition points as one of those who was scratched from the Kentucky Derby in the hours leading up to the race. The concern is that he hasn’t won at anything higher than an allowance level. On top of that, he might have to deal with Art Collector, who handled him (and the rest of the fields) in their last two stakes races together.
Thousand Words: This is an interesting situation in that this colt would be a second Bob Baffert entry and could steal the thunder from his more celebrated stablemate. Thousand Words seemed poised for a big day at the Derby before being scratched. He was outstanding in beating highly-touted Honor A.P. in a stakes in California in his last race.
Mystic Guide: This colt could be peaking at the right time. In his last start, he knocked off Dr Post in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. Now, he could be in line to face his first ever Triple Crown competition while he’s at the absolute top of his game.
Pneumatic: He hasn’t raced since winning the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth in August. Pneumatic does have the benefit of Triple Crown experience, having finished fourth in the Belmont behind Tiz The Law in June. A return to the center stage could be in the offing for him.
Happy Saver: It’s not unusual for a local horse to take his chances in the Preakness Stakes. This year’s local boy could be Happy Saver. He won the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, another Maryland track, earlier this month. The question is whether that’s enough of a springboard for him heading into this tough challenge.

How to Bet on the Preakness Stakes

Betting on horse races can be a bit confusing for those who have done it before. But it’s really a simple system once you get the hang of it. Once you do understand, you’ll be able to make wagers on the 2020 Preakness Stakes and just about any horse race that you can imagine.

The key to understanding horse racing betting has to do with figuring out pari-mutuel wagering. Pari-mutuel is just a fancy name that essentially lets you know that your odds are not set, even after you’ve made the wager. This is in opposition to fixed odds wagering, which is in play for most other sports bets.

For example, if you were betting on a team to win a certain game in football or basketball, you might be given odds for the team in question. You might also get a point spread added to the equation.

But in either case, these conditions would not change for your bet, no matter what happens from the time that you bet to the time that the game begins. If you bet on a football team that is a seven-point underdog, those odds will stay in place for you even if the team they’re playing against gets 10 players hurt in the run-up to the game. The odds will change for everybody else who hasn’t bet yet, but your odds are fixed.

In horse racing, the odds aren’t final until the race begins. And those odds are determined by the different pools for each horse and each wager.

For Example:

You might bet at a horse at 4 to 1 to win. This means that, conceivably, you would make $4 back for every dollar that you bet. But if the horse receives a lot of betting attention leading up to the race, those odds could easily drop to 3 to 1, 2 to 1, or lower. The odds that you would be paid if the horse wins would be based on the final odds, not the odds that were quoted when you originally wagered on it.

You might find gambling websites that allow you to make fixed odds bets on the 2020 Preakness Stakes. Because it is such a popular race, websites might look to accommodate all kinds of action.

But you have to be careful with fixed odds betting on a race like the Preakness Stakes. Because of the possibility of a horse scratching right before race time (something that happened with several horses in the 2020 Kentucky Derby), you might end up placing an early wager on a horse that doesn’t even run. It’s doubtful that a site will offer you anything in return if that happens.

If you find a site offering pari-mutuel wagering instead, you can avoid this. A scratched horse will allow you to have your bets refunded to you in most cases.

Placing Your Bets

It’s a good idea to have an idea of how to place a wager on a specific horse (or horses) in the 2020 Preakness Stakes at a reputable gambling website. Once you get to the site, you don’t want to become confused by the different terminology, especially if you’re running low on time.

How To Bet On The Preakness

Here are the key pieces of information you have to have when placing a bet on a race like the Preakness Stakes:

Track: You have to remember that many tracks will be hosting races. In the case of the Preakness Stakes, you have to make sure that you identify Pimlico Race Course as the track in question. Since it is such a popular race, you might find that gambling websites dedicate a page to it that eliminates the need for identifying the track.
Race Number: There will be many races in a particular program at a track like Pimlico Race Course, even on Preakness Stakes day. That’s why you need to make sure to identify which race on the program it is that you went to bet. Again, if you find a page dedicated to the race, you won’t have to worry about this.
Amount of Bet: In the sport of horse racing, the traditional bet size is $2. You can raise it from there if you wish, but that is often the minimum. Different 2020 Preakness Stakes betting sites might tinker with this formula somewhat, but you still have to identify the amount you want to bet.
Type of Bet: We’ll elaborate a bit on the different types of bets and what whey entail in a bit. Just keep in mind that you have to settle on the type of bet (or bets) you want to place once you settle into the site to make your selection.
Horse (or Horses) Involved: In most cases, you will need to identify the number of the horse that you want. You can find this in the program for the Preakness Stakes, which will easily be located online. But you might also find that websites include the names on the page for a race as big as the Preakness Stakes.

Types of Bets on the 2020 Preakness Stakes

Each horse racing wager brings you different levels of potential risk and reward. Once you know how each of these bets work, you can start to hone in on how you want to wager on the race. This overview will tell you all you need to know.

For the most part, horse racing bets can be broken down into two types: straight or exotic bets. Straight bets generally involved picking a single horse in a single race. Exotic bets require multiple horses to be involved in some way.

Straight bets are generally better if you want to improve your chance of getting something in return. It is easier to predict the performance of one horse than many. But your potential payback is generally capped when you bet in this manner.

On the other hand, exotic bets are harder to hit in any given race. The chances of multiple horses coming in the order you need them to finish diminish from what you could get with a straight bet. Because this is the case, exotic bets often pay back much higher than straight bets.

Pimlico Race Track

Here are the main types of straight bets:

Win: Your horse must win the race for you to win your bet
Place: Your horse must finish first or second for you to win your bet
Show: Your horse must finish first, second or third for you to win your bet

And here are the main types of exotic bets:

Exacta: Bet on the first two horses in the order of finish in a single race
Trifecta or Triple: Bet on the first three horses in the order of finish in a single race
Superfecta: Bet on the first four horses in the order of finish in a single race
Daily Double: Pick the winner of two consecutive races on the card
Pick 3 and so on: Pick the winners of three races in a row or however many are listed in the name of the bet

How to Pick the Winner of the 2020 Preakness Stakes

Picking winning horses in horse racing is not an easy thing to do. You’ll find veterans of horse racing wagering who claim to have a system to help them out. Others will go off of their intuition.

If you’re a newcomer to betting on horse racing, you can start your handicapping (which is another name for deciding which horses to pick) in a number of ways. You can watch lots of races and get a feel for the horses involved. That takes a lot of time and dedication, especially because you need to keep at it for a while to collect the information you need.

But you could also go about it by simply looking at a horse racing program. Programs, or “racing forms” as they are sometimes called, give you all the necessary statistical information on every horse in every race at a particular track. Since the 2020 Preakness Stakes will be garnering a lot of betting attention, it’s a good possibility that you can find the program page for it online.

What should you be looking for when you look at a program? Here are some of the things which can help you identify the top horses in each race:

Past performances: These will be the lifeblood of every program page. You’ll be able to see the most recent races for each of the horses in the race and how they performed. In other words, you can see where they finished in the race (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc.).
Class: It can sometimes be better to focus on the class of horses that a horse has been facing rather than on the order of finish. A horse who has been finishing last against great horses might be better equipped to win a race than a horse who has been performing well against much weaker horses. Focus on the purse amounts for their most recent races.
Distance: This is an underrated factor in terms of handicapping races. Sometimes, a horse just seems to fit a certain distance better. In terms of the 2020 Preakness Stakes, you should be focusing on distances similar to 1 3/16 miles, which is the distance they’ll be running at Pimlico.
Post Position: Post position refers to where the horses line up in the gate each race. Occasionally, you can spot a handicapping advantage in a particular horse who has been dealing with tough, outside post positions for several races in a row. When they move to the inside, they can be primed for a big performance.
Connections: By connections, we mean the owners, trainers, and jockeys involved with the horses. There’s a reason why you see familiar names like Bob Baffert (trainer) or Mike Smith (jockey) year in and year out in the Triple Crown conversation. By the same token, it can often be difficult for an inexperienced jockey or trainer to break through in a race as big as the Preakness Stakes.
Pedigree: This one can be a bit more difficult, in that it requires some working knowledge of the history of horse racing. The bottom line is that, if a horse comes from a bloodline of great performers, there is a good chance that pedigree will rub off on them. If you don’t know the names of top thoroughbreds from the past, you can often find information in race programs concerning the most successful sires to help you along.

Now that you’re familiar with the history and how to bet on the 2020 Preakness Stakes, feel free to browse our other guides on horse racing betting.

Or if you’re into other sports, check out our site’s latest pages! You’re sure to find something you’ll be interested in. Lastly, good luck with your horse racing bets!

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How To Bet On The Preakness Online

I've been going to the races for more than 35 years now - I started 10 years before I was born, or at least that's what I would like to believe. From those earliest days when I would make $2 show bets hoping to ride a parlay all day, I have always had the same rule when it comes to betting on the Preakness. No matter what else I think about the race, I always have to have a blind win bet on the Derby winner. It doesn't matter if I am profoundly in love with the horse like I was last year, or I feel general contempt as I did with winners like Giacomo or I'll Have Another. That, of course, isn't going to apply here. We have had two different horses that we thought had been Derby winners, but neither of them are here. That's frustrating on several levels, but the fact that this is the first Preakness since 1996 that doesn't have a Derby winner in it doesn't mean that this isn't a race worth betting on. There is profit to be had here, and all we have to do is find it. As we try to find the right strategy, here are some thoughts on how to place a bet on the Preakness:

A better Baffert?: Bob Baffert knows all about winning this race. He has won it seven times - five times with a Derby winner, and twice with other colts. He had three of the favorites in the Derby this year - another race he knows all about winning - but didn't have the luck he needed to be relevant. Now he has just one horse here, but Improbable is likely to be the favorite. He's probably the most talented horse in the field, but he has also had to rely on excuses to explain why he hasn't won all three of his races this year. If he going to show his class against this field, or will we add to the list of excuses for falling short? That's probably the biggest question people have to answer for this race.

Redemption for War of Will?: I don't know if the move he was making around the turn was going to be enough to win the race for this Mark Casse-trained colt. It probably wasn't. But we never got to find out. He was absolutely crushed by Maximum Security, and only his athleticism saved us from having a giant wreck that would have been a major blow to the sport. I'm excited that he is getting another chance, and it comes in a race that has always felt more suited to his breeding and style than the Derby was. He's had two frustrating results in a row, so we are well removed from his best. But if you think he is going to have his day here, then you could do much worse than betting on him.

Want some local flavor?: The best local hope it year in the Preakness is generally the winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes, a Preakness prep race that was held at Pimlico until 2016 and is now at Laurel Park. Generally, the winner of that race is outclassed and is only relevant when you are looking at the bottom of your exotic bets. But this year's Tesio winner, Alwaysmining, is a step well above much of what we have seen in the past. This colt won the Tesio by 11 dominant lengths, and that capped a six-race winning streak in which he often won by daylight. He's taking a big step up in class here, and all of those wins were at Laurel, but he obviously knows how to find the lead, and he isn't going to be a long shot.

Types of bets on the Preakness: You have many different betting options on this race, though they will all be familiar if you bet on other races. Let's look, as a refresher, at the most common ones:

Win: Not surprisingly, this is a bet where you have to choose the horse that will win the race. If you are right, you get paid, and if it finishes anywhere other than first, you lose your money. You can bet any dollar amount on this, with the minimum bet being $2.

Place: This is like a win bet, but a little simpler - you get paid if your horse finishes first or second. Because it's easier, the payoff is lower than a win bet, though the minimum cost is the same.

Show: This is like a place bet, but your horse can finish in the top three, and your payoff is lower - and often really low.

Exacta: Here the goal is to pick the top two horses in the race and to pick them in the correct order.

Quinella: This time, you have to pick the top two horses like the exacta, but they can finish in any order. The payoff is obviously less than the exacta as a result.

How Do I Bet On The Preakness

Trifecta: This works just like the exacta, exceptyou have to pick the top three finishers in the correct order.

Superfecta: Like a superfecta where you have to pick the top four horses in the correct order.

How To Bet On The Preakness Stakes

Daily Double: You pick the winner of this race and the winner of another race - typically the race right before or right after this one. At the Preakness you can also bet a double that includes the Preakness and the Friday main event, the Black Eyed Susan.

How To Bet On The Preakness Online

Pick three: This bet is just like the daily double, but you pick winners of three straight races.

How To Bet On The Preakness Stakes

Pick four: As the name suggests, this is like the pick three, but with four races. You have to get all four right to be paid.

Pick six: You can probably guess this one - this is the winners of six races in a row . A million-dollar payoff is possible in this bet at times if everything happens just right - a few long shots and only one winning ticket.

Doc's Sports is offering $60 worth of free member's Preakness Stakes picks absolutely free - no obligation, no sales people - you don't even have to enter credit card information. You can use this $60 credit any way you please on any of our top horse racing handicappers. Get $60 worth of premium members' picks free .