If you're like us, you believe that the Preakness Stakes is a dud of a race to bet on. Is it really worthwhile to try to put exotic bets together knowing that a Nyquist/Exaggerator exacta ticket might only pay $5? It'd be depressing to us, to say the least. Instead of banking on those two horses to finish 1-2 though, we're far more interested in some of the Preakness Stakes props which will be offered at BookMaker.eu.
Preakness Stakes Odds at BookMaker.eu
1: Cherry Wine +2000
2: Uncle Lino +2000
3: Nyquist -166
4: Awesome Speed +3200
5: Exaggerator +300
6: Lani +3200
7: Collected +1000
8: Laoban +3500
9: Abiding Star +3500
10: Fellowship +3000
11: Stradivari +600
Will the winning horse be wearing an odd or even saddlecloth?
You're going to have to choke on a heck of a lot of chalk here to get the odd numbered horses, but we can't see an even numbered horse winning this race. Literally, the four favorites are all wearing odd-number saddlecloths, and one of our sneaky picks to win the race, Cherry Wine is wearing No. 1 saddlecloth as well. On top of that, the odds have six horses in this field while the evens have just five.
We might be asked to lay -500 on an odd numbered horse to win the Preakness Stakes, but we'd certainly consider laying the lumber in what could be a really quick turnaround on our investment.
Will the winning margin be more or less than 1 1/2 lengths?
At the Kentucky Derby, the final margin was only 1 1/4 lengths even though Nyquist could've (and probably should've) run the race with more gusto than that and won by at least three or four lengths.
The Preakness though, could be a much closer race. Though it certainly wouldn't surprise anyone if Nyquist ran away and hid, the biggest knock we have on him is that he might not ultimately be able to hold off Exaggerator if he gets a huge run from behind. It's hard to beat what you can't see coming.
We expect to see Kent Desormeaux as more of Exaggerator earlier on in the race than he did at the Kentucky Derby, and that's when we're going to find out what these two horses are made of. If Exaggerator does happen to pull up alongside Nyquist, who will win this race? We know we won't want to bet on either one blowing out the other, though we would admit that our fear would be Nyquist backing down from the challenge of Exaggerator and finishing several lengths off the pace.
Will the Preakness Stakes record time of 1:53.2 be broken?
No chance. For our money, if you put Nyquist up against American Pharoah in a race of last year's Triple Crown winner and this year's Triple Crown contender, the results wouldn't be close. American Pharoah is the far superior horse as we see it.
Let's not forget that, in spite of the fact that Nyquist ran the Kentucky Derby in 2:01 and 1, that only translated to a 104 Beyer Speed Rating. Sure, that was the best mark in his career, but he'd need to get up around a 115 Beyer or so in this race in order to break Secretariat's record.
Furthermore, Mother Nature could play a role here as well. She rained on American Pharoah's parade last year as well in the second leg of the Triple Crown, and the forecast this Saturday at Pimlico isn't good either. Though we don't think that's going to play a role in who's going to win this race, it'll obviously end up slowing things down dramatically for the colts at the head of the pack.
Preakness Stakes odds at BookMaker.eu
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