The mass majority of horse racing handicappers out there are going to be backing Nyquist to win the Preakness Stakes. He's the 3-to-5 favorite to win the second leg of the Triple Crown, and it's really hard to argue with him at this point, especially with the way the Preakness Stakes draw panned out.
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PREAKNESS STAKES STARTING POSTS AND MORNING LINE ODDS
1: Cherry Wine ( 20/1 )
2: Uncle Lino ( 20/1 )
3: Nyquist ( 3/5 )
4: Awesome Speed ( 30/1 )
5: Exaggerator ( 3/1 )
6: Lani ( 30/1 )
7: Collected ( 10/1 )
8: Laoban ( 30/1 )
9: Abiding Star ( 30/1 )
10: Fellowship ( 30/1 )
11: Stradivari ( 8/1 )
PREAKNESS STAKES ANALYSIS AND QUICK PICK
Nyquist drawing into the third post made our Preakness Stakes picks quite easy. He's just positioned far too well to lose from here.
To his inside, Nyquist only has Cherry Wine and Uncle Lino. He doesn't run the risk of being pinned to the rail, yet he's only got one horse to his inside who could possibly go out with him. Cherry Wine is going to want nothing to do with that inside post around the first turn, as he's a closer by nature.
The rest of the speed in this race is to the outside of Nyquist. Remember what happened at the Kentucky Derby when the speed came from the far outside? Danzing Candy never had a fighting chance of making it the whole way with all of the energy he had to put out there just to get into the lead. The same is very likely going to be said for Laoban, Abiding Star, Collected and Stradivari in this race. Not all of them will get out to the head of the pack, but whichever one does is very likely going to end up wearing himself out before the end of the race. The rest are going to be running races which will make them incredibly uncomfortable.
That's why the real key in this race is going to be betting on the horses who aren't opposed to running off the pace. Exaggerator and Cherry Wine are the two trailers, and they should be by themselves towards the back of the field unless someone else like Lani gets off to a really bad start. Regardless, the traffic at the back won't be nearly as dense as it was at the Kentucky Derby, and there should be significantly more room for Exaggerator to navigate as he turns for home here at the Preakness.
One could argue that Exaggerator should have an opportunity to win this race. He won't run into the traffic he encountered at the Kentucky Derby, and with the lesson learned of just how powerful Nyquist can be down the stretch, you can bet that jockey Kent Desormeaux isn't going to wait so long to kick his colt into gear.
Still, this day will belong to Nyquist. The only question we really have left is who's finishing third. It's entirely possible that one of those trendy starters could hold on to hit the board, while Stradivari will certainly be a common choice to do so as well.
Our choice though, is Cherry Wine, and we think he's going to do so on the coattails of Exaggerator. Simply put, Cherry Wine is the only other horse in this field we would trust to cover this distance and have something left in the tank at the end. Just as so many of the others who started the Derby trailed off in the last two furlongs, the same thing could happen here in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Horse Racing Odds: Nyquist (3) over Exaggerator (5) and Cherry Wine (1)
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