The Preakness Stakes is held at Pimlico Race Course on third Saturday of every May. The Preakness is a 'Grade: 1' race with a purse of $1,000,000 that is open to 3 year old thoroughbreds.

The Preakness Stakes is the second leg of the Triple Crown, and it is the shortest at 9.5 Furlongs.

The running of the 134th Preakness Stakes will take place on Saturday May 16th, 2009, post time is 6:15 PM (EST)

The inaugural Preakness Stakes was held on May 23rd, 1873. The Preakness was founded the governor of Maryland, Oden Bowie, although he wasn't the governor at the time of the first running. After the 1889 race, the Maryland Jockey Club ran to final trouble and race was moved to New York (Morris Park from 1890 to 1893 and Gravesend track from 1894 to 1908). In 1909 the race returned to Baltimore.

Planning on betting on the Preakness Stakes? Check out what various members of the media are thinking on our 'Preakness Stakes Media Selections with Consensus' page.

View all Preakness Stakes Winners, and watch replays of in our Preakness Videos section.