National Treasure Wins 2023 Preakness Stakes

The horse trained by Bob Baffert held on in a tightly contested race to win the second leg of the Triple Crown.

National Treasure dashed across the finish line first on Saturday to win the 148th edition of the Preakness Stakes.

National Treasure, ridden by John Velazquez and trained by Bob Baffert, finished with a 1:55.12 time ahead of Blazing Sevens at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Mage, the 2023 Kentucky Derby winner, finished 3rd.

Baffert, who missed his second consecutive Kentucky Derby earlier this month because of a suspension, now holds the record for the most Preakness victories as a trainer with eight after Saturday’s win. The previous record was seven.

Mage’s 8-to-5 odds were the best to win ahead of the “Run for the Black Eyed Susans”, followed by Blazing Sevens with 9-to-2 odds, National Treasure at 3-to-1 odds and Chase the Chaos with 9-to-1 odds. 

The 1 and 3/16 mile race between the seven three-year-old horses marked the smallest field of horses since 1986 after First Mission, the winner of the Lexington Stakes, was scratched from the event on Friday after sustaining a left hind injury. Ahead of Saturday’s race, First Mission was primed by most oddsmakers as the horse that could prevent Mage from winning the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Mage was the only horse from this year’s Kentucky Derby to race in the Preakness Stakes, marking the first time for such an occurrence since 1969. Rich Strike, the 2022 Kentucky Derby winner, elected to skip last year’s Preakness before returning to race in the Belmont Stakes.

With Mage finishing third on Saturday, it signals that horse racing will not have a Triple Crown champion in 2023. That also means the number of horses to win all three races of the Triple Crown will remain at 13. 

Justify, in 2018, was the last horse to win both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes on his way to capturing just the second Triple Crown since 1978. The other 12 horses include Sir Barton, Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed and American Pharoah.

With the shortest race and second leg of the Triple Crown now complete, the final leg will take place at the Belmont Stakes on June 10 in Elmont, New York.