To many, post positions aren’t as big of a factor in the Preakness Stakes as they are in the Kentucky Derby, mostly due to a smaller field size but the truth is they matter at least as much, if not more.
The most successful starting position since 1909 has been post number six. It has produced a total of 18 winners since then, most recently Seize the Grey in 2024. Strangely enough, the only gate to produce multiple winners over the past 12 years is number seven — Big Brown in 2008, Lookin at Lucky in 2010 and Justify in 2008.
And up until the past few years, inside positions hadn’t been terribly favorable. Unlike the Kentucky Derby, the risk of the inside runners being inhibited by the inside rail isn’t as significant, but history overall has shown runners on the inside tend to struggle more. Both War of Will in 2019, Justify in 2018 and National Treasure in 2023 broke from the innermost post position, but before that it hadn't produced a winner since Tabasco Cat in 1994. Before Cloud Computing won from post position two in 2017, the last winner from that slot was Snow Chief in 1986.
The outside post positions, numbers nine through 12, have produced 12 winners over the past 25 years.
The writing team at US Racing is comprised of both full-time and part-time contributors with expertise in various aspects of the Sport of Kings.
