2024 Preakness: Bet Baffert at Baltimore Strategy Works

Simply, Bob Baffert loves the Preakness. Surely, the feeling is mutual.

Six times, the white-haired trainer brought his Kentucky Derby winner to Pimlico Race Course (seven if you count Medina Spirit at the time of the race).

Hall of Fame trainer shoots for ninth Preakness Stakes win

Five went on to win the second leg of the Triple Crown, setting up Triple Crown attempts in the Belmont Stakes (Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem, American Pharoah, and Justify).

Two went on to win the Belmont and become the 12^th and 13^th Triple Crown winners – American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.

Several others did not run well in the Derby, yet Baffert believed they were ready to go again in the Preakness, just two weeks after defeat.

As is usually the case, he was right. Point Given (fifth in the 2001 Derby) and Lookin At Lucky (sixth in the 2010 Derby) went on to victory in the Preakness.

Baffert still calls Point Given’s Derby defeat one of the toughest losses he’s ever had.

“There's some horses that didn't get a chance to run in the Derby that it took a week for them to bounce out of it,” Baffert said in the days leading up to Saturday’s 149^th Preakness. “If they're doing well, run them in the Preakness. I've been lucky and horses that didn't run well, they got wiped out or something, and they came back. It's sort of, like, to prove that, ‘Look, he was the best horse in the Derby,’ and that's your chance to validate it. It happened with Point Given. It happened with Lookin At Lucky. Those two horses validated that they were the best of their crop.”

Last year Baffert won the Preakness with National Treasure, his first win in the race without the horse running in the Derby. Baffert was suspended by Churchill Downs, Inc., after his 2021Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit was eventually DQ’d for an overage of a race day medication.

Cuanto vale esta exacta?
D Wayne Lukas y Bob Baffert pic.twitter.com/BeOqotrCeL

— Claudia Spadaro (@ClaudiaSpadaro) May 17, 2024

On Saturday, Baffert sends out Santa Anita Derby runner-up Imagination to take on Derby winner Mystik Dan in a field of eight. He would have had the favorite in Muth, but the Arkansas Derby winner was scratched Wednesday after spiking a fever.

Baffert’s remarkable Preakness record

Baffert’s Preakness resume is remarkable: 25 starters, a record eight wins, two seconds and two thirds, and earnings of $6,457,150.

His Preakness winners are Silver Charm, Real Quiet, War Emblem, Point Given, Lookin At Lucky, American Pharoah, Justify, and National Treasure – all from 1997-2023

Baffert’s Boffo Preakness Resume

2023 National Treasure 1^st

2021 Medina Spirit 3^rd, Concert Tour 9^th

2020 Authentic 2^nd,  Thousand Words 8^th

2019 Improbable 6^th

2018 Justify 1^st

2016 Collected 10^th

2015 American Pharoah 1^st, Dortmund 4^th

2014 Bayern 9^th

2013 Govenor Charlie 8^th

2012 Bodemeister 2^nd

2011 Midnight Interlude 13^th

2010 Lookin At Lucky 1^st

2009 Pioneerof the Nile 11^th

2003 Senor Swinger 5^th

2002 War Emblem 1^st

2001 Point Given 1^st, Congaree 3^rd

2000 Captain Steve 4^th

1999 Excellent Meeting (DNF)

1998 Real Quiet 1^st

1997 Silver Charm 1^st

1996 Cavonnier 4^th

US Racing Team

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.