A futures-styled pari-mutuel wager to pick the winner of the GI Preakness S. before the GI Kentucky Derby goes off will debut this year with an 18% takeout.
The pool will be hosted by the Maryland Jockey Club (MJC). The new bet was unanimously approved at Tuesday's monthly meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission.
Mike Rogers, the president of the racing division for the MJC, described details of the Preakness wager.
“The window of that bet will open on Friday, Apr. 28, and we're going to close roughly 6 p.m. before the [May 6] Derby. So it's going to be cool to see our Preakness future odds right alongside the Derby odds.”
Rogers explained that the bet will be based on the way the existing Kentucky Derby Future Wager is conducted by Churchill Downs.
“We're going to use theirs as a foundation. But we're also going to add a couple of [Bob] Baffert horses [that have been barred from Derby competition this year]. We want to hopefully have a couple of local Maryland horses in there. We want to add a couple of fillies. So we're going to try to get maybe at least 30 betting interests. Maybe up to 39 [with an “all others' field option]. We can do 40 [total betting interests].”
Figuring out which Derby starters might contest the second leg of the Triple Crown will lend a difficult element to the bet.
In 2022, the 20-horse Derby yielded only three Preakness starters in a field of nine. In 2021, the 19-horse Derby sent just three starters to the 10-horse Preakness field.
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