Despite Obstacles, Preakness Handle Holds Its Own

With on-track attendance limited to about 4,800 fans at Laurel and with this year's GI Preakness Stakes drawing a weak field that was missing the GI Kentucky Derby winner and runner-up, there appeared to be a strong likelihood that betting handle would plummet at the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

But that did not turn out to be the case. According to Equibase charts, the all-sources handle for Saturday's 14-race card was $106,982,107. That was a drop of just 2.8% from the $110,043,794 wagered last year when 14 races were run at Pimlico.

At deadline for this story, TDN was not able to come up with on-track numbers for the last two runnings of the Preakness, but the numbers from Laurel had to be down considerably considering that there were approximately 63,000 people in attendance last year at Pimllico.

This year's card also may have benefitted from all 14 races being run for Thoroughbreds. In 2025, the 14th race was for Arabians and handle for that race was down considerably from a figure that would have been typical for a Thoroughbred race.

The Preakness day handle has held steady since a record $112,504,509 was wagered in 2021.

This was the final Preakness run under the control of 1/ST Racing. Going forward, the Preakness's intellectual property rights will be owned by Churchill Downs, but the race will be conducted and managed by the new non-profit Maryland Jockey Club and will return to a rebuilt Pimlico in 2027.