Golden Tempo is heading to the Belmont. The 23-1 Derby winner, trained by Cherie DeVaux — the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner — will skip Laurel Park on May 16 and give the second jewel of the Triple Crown a miss. No Triple Crown bid. No marquee storyline. No dominant favourite for the public to pile money onto.
For casual fans, that might sound like a disappointment. For serious bettors, it is almost certainly the opposite.
The headline number: since 2000, 8 of 26 Preakness winners (Red Bullet, Rachel Alexandra, Swiss Skydiver, Cloud Computing, Early Voting, National Treasure, Seize the Grey, Oxbow) never ran in the Derby. That’s nearly one in three — worth calling out in the body copy next to the table.
| Year | Preakness Winner | Ran in the Derby? | Derby Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Journalism | Yes | 2nd |
| 2024 | Seize the Grey | No | — |
| 2023 | National Treasure | No | — |
| 2022 | Early Voting | No | — |
| 2021 | Rombauer | Yes | 8th |
| 2020 | Swiss Skydiver | No | — |
| 2019 | War of Will | Yes | 8th |
| 2018 | Justify | Yes | 1st |
| 2017 | Cloud Computing | No | — |
| 2016 | Exaggerator | Yes | 2nd |
| 2015 | American Pharoah | Yes | 1st |
| 2014 | California Chrome | Yes | 1st |
| 2013 | Oxbow | No | — |
| 2012 | I’ll Have Another | Yes | 1st |
| 2011 | Shackleford | Yes | 5th |
| 2010 | Lookin At Lucky | Yes | 6th |
| 2009 | Rachel Alexandra | No | — |
| 2008 | Big Brown | Yes | 1st |
| 2007 | Curlin | Yes | 3rd |
| 2006 | Bernardini | No | — |
| 2005 | Afleet Alex | Yes | 3rd |
| 2004 | Smarty Jones | Yes | 1st |
| 2003 | Funny Cide | Yes | 1st |
| 2002 | War Emblem | Yes | 1st |
| 2001 | Point Given | Yes | 5th |
| 2000 | Red Bullet | No | — |
Table of Contents
A Pattern That Is Becoming Familiar
Golden Tempo becomes the third Derby winner in the last five years to bypass the Preakness. Rich Strike skipped it in 2022. Sovereignty skipped it in 2025 — and went on to win the Belmont, the Travers, and Horse of the Year honors. The two-week turnaround between the Derby and the Preakness has always been uniquely demanding, and the modern preference for longer intervals between starts means trainers are increasingly willing to sacrifice the Triple Crown narrative in favor of their horse’s long-term wellbeing.
DeVaux put it plainly after Golden Tempo’s last-to-first Churchill Downs rally: the horse gave everything he had, and the connections are not prepared to rush him back. It is hard to argue with that logic, and the Sovereignty blueprint — skip the Preakness, win Saratoga — is now a proven alternative route.
This year adds an extra wrinkle. The Preakness Stakes is not even running at Pimlico. With the old grandstand demolished as part of a major reconstruction project, the race moves to Laurel Park — a track between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. — for the first time. It is a venue change that compounds the uncertainty for trainers and creates a genuinely novel handicapping environment for bettors.
What History Says About Wide-Open Preakness Renewals
When the Derby winner turns up, the wagering market compresses. Public money flows toward the Triple Crown contender, and the exotic payouts shrink as a result. The Preakness has historically produced a higher favourite win rate than the Kentucky Derby, partly because the smaller field rewards tactical speed and established form.
But when there is no Derby winner in the gate, the calculus shifts. Without a single Grade 1 winner in the probable 2026 field, the market has no natural anchor. The morning-line favourite is typically installed at modest odds, but in a genuinely open race, the second and third choices start to look interesting, and the longshot tier becomes legitimately playable.
Shackleford paid at double-digit odds as a 13-1 shot in 2011, coming home in front of Animal Kingdom when the Triple Crown hopeful was expected to dominate. Lookin at Lucky, fresh from skipping the Derby, reversed the form on Super Saver in 2010. The Preakness has a longer history than most bettors appreciate of rewarding horses that arrived rested, sharp, and pointed specifically at this distance — rather than backing up from a hard Derby effort.
Fresh Horses and Derby Skippers: The Underrated Angle
A field without the Derby winner is, almost by definition, a field of fresh horses and alternative prep runners. Some will have been pointing to Laurel Park specifically. Taj Mahal is unbeaten in three starts, all of them at Laurel Park, giving him a track familiarity advantage that is almost impossible to replicate. Iron Honor, off a disappointing Wood Memorial effort, has been freshened specifically for this spot by Chad Brown. Chip Honcho is a live pace horse with a competitive Derby trail behind him.
These are horses that have not spent the last fortnight recovering from the most intense race of their lives. They are not carrying Derby fatigue into a short turnaround. They have had time to school, to train specifically for the Preakness distance, and to arrive at the gate in genuine racing condition.
That matters more at 1 3/16 miles than it does at a mile and a quarter. The Preakness distance demands a particular combination of speed and stamina that fresh horses with tactical ability tend to exploit well. The race has historically punished horses that arrive on the back of an enormous Derby effort, especially when the competition does not push them into uncomfortable territory early.
The Laurel Park Factor
The venue change adds a dimension to handicapping that makes local knowledge genuinely valuable in 2026. Laurel Park has tighter turns than Pimlico and a surface that has its own bias tendencies and characteristics in varying weather conditions.
Horses like Taj Mahal, who has raced exclusively at Laurel Park, carry a track familiarity advantage that cannot be overstated. Trainer Brittany Russell — Maryland’s leading trainer by wins in each of the last three years — knows the oval intimately. In a year where almost nothing is conventional about the Preakness setup, betting on local expertise makes considerable sense.
Betting a Wide-Open Preakness
Without a dominant chalk, the exotic pools open up. The trifecta and superfecta become viable plays rather than near-certainties dominated by whoever backs the favourite on top. A race with no Grade 1 winner in the field, a first-time venue, and a diverse mix of running styles is exactly the kind of renewal where the exotics pay properly.
The approach for bettors at MyWinners is straightforward: identify your top two or three contenders, build them into exacta combinations, and use the deeper prices in the trifecta and superfecta underneath. In a field this open, spreading slightly wider than you might in a chalk-heavy renewal is not reckless — it reflects the genuine uncertainty in the race.
Golden Tempo’s absence removes the one horse who would have driven win prices down across the board. That is good news for every bettor looking for a genuine return on a competitive Grade 1 race.
Bet the 2026 Preakness Stakes at MyWinners
The 151st Preakness Stakes runs on Saturday, May 16 at Laurel Park, Maryland. MyWinners customers can wager on the race online from any Connecticut address, or in person at any of our nine Winners venues across the state — open to any customer aged 18 and over regardless of home state.
Check the MyWinners site for full Preakness card details, updated odds, and the complete exotic wagering menu ahead of race day.
Bet online at app.mywinners.com, on the MyWinners: Racing & Sports app on iOS or Android, or go here to find your nearest MyWinners or Winners venue in CT.
Image © Maryland GovPics / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
