🏇 Preakness Draw
14 Runners — Silent Tactic Out, Incredibolt In
The Preakness draw happened Monday evening — but not before another jolt: Silent Tactic, the expected co-favorite, was pulled Monday morning after Casse was unhappy with how the colt moved when switched from a padded shoe back to a regular shoe. Same bruised foot that scratched him from the Derby. Two favorites gone in four days: first Crude Velocity Friday, now Silent Tactic Monday.
In the other direction, Incredibolt was a late addition to the field Monday afternoon, bumping it from 13 to 14 — the biggest Preakness field since 2011.
| PP |
Horse |
Jockey |
ML |
| 1 | Taj Mahal | Sheldon Russell | 5-1 |
| 2 | Ocelli | Tyler Gaffalione | 6-1 |
| 3 | Crupper | Junior Alvarado | 30-1 |
| 4 | Robusta | Rafael Bejarano | 30-1 |
| 5 | Talkin | Irad Ortiz Jr. | 20-1 |
| 6 | Chip Honcho | Jose Ortiz | 5-1 |
| 7 | The Hell We Did | Luis Saez | 15-1 |
| 8 | Bull by the Horns | Micah Husbands | 30-1 |
| 9 | Iron Honor | Flavien Prat | 9-2 |
| 10 | Napoleon Solo | Paco Lopez | 8-1 |
| 11 | Corona de Oro | John Velazquez | 30-1 |
| 12 | Incredibolt | Jaime Torres | 5-1 |
| 13 | Great White | Alex Achard | 15-1 |
| 14 | Pretty Boy Miah | Ricardo Santana Jr. | 15-1 |
Saturday, May 16 · 6:50 PM ET · NBC · Laurel Park
Iron Honor is your morning line favorite at 9-2 — Brown's Gotham winner with Flavien Prat from post 9.
Three co-second choices at 5-1: Taj Mahal (rail, home court, 3-for-3 at Laurel), Chip Honcho (post 6, Jose Ortiz, Asmussen's Derby skip pays off if this works), and Incredibolt (post 12, late addition, the story of the draw).
📋 The Stories
Incredibolt — The Mott Angle
Here's a story: Bill Mott says "nobody talks about the Preakness" and skips it with his two best horses in consecutive years. His son Riley sends Incredibolt.
Riley Mott took out his trainer's license in 2022 and has been on a tear — first graded stakes, first G1s, and now a Kentucky Derby starter who ran a creditable sixth, four lengths behind Golden Tempo. Jockey Jaime Torres has been aboard for all six starts and nicknamed the horse "Little Sovereignty" last summer. Torres won the 2024 Preakness on Seize the Grey — he knows what it takes on this stage.
Riley Mott on Monday: "The horse is doing extremely well. He came out of the Derby in good shape, and we have been clocking the field of Preakness horses and we thought it would be the right opportunity."
Torres on Incredibolt: "From the first time I breezed him I said that was my Derby horse."
The knock: a bizarre Holy Bull flop at Gulfstream (last of 6, no explanation) and Beyer figures that don't match the company he's now keeping. The appeal: a progressive horse who improved his position in the Derby, a jockey who's won this race before, and a trainer with something to prove.
Chip Honcho — The Crowd-Size Play
Asmussen skipped the Derby specifically because Churchill's 150,000-person crowd makes Chip Honcho aggressive and hard to manage. Laurel is capped at 4,800. "Limited attendance at Laurel gives him a way better chance to show who he was."
Post 6 is right in the sweet spot. Jose Ortiz — the Derby-winning jockey — is aboard. If the crowd theory holds, this is the spot where Chip Honcho finally shows the horse who was second to Paladin in the Risen Star.
Napoleon Solo — "Social Security"
Al Gold's quote is still my favorite of the week: "Me and all my friends are old enough for Social Security. Let's take a chance." The G1 Champagne winner is 0-for-2 at two turns this year, but Summers says the egg shoe before the Wood was the problem: "Since he's back in his old shoes, he's back to his old self." Post 10, Paco Lopez. At 8-1 he's the kind of horse who could steal this race if nobody respects his speed.
Irad Switches to Talkin
Irad Ortiz Jr. was supposed to ride Silent Tactic. With that horse out, he picks up Talkin (Gargan) from post 5 at 20-1. Talkin is dual graded-stakes placed — the jockey upgrade alone makes him dangerous at a price.
Three Derby Horses After All
We spent a week writing about how zero Derby runners would contest the Preakness. Then it was two (Ocelli, Robusta). Now it's three — Incredibolt's late entry means the 2026 Preakness has the 6th, 3rd, and 14th-place Derby finishers in the field. Not exactly the rematch Randy Moss had in mind, but it's something.
🏇 Black-Eyed Susan Friday
Black-Eyed Susan Day is Friday at Laurel — 14 races, three graded stakes. The G2 Black-Eyed Susan has a field of 10 three-year-old fillies. The G3 Miss Preakness features Vodka With a Twist, runner-up in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. And the G3 Pimlico Special rounds out the stakes action. We'll have coverage later this week.