Betting The Preakness Stakes at Online Sportsbooks

Today’s online sportsbooks are a one-stop shop for all of your online betting needs. Along with an expansive sportsbook offering betting lines for well over 80 different sports, they also have an extended racebook for horse betting and an online casino with slots, video poker and live-dealer table games.

One of the best aspects of betting major graded stakes races for thoroughbred horses such as this Saturday’s $1.5 million Preakness Stakes is a wealth of betting opportunities both in the sportsbook and the site’s racebook. Betting any horse race in the racebook is just like being at the track, but from the convenience of your desktop, laptop or mobile handheld device. Betting on the biggest races of the year at your favorite online Race and sportsbook gives you a host of betting options that are not on the board at any racetrack.

The first big difference between the two are the posted odds to win. When betting the race in the sportsbook, you will have set futures odds for each horse. When betting the winner through the racebook, you will be tied into the Pari-Mutual odds at the track. Your futures odds are set while the track odds fluctuate with the bets coming in right up until post time.

2019 Preakness Stakes- Top Betting Contenders

The field for this Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore is basically set with 12 entries lining up to compete for the second jewel in this year’s Triple Crown racing season. Winning the Kentucky Derby as a 65/1 longshot, Country House will not be in Saturday’s field. Neither will Maximum Security, who became the only Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified after the race.

While this ends any drama tied to winning the Triple Crown this season, Saturday’s race should be a good one with a pair of three-year old Kentucky-bred colts leading the way as clear favorites.

How to bet horse - First thing to learn the different kinds of bets

The futures odds that trainer Bob Baffert’s Improbable wins the Preakness are set at +145. Second on the list is trainer Mark Casse’s War of Will at +285. The actual post positions and morning line odds for the race will be set on Wednesday, but Improbable is projected to open as a 2/1 favorite with 3/1 odds on War of Will.

Improbable finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby while War of Will slipped to seventh after getting tangled up in the bumping incident that led to the disqualification of Maximum Security.

I would have to agree that Improbable is the class of the field, but he is still looking for his first victory as a three-year old coming off a stellar juvenile campaign. War of Will’s biggest victory this year was in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds in mid-February.

Horse Racing - How to bet Head-to-Head Matchups

Moving down the futures list for the Preakness are a pair of contenders making their Triple Crown debut. Bourbon War is listed as a +700 third-favorite to win followed by Alwaysmining at +800 betting odds. Trained by Mark Henning, Bourbon War ran fourth in the Grade 1 Florida Derby is last time out. Kelly Rubley trains Alwaysmining and this Maryland-bred gelding won the ungraded Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park on April 20.

If you are looking for an entry to work into a trifecta pick with the two favorites, I would go with Win, Win, Win coming off a ninth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. Trained by Michael Trombetta, his futures odds to win the Preakness are set at +1200, yet he is projected to be one of two 8/1 third-favorites on the morning line. This Florida-bred three-year old finished second in the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in early April behind Vekoma to work his way into the Kentucky Derby field. His futures odds for a Top 3 finish this Saturday are set at +260.