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Triple Crown 2018: 5 reasons you should watch the Preakness

By Zoe West

Spectators line the fence to watch the 7th race, the James W. Murphy Stakes, prior to the running of the 136th running of the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday, May 21, 2011. (Robert K. Hamilton/Baltimore Sun/MCT via Getty Images)
Spectators line the fence to watch the 7th race, the James W. Murphy Stakes, prior to the running of the 136th running of the Preakness at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday, May 21, 2011. (Robert K. Hamilton/Baltimore Sun/MCT via Getty Images) /
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Jockey Calvin Borel looks back as he rides Rachel Alexandra to victory in the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 16, 2009, in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the first filly to win the Preakness since 1924 and Borel has won two legs of this year’s Triple Crown on two different horses. (Photo by George Bridges/MCT/MCT via Getty Images)
Jockey Calvin Borel looks back as he rides Rachel Alexandra to victory in the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 16, 2009, in Baltimore, Maryland. She is the first filly to win the Preakness since 1924 and Borel has won two legs of this year’s Triple Crown on two different horses. (Photo by George Bridges/MCT/MCT via Getty Images) /

4. New competition

The number of high-caliber horses present on the horse racing scene is always greater than the number of starting slots in the Kentucky Derby. Also, because of the prestige associated with the Derby, pretty much everyone who can enter it does.

That is generally not the case with the Preakness. There is a slight difference in prize money, but not that much. Because of the qualifying process for the Derby there are always a number of deserving horses who just don’t make the cut. In fact, it’s not out of the question that some of the horses that miss the Kentucky Derby turn out better than some who qualify. Horse racing is an industry that really prizes precociousness above most other things. Remember, a number of the horses that ran in the Derby did so before their third true birthday. And horses generally don’t finish growing until they are in their fourth, fifth or sixth year.

So, some very deserving horses may just not have developed quickly enough to qualify for the Derby. (Justify is an outlier. He didn’t develop as early as many other racehorses, but once he was out there, he was mature enough to learn very quickly.)

The most intriguing of these may be Quip. Quip actually ran well, and accumulated enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, but his people held him out, specifically so he would be fresh for the Preakness.

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