Preakness 2023: Horses, Favorites and Contenders for This Year's Field

Only one horse that participated in the 2023 Kentucky Derby will also be racing in this year's Preakness Stakes. However, it's the one colt that has a chance to capture the elusive Triple Crown: Mage.

After racing to victory in the Derby on May 6, Mage will look to win again in the Preakness, which takes place Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. It will be the 148th running of the race, which is the middle leg of the Triple Crown schedule.

If Mage is victorious at the weekend, he will have an opportunity to become only the 14th horse to win the Triple Crown when he takes part in the Belmont Stakes on June 10.

Here's everything else you need to know heading into the 2023 Preakness Stakes.

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Preakness Post Draw, Odds

1. National Treasure (4-1)

2. Chase the Chaos (50-1)

3. Mage (8-5)

4. Coffeewithchris (20-1)

5. Red Route One (10-1)

6. Perform (15-1)

7. Blazing Sevens (6-1)

8. First Mission (5-2)

Odds via Preakness Stakes

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Top Contenders

Unsurprisingly, Mage is the favorite to win the Preakness at 8-5 odds. Whenever a Kentucky Derby champion takes part in this race, they will usually have the best odds to win heading into the event.

Mage had an impressive showing in the Run for the Roses, where he overtook Two Phil's on the final stretch and finished in a winning time of two minutes and 1.57 seconds. It marked the first Kentucky Derby victory for both trainer Gustavo Delgado and jockey Javier Castellano.

Castellano will again be riding Mage in the Preakness, which the 45-year-old has won twice before. He was victorious on Bernardini in 2006 and Cloud Computing in 2017.

This will only be Mage's fifth career race. He had only one win prior to the Kentucky Derby, and he was coming off a second-place finish at the Florida Derby in April heading into Triple Crown season.

Disarm, which finished fourth in the Derby, was expected to be the top threat to beat Mage in the Preakness. However, the colt has been withdrawn and will skip the race.

That leaves First Mission (5-2) and National Treasure (4-1) as the horses most likely to challenge Mage on Saturday.

First Mission is a Brad Cox-trained colt that has notched wins in two of his three career races. He was victorious in each of his past two events, but he didn't race at Churchill Downs.

Cox has never won the Preakness, but he has finished first in both the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in 2021 with Mandaloun and Essential Quality, respectively.

Luis Saez, who will be on board First Mission on Saturday, rode Essential Quality to victory in the 2021 Belmont for his lone career victory at a Triple Crown event.

National Treasure, a Bob Baffert-trained horse, will be ridden by John Velazquez, who is a three-time Kentucky Derby champion and two-time Belmont Stakes winner in search of his first victory at the Preakness.

Baffert is a six-time Derby champion who will be looking to win the Preakness for an eighth time. National Treasure has won only one of his first five career races, though, and is coming off a fourth-place finish in last month's Santa Anita Derby.

While Mage is the clear front-runner, and First Mission and National Treasure are the other top contenders, any of the eight horses could be victorious on Saturday. That's the intrigue of Triple Crown season.