2012 Preakness Post Positions: Bodemeister's Post Position Suggests Huge Showing

If you didn’t think highly of Bodemeister before, you have to now after finding out he landed the No. 7 pole position in the 137^th running of the Preakness Stakes.

While you may wonder why a position right in the middle of the 11-horse race is a good thing, consider recent history.

Two of the last four years a horse from the seventh spot has taken home the title at Pimlico. In 2008, it was it was Big Brown and in 2010, it was Lookin at Lucky.

With the recent trends, does that mean Bodemeister is next in line?

Entering the Kentucky Derby, the young colt was the most inexperienced in the entire field. That inexperience allowed him to get caught up in the traffic of the 20-horse race before galloping at a break-neck pace that couldn’t be sustained. The colt was unable to keep up for the entire one-and-a-quarter mile race and eventually fell to I’ll Have Another by one-and-a-half lengths.

However, on the shorter track expect Bodemeister to sustain his blazing fast pace for the entire duration. Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is thrilled with the position his latest gem ended up securing (via ABC News):

"

With him, anything in the middle would be fine. With the Preakness, you just don't want to be stuck on the inside where you have to use your horse a little bit.

"

With 8/5 odds, you certainly won’t be getting incredible value with Bodemeister, but after the post position announcement there is no question who has the best shot of winning the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Bodemeister is the strong favorite and anything short of a top-three finish would be shocking. 

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