Preakness Field 2015: Pedigree Info and Predictions for Horses in Lineup

The 2015 Preakness Stakes is under a week away, and things are starting to heat up.

Arguably the best three-year-old to come through the Kentucky Derby trail in quite some time, American Pharoah logged an impressive victory in the Run for the Roses under the steady hand of three-time Derby winner Victor Espinoza.

It won't be an easy task for the Bob Baffert-trained colt to best his competitors this time out, though, as a whopping five Derby runners are slated to return for this week's Run for the Black-Eyed Susans. In addition to that talented group, the field should also include the Pat Day Mile winner, Competitive Edge, as well as Derby scratch Stanford.

The field isn't entirely confirmed at this point, but we can get a good enough idea of who will be racing May 16 through the use of the Preakness' official website.

Pedigrees can also play a big role in a horse's chances at winning a given race.

While all of these colts feature elite pedigrees, there are a few things that stick out and are worth examining. For pedigree info, we'll stick with the folks over at HorseRacingNation.com.

To help get you ready for this weekend's race, we'll detail each competitor's pedigree, single out a few noteworthy bloodlines and make some predictions for the 140th Preakness.

Pedigree Info

Horse	Sire	Dam	Grandsire
American Pharoah	Pioneerof The Nile	Littleprincessemma	Empire Maker
Bodhisattva	Student Council	Dr. Cheryl P	Kingmambo
Carpe Diem	Giant's Causeway	Rebridled Dreams	Storm Cat
Competitive Edge	Super Saver	Magdalena's Dream	Maria's Mon
Danzig Moon	Malibu Moon	Leaveminthedust	A.P. Indy
Divining Rod	Tapit	Precious Kitten	Pulpit
Dortmund	Big Brown	Our Josephina	Boundary
Firing Line	Line of David	Sister Girl Blues	Lion Heart
Materiality	Afleet Alex	Wildwood Flower	Northern Afleet
Grand Bili	City Zip	Woodsmoke	Carson City
Stanford	Malibu Moon	Rosy Humor	A.P. Indy
Tale of Verve	Tale of Ekati	Verve	Tale of the Cat

One thing that jumps right off of the page when looking at this chart is the presence of two Malibu Moon colts in this projected field. Despite a rather lackluster racing career, Malibu has churned out some impressive colts, including 2013 Kentucky Derby winner, Orb.

The bloodlines keep flowing though, as Malibu Moon was sired by A.P. Indy, a multi-time Grade 1 winner, including victories in the Belmont Stakes, Breeders' Cup Classic, Santa Anita Derby and Hollywood Futurity.

The Preakness could be a spot where a Malibu Moon colt—say, Danzig Moon maybe—could, at the very least, sneak up into the money.

Top choice, American Pharoah, is a descendant of a former great in Empire Maker. Empire Maker has sired a number of graded-stakes winning colts, and he himself was a winner of the Florida Derby (G1) Wood Memorial (G1) and the Belmont Stakes (G1).

Pharoah's pedigree is undeniably good, and it includes a direct line to both Unbridled and Mr. Prospector. This bodes well for his chances moving forward, though, as he shows a penchant for distance.

Should he get by the Preakness unscathed, Pharoah could be our first Triple Crown winner in over three decades.

Predictions

Not really going out on any limbs with this pick, but I've got American Pharoah winning the Preakness. There isn't any cheap speed in this race, so predictably easy fractions on the front end combined with good forward placement from Espinoza should have him in prime position to win the 140th running of the Preakness.

Behind him, the easy thing to do would be to select Firing Line and Dortmund, both of whom had incredible showings in the Derby. However, I'm going to steer clear of easy street and predict that Carpe Diem will get in the mix for a top-three finish.

Carpe Diem, a Giant's Causeway colt, was the unfortunate recipient of an inside post. Buried in on the rail, Carpe Diem had to expend quite a bit of energy in order to get up to a manageable position after breaking from the gate.

The Todd Pletcher-trained colt is somewhat skittish, and being packed in tight around that many horses early on may have really thrown him off his game. If they're blessed with an outside post position, and John Velazquez can get him into a forward position where he's just off the pace, I like Carpe Diem to repeat his Blue Grass Stakes-winning performance back in April.

As for Dortmund and Firing Line, I like Firing Line to make a repeat in-the-money finish at Pimlico.

Firing Line exercised some major demons back on Derby day and finally beat out Dortmund after finishing second to the Big Brown colt in their previous two meetings. Beyond that, he showed impressive staying power in order to work out that second-place finish in the Derby after matching Dortmund nearly stride for stride throughout.

That impressive performance showed me all I need to know about this Line of David colt, and in a race that could play out eerily similar to the one we saw at Churchill earlier this month, I like him to repeat with a second- or third-place finish.

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