Preakness 2015 Contenders: Horse Pedigree and Jockey Info for Top Favorites

The 2015 Preakness Stakes is rapidly approaching, and while the field hasn't been completely solidified, we have a pretty good idea as to who will be trying to take down Kentucky Derby winner American Pharoah in his quest for racing's Triple Crown.

Coming to knock him off that pedestal is a group of highly talented young colts, including multiple runners from the Kentucky Derby. Add in a few other graded-stakes winners, and you've got yourself a pretty stacked field.

Only a few of the horses in this field have the distinction of being called "favorites," though, and we're going to look at what impact their pedigree and their riders might have on their chances at bringing home a Preakness win this weekend.

To limit the scope of the word "favorite" and to help keep us from looking at every single horse, we're going to look at the top three selections as set by Bovada, via OddsShark.com. 

With the contenders set for analysis, let's get into it.

Pedigree Info for Top Favorites

Horse	Sire	Dam	Grandsire
American Pharoah	Pioneerof The Nile	Littleprincessmaria	Empire Maker
Firing Line	Line of David	Sister Girl Blues	Lion Heart
Dortmund	Big Brown	Our Josephina	Boundary

To be fair, all three of these horses have outstanding bloodlines.

For starters, all three sires—Pioneerof The Nile, Line of David and Big Brown—ran in the Kentucky Derby. Big Brown is the standout of the group, though, as he has the distinction of being both a Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner. 

Big Brown produced a big colt. Dortmund comes in at a whopping 17 hands, and he has stamina for days. If he's allowed to get out to an uncontested lead, he'll make like Big Brown in the 2008 Monmouth Stakes and play catch me if you can.

So, American Pharoah isn't as big as Dortmund, but he doesn't need to be. From his father, and maybe more so from his grandsire, he inherited a whole lot of tactical speed.

Pharoah's running style is eerily similar to that of his sire, and one need look no further than the 2009 Santa Anita Derby as evidence of that.

Meanwhile, his grandsire, Empire Maker, imparted on him a great deal of stamina and a hankering for distance, and it showed in his impressive Derby victory.

Finally we come to Line of David.

Though his racing career included a victory in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby (2010), he has what is easily the least impressive resume of the three sires. Fortunately for Firing Line, the bloodlines sport some rather impressive names, including Seattle Slew and Storm Cat.

Storm Cat's racing career was cut short due to an unfortunate injury, but he's produced a number of impressive colts. Meanwhile, Seattle Slew is a former Triple Crown winner (1977) and the grandsire to Line of David's mother, Emma's Dilemma.

Firing Line will look to add his name to the long list of Grade 1 winners in the Storm Cat male line with a victory in this year's Preakness.

Jockey Info for Top Favorites

Horse	Jockey	Times Run in Preakness	Times Won
American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	6	2
Firing Line	Gary Stevens	17	3
Dortmund	Martin Garcia	3	1

Victor Espinoza is hot—I mean real hot. The 42-year-old just won his second Kentucky Derby (shown below) in as many years, and he'll look to make it back-to-back Preakness wins this weekend.

Espinoza has built up a great working relationship with American Pharoah, and his experience at Pimlico will certainly help him. The two-time Preakness winner has ridden Pharoah in all but one of the horse's races—Martin Garcia rode him in his debut back in August 2014.

Since taking the reins for the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity, Espinoza and Pharoah have won every one of their races and will look to make it six in a row on Saturday.

Gary Stevens is the senior of the group, coming in at 52 years old.

Stevens is a three-time Preakness winner, with his most recent victory coming aboard Oxbow back in 2013. 

Stevens is currently tied with Pat Day—a five-time winner in his time—for the most mounts in Preakness history (17), and he'll pass Day this weekend. All that experience riding in the Preakness should serve Stevens well, as he'll look to nab his fourth Preakness title this weekend.

Like Espinoza with Pharoah, Stevens has built a solid rapport with Firing Line, having ridden him to a first-place finish (Sunland Derby) and two second-place efforts (Robert B. Lewis Stakes, Kentucky Derby) in their last three hookups.

Finally, we have Martin Garcia reprising his role as the rider of the massive Big Brown colt Dortmund.

Garcia has the least experience of this trio, both overall and in the Preakness. Garcia has worked as a rider just three times in the Preakness, but he does have a victory to his credit after riding Lookin at Lucky to a first-place finish in his Preakness debut.

Garcia has the added benefit of being Bob Baffert's favorite workout rider for his big-time colts, per Jennie Rees of the Courier-Journal. He's ridden Pharoah in his workouts for major races, and that could serve him well as they look to steal a victory this weekend.

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