Preakness 2015 Post Positions: Complete Listing for Every Horse

All eyes will be on American Pharoah Saturday at the Preakness Stakes, and the same was true Wednesday as he and his opponents were given post positions for the second gem of the Triple Crown.

Here is a look at where all eight horses will break from when the 140th running of the Preakness commences at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore:

Post	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Odds
1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	4-5
2	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	7-2
3	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	20-1
4	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	15-1
5	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	30-1
6	Bodhisattva	Trevor McCarthy	Jose Corrales	20-1
7	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	12-1
8	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	4-1

American Pharoah is the obvious favorite after his come-from-behind victory in the Kentucky Derby but will have to overcome some stiff competition in order to go for the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes.

Firing Line and Dortmund, who finished a respective second and third at Churchill Downs, are back to challenge American Pharoah once again. Dortmund is trained by Bob Baffert, just like American Pharoah, so the fact that they are starting next to each other raised the eyebrows of many, including Katherine Terrell of NOLA.com: 

According to KY Derby Contenders on Twitter, Baffert isn't thrilled that his two horses are in such close proximity:

Baffert doesn't like the No. 1 post in general for American Pharoah either, according to Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports, but he isn't hugely concerned:

In addition to American Pharoah, Firing Line and Dortmund, Kentucky Derby fifth-place finisher Danzig Moon and 13th-place finisher Mr. Z will give it another go.

They are joined by a trio of non-Derby horses in Divining Rod, Bodhisattva and Tale of Verve. Trainer Todd Pletcher had four potential entrants in Materiality, Carpe Diem, Competitive Edge and Stanford but decided to hold all of them out of the Preakness.

According to Ray Paulick of PaulickReport.com, that is consistent with Pletcher's usual modus operandi:

Materiality was considered an especially substantial threat to American Pharoah in the Preakness, but Pletcher felt as though it was more logical to rest him in order to improve his chances of winning the Belmont Stakes, via Ron Mitchell of BloodHorse.com:

"

We were considering it very seriously. Basically, it came down to we just felt two weeks was a little bit risky. We felt five weeks to the Belmont would be an advantage for him. He's been at Belmont since two days after the Derby and has been training well. He's by a Belmont-winning sire. If you come back in two weeks and you turn out to be wrong, not only could you not run well in the Preakness, it could compromise your chances in the Belmont as well.

"

Pletcher's conservative approach could give American Pharoah some issues in the Belmont, but there is no question that his road to winning the Preakness Stakes was made a bit easier.

Also, with so many horses being withdrawn from the Preakness field, it arguably lessened the impact of the post draw, since there is nowhere near as much traffic to navigate as there was in the Kentucky Derby. 

American Pharoah broke from the 16th gate at Churchill Downs and ultimately had no trouble making his way to the front. In fact, jockey Victor Espinoza felt as though it worked to his advantage, according to KY Derby Contenders on Twitter:

Espinoza will have to work from the inside this time around, but there aren't so many horses in the field that he'll be forced to ride the rail.

A perceived "poor" post draw did nothing to impact American Pharoah two weeks ago, and it is difficult to imagine that his post will affect how he performs in the Preakness, either.

With that said, his outside post at the Kentucky Derby required him to run farther than almost every other horse in the field, as noted by Jim Chairusmi of the Wall Street Journal. Firing Line jockey Gary Stevens believes that, coupled with the quick turnaround, could be tough on the Derby winner.

"I think you can fairly ask the question, how is American Pharoah going to recover from this tough race that he had, because believe me, it was not an easy race on any one of the (top) three," Stevens said.

Luckily for American Pharoah, all of the top contenders are in the same boat. The true wild cards will be the three horses that working on extra rest.

The cream tends to rise to the top in the first two races of the Triple Crown, though, with stamina coming into play in the Belmont Stakes.

Horse racing fans are desperate to see the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, and not only does American Pharoah have the talent to potentially pull of that feat, but he also came away from Wednesday's draw in an advantageous position.

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