American Pharoah's Latest Triple Crown Odds After Preakness Post Positions Draw

At the Kentucky Derby, American Pharoah barreled inside from a difficult outside post to win the year's first Triple Crown event. To take the second, Pharoah will have to overcome the field converging on his inside post.

The Derby winner drew the dreaded No. 1 post for Saturday's Preakness Stakes, making his quest to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 all the more difficult. Morning line odds still have him posted as a 4-5 favorite, per Claire Novak of Blood Horse, but it'll nonetheless make for a more interesting race than previously expected.

Prop	Odds
American Pharoah Wins Triple Crown	+270
American Pharoah Does Not Win Triple Crown	-360

Post No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Morning-Line 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

"With eight horses it's a different vibe here (than the Derby)," said trainer Bob Baffert, per Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde. "I don't like being down on the inside, but we'll have to deal with it."

Before Wednesday, things were seemingly breaking in the right direction for Baffert and his star horse. Carpe Diem, Competitive Edge, Materiality and Stanford each dropped out of the race earlier this week, taking at least three potential contenders out of the running.

Competitive Edge's absence in particular was a good break, given the rising horse did not compete in the Derby and is undefeated in four career races. Materiality was also coming off a strong sixth-place finish in the Derby. 

Todd Pletcher, the trainer of all four horses, issued a statement seemingly indicating that he plans on playing the spoiler in the Belmont, per Jonathan Lintner of The Courier-Journal:

"

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.

"

What remained was a field essentially depleted of midcard competitors. From a purely objective standpoint, the only horses in Pharoah's way were the ones he overcame just two weeks ago. Firing Line and Dortmund, which pushed Pharoah the way he hadn't been previously in 2015, are still in the field and preparing for a strong run.

Dortmund, another Baffert protege that lost his first race in Churchill Downs, will run alongside Pharoah in the No. 2 post.

"I hate drawing next to my horses," Baffert said, per Lintner. "It'll be easier to watch now."

Firing Line will be making his run opposite Pharoah in the outside No. 8 post. Of the pair, Firing Line has the best shot at a win if the Derby results are any indication. With a slightly shorter track, Pimlico could eliminate the separation between Firing Line and Pharoah, who pulled away with an extra burst down the stretch at Churchill Downs.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

"Hopefully we can turn the tables on American Pharaoh, the same as we did Dortmund," Gary Stevens, Firing Line's jockey, told Mike Farrell of the Associated Press. "But believe me, I have plenty of respect for all three horses. They are very, very good and exceptional colts."

Of course, history remains on Pharoah's side—at least for this Saturday. Baffert won the Kentucky Derby three previous times, each leading to a subsequent triumph in the Preakness.

The success rate is as much a testament to Baffert as it is to the similarity between the two tracks. Both are right in line with what these young horses have been running for most of their careers. Logic dictates if a horse is consistently great on tracks of 1 1/8 meters or 1 1/16 meters that the results would carry over. A horse has won the Derby and Preakness six times since the turn of the century.

The true test comes at the Belmont, which is a battle of endurance in more than one way. At 12 furlongs, it's the longest race any of these horses has participated in and likely will be the longest of their careers. For Pharoah, Dortmund and Firing Line, it'll be their third race in a little more than a month. With Pletcher and a number of other trainers biding their time and resting their best horses, the odds are even more stacked against Pharoah.

History says Saturday should be a relative cakewalk despite drawing the inside post. It also says things get a whole lot hazier once the field begins arriving in southeast New York.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter