Preakness 2015 Lineup: Final Field Odds and Predictions for All Entries

With only eight horses running in this year's Preakness Stakes, the focus remains firmly on American Pharoah as he looks to continue his road to the Triple Crown.

The colt won a hotly contested Kentucky Derby, and given his impressive competitive record—5-of-5 in graded stakes races—it's not unreasonable to think that he could succeed where 13 horses since Affirmed have failed. A baker's dozen has won the first two legs of the Triple Crown before coming up just short at the Belmont Stakes.

To nobody's surprise, American Pharoah will enter Pimlico on Saturday as the heavy favorite.

Post	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Morning Line	Odds
1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	4-5	10-13
2	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	7-2	17-4
3	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	20-1	33-1
4	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	15-1	20-1
5	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	30-1	50-1
6	Bodhisattva	Trevor McCarthy	Jose Corrales	20-1	50-1
7	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	12-1	20-1
8	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	4-1	17-4

The small field combined with the short nature of the track itself—1 3/16 miles—make this year's Preakness Stakes somewhat difficult to forecast. Not to mention, the potential for rain only further muddies the projections.

If Pimlico does get waterlogged, faster horses like Dortmund and American Pharoah will have their physical advantages somewhat curtailed.

Still, this is American Pharoah's race to lose.

Predictions

Pos.	Horse
1	American Pharoah
2	Firing Line
3	Danzig Moon
4	Dortmund
5	Divining Rod
6	Tale of Verve
7	Bodhisattva
8	Mr. Z

The one doubt surrounding American Pharoah heading into the Kentucky Derby was if he could win the proverbial dogfight. His victories in the Rebel Stakes and Arkansas Derby came in dominating fashion, which didn't exactly test his mettle.

The three-year-old put any of those questions to bed with his victory at Churchill Downs. He made his move late and endured a stern challenge from Firing Line.

Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde wrote that American Pharoah didn't quite show himself to be "the superhorse hype" but still met his massive expectations in his Derby win.

Physically, American Pharoah is the strongest horse in the Preakness field, and trainer Bob Baffert's record in the race speaks for itself, per TVG Network:

American Pharoah might be his worst enemy, though, as he deals with the Pimlico crowd. Baffert admitted that the Churchill Downs crowd had a bit of an effect on the colt before the Kentucky Derby, per Melissa Hoppert of the New York Times:

"

"The walkover for the Derby has gotten out of control," said Baffert, who even stuffs fluffy cotton plugs in American Pharoah's ears before every race to avoid such occurrences. "There's too many people. It was like walking your horse through Times Square at midnight on New Year's Eve. And they were yelling and screaming and running next to him and taking pictures, so it got him a little stirred up."

"

That concern still isn't enough to bump American Pharoah out of the top spot.

Firing Line looks to be his stiffest competition. Although the three-year-old has just one graded stakes win under his belt, he has never finished lower than second in four races. His record also extends to his first two events, which weren't graded stakes.

Jockey Gary Stevens is feeling good about his chances, especially after American Pharoah drew the rail for the race, per USA Today's Dan Wolken:

There's no question that Firing Line is a serious threat to win, but on his best day, he still doesn't beat American Pharoah on his best day. Barring some sort of injury or issue out of the gate with American Pharoah, Firing Line is looking at second place.

A different challenger that might test American Pharoah is another Baffert horse, Dortmund. He's built for speed, and in a shorter race, jockey Martin Garcia might be more willing to go for broke.

Dortmund might also want to stick it to American Pharoah after having to put up with shenanigans like these on the way to Pimlico, per the Preakness Stakes:

Similarly to Firing Line, Dortmund has the physical tools to win the Preakness, but with Baffert as his trainer, you do have to wonder whether—even subconsciously—Baffert is hoping that Dortmund loses so American Pharoah can continue his Triple Crow pursuit.

Baffert isn't going to have one of his horses purposefully tank, but don't be surprised if Dortmund puts in a disappointing performance.

Beyond those three, it's pretty much a crapshoot.

Danzig Moon and Mr. Z are both positioned well for the race while Divining Rod has three top-three finishes in his graded stakes races.

To a large extent, everything else beyond the winner is superfluous in this year's Preakness with the amount of attention paid to American Pharoah. Everything that happens on the track will be viewed through the Triple Crown prism.

Note: Betting odds are courtesy of Odds Shark and updated as of 1 a.m. ET Saturday morning.