Preakness 2015: Standings, Finishing Times and Prize Money Results

American Pharoah came into the Preakness with two legitimate challengers who appeared to have the wherewithal to give him a run for his money in the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

Bob Baffert's horse comes out of the race as a seven-length winner, and he will have a chance to become horse racing's first triple crown winner since 1978, when Affirmed accomplished the feat.

However, history says the odds are against American Pharoah, because 13 other horses have gone into the final leg of the Triple Crown having won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness since Affirmed's Belmont Stakes victory, and none of them have been successful in the Belmont Stakes.

Horse	Win	Place	Show
Anerican Pharoah	$3.80	$3.40	$2.80
Tale of Verve	----	$19.80	$8.80
Divining Rod	----	----	$5.20

TVG highlighted American Pharoah's win:

"

Two down, one to go! American Pharoah takes the #Preakness! pic.twitter.com/Wos2fTlnJV

— TVG Preakness 2015 (@TVG) May 16, 2015"

A layer of drama was added to the Preakness when a torrential downpour hit the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore shortly before the jockeys took their mounts. While American Pharoah had won a previous race in the rain, the suddenness and intensity of the storm could have leveled the field and given the other seven runners a better chance to win.

However, American Pharoah jockey Victor Espinoza said that he decided to take his horse to the front from his No. 1 starting position as soon as the rain started coming down. "I was unsure before the rain, but I made up my mind when I saw how hard it was raining," Espinoza told NBC reporter Donna Brothers.

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lenghs
1	1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	----
2	5	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	7
3	7	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	8
4	2	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	15 1/2
5	3	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	17 1/4
6	4	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	18 1/4
7	8	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	45
8	6	Bodhisattva	Trevor McCarthy	Jose Corrales	48 1/4

NBC Sports provided highlights of American Pharoah's win:

"

FULL REPLAY: American Pharoah takes the second leg of the Triple Crown, blistering the field at the @PreaknessStakes http://t.co/EHUu2JNJkx

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 16, 2015"

American Pharoah won the race in the time of 1:58.45 and paid $3.80 to win on a $2 bet. Tale of Verve finished second, and Divining Rod finished third.

Firing Line and Dortmund finished second and third, respectively, in the Kentucky Derby and were seen as American Pharoah's biggest challengers in the Preakness. However, Firing Line never took to the track and finished seventh, while Dortmund finished in fourth place. Xpressbet, LLC provided race results and payouts:

"

Full Results and Payouts for the Preakness Stakes pic.twitter.com/zgDdmvG6fg

— Xpressbet, LLC (@Xpressbet) May 16, 2015"

Baffert has now won the Preakness six times in his career. He is one step away from the Triple Crown, and that would be the biggest victory of his career. DRF Derby noted Baffert and Espinoza will once again attempt to win the Triple Crown:

"

This will be fourth shot at Triple Crown for Baffert, third for @EspinozasVictor; they teamed up with dual classic winner War Emblem in 2002

— DRF Derby (@DRFDerby) May 16, 2015"