Preakness 2015 Payout: Finishing Times, Prize Money Earnings for Field

American Pharoah held off some tough challengers to win the Kentucky Derby a couple weeks ago, but there were no threats Saturday in the 140th Preakness Stakes as he blew away the field en route to victory.

The spectacular colt's win was never in doubt as he took another step toward winning the Triple Crown. Here is a breakdown of the results from the Run For the Black-Eyed Susans, complete with finishing times and prize money information:

Place	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Purse %	Prize Money	Lengths
1	American Pharoah	Victor Espinoza	Bob Baffert	60%	$900,000	---
2	Tale of Verve	Joel Rosario	Dallas Stewart	20%	$300,000	7
3	Divining Rod	Javier Castellano	Arnaud Delacour	11%	$165,000	8
4	Dortmund	Martin Garcia	Bob Baffert	6%	$90,000	15 1/2
5	Mr. Z	Corey Nakatani	D. Wayne Lukas	3%	$45,000	17 1/4
6	Danzig Moon	Julien Leparoux	Mark Casse	---	---	18 1/4
7	Firing Line	Gary Stevens	Simon Callaghan	---	---	45
8	Bodhisattva	Trevor McCarthy	Jose Corrales	---	---	48 1/4

There was no doubt that American Pharoah was the class of the race as he held off temporary charges by Divining Rod and Dortmund to win handily. Even so, it wasn't a historically great performance by any means.

Due in part to a sloppy track that was pelted by heavy rainfall, American Pharoah's finishing time was the worst by a Preakness winner in nearly 60 years, according to The Downey Profile:

Despite that pedestrian overall time, American Pharoah and Mr. Z actually managed to set a fairly quick pace despite the poor conditions. Per ESPN Stats & Info, American Pharoah's start was better than 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed's in the Preakness:

Based upon how much the weather impacted the track, Mike Watchmaker of Daily Racing Form felt as though the pace of the race was more than satisfactory:

Even though American Pharoah's performance doesn't stack up well with past Preakness winners, he can only be judged based on how he fared against the horses he ran against.

In that respect, American Pharoah put forth one of the best Preakness Stakes showings in recent memory. According to Richard Rosenblatt of The Associated Press (h/t The Kansas City Star), owner Ahmed Zayat was thrilled with the manner in which his horse handled the muddy track:

"I always told everybody American Pharoah would show up today," Zayat said. "Indeed he did. He is the real deal. ... He put on a show today. Nobody came close to him."

Horse owners aren't paid based on how long the race takes, so Zayat likely couldn't be happier about his $900,000 share of the $1.5 million overall purse.

Some might continue to question American Pharoah's chances even though he was clearly the best horse Saturday, but his improvement from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness Stakes is something that must be taken under consideration.

Firing Line and Dortmund very nearly ended his Triple Crown pursuit before it even started at Churchill Downs, however, American Pharoah and jockey Victor Espinoza didn't allow anyone to get into their zip code down the stretch at Pimlico.

There is still a massive challenge ahead as winning the lengthy Belmont Stakes has proven elusive for 13 other horses who have won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes since 1978.

American Pharoah is currently trending upward, and that may very well set him apart from every horse since Affirmed.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter