Preakness Results 2015: Video Replay, Times Chart, Belmont Prediction

On a rainy and muddy track at Pimlico, American Pharoah easily took the second leg of the Triple Crown with a dominating, seven-lengths win to capture the 2015 Preakness Stakes. The Kentucky Derby winner is now just one win away from becoming the first horse in 37 years to complete the Triple Crown.

In case you missed American Pharoah's dominant performance, here's the video replay.

American Pharoah proved to be the horse most capable of handling the messy track. He streaked to the win in 1:58.45. Tale of Verve finished a distant second. Here's a look the final results for the eight-horse field.

Place	No.	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths
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

To fully understand how impressive American Pharoah's performance was, you have to take into consideration all of the impediments the horse had to overcome en route to victory. Bob Baffert's horse started the race from the first post position. Just one of the previous 54 Preakness Stakes winners started on the rail.

Before the race, Baffert was justifiably nervous about American Pharoah's chances to win. Per Dan Wolken of USA Today, Baffert said: "I never like the 1 hole. That's the first time I've ever drawn the rail here. I've been so lucky. You don't like to see it, but if he's the best horse we'll find out."

And that we did.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Secondly, you never know how a horse will respond to running on a muddy track. Case in point, Dortmund and Firing Line—the two horses expected to put the most pressure on American Pharoah—finished fourth and seventh, respectively. Both horses seemed thrown off their games because of the track.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Lastly, American Pharoah proved he could win a different style race. At the Derby, he tracked Dortmund and Firing Line before running them down at the end. On a shorter track at Pimlico, American Pharoah followed the lead of jockey Victor Espinoza in setting a fast pace from the beginning. The team never let the other horses in the field have a chance.

Because of all of those qualities—especially the last one—American Pharoah is the early pick to win the Belmont Stakes and gallop into horse racing immortality as a Triple Crown winner.

Things could change a bit as we find out what the entire field will look like at the Belmont Stakes, but as of now, you can't bet against American Pharoah.