Preakness 2016 Horses: Entry List, Vegas Odds and Dark-Horse Favorites

While the Preakness field is not officially set, a slew of likely contenders has emerged. The intent, beyond winning, is to halt Nyquist's quest for a Triple Crown. Though, after the horse's impressive Derby win, that will certainly be easier said than done.

But before we go through the contenders and dark horses of the event—set for May 21 at 6:45 p.m. ET at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore—let's first take a look at the projected field for the race: 

Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Odds
Awesome Speed	Alan Goldberg	Jevian Toledo	n/a
Cherry Wine	Dale Romans	Robby Albarado	25-1
Collected	Bob Baffert	Javier Castellano	25-1
Dazzling Gem	Brad Cox	TBA	20-1
Exaggerator	Keith Desormeaux	Kent Desormeaux	9-2
Fellowship	Mark Casse	Jose Lezcano	33-1
Gun Runner	Steve Asmussen	Florent Geroux	14-1
Lani	Mikio Matsunaga	Yutaka Take	33-1
Laoban	Eric Guillot	Ricardo Santana Jr.	40-1
Nyquist	Doug O'Neill	Mario Gutierrez	5-7
Stradivari	Todd Pletcher	John Velazquez	12-1
Uncle Lino	Gary Sherlock	Fernando Perez	33-1

You could make a pretty strong argument that just about every horse other than Nyquist should be considered a dark-horse candidate. Nyquist, after all, has won all eight of his races, including the Kentucky Derby. And when the next favorite horse in this race is Exaggerator—who has lost to Nyquist four times—you know there is a clear favorite in the field.

Not only that, but the shorter track at Pimlico doesn't seem to favor a deep finisher like Exaggerator. So yes, Nyquist's top competitor isn't exactly the most ideal pick.

And Nyquist has looked good in his workouts in advance of the Preakness, trainer Doug O'Neill told Jonathan Lintner of the (Louisville) Courier-Journal:

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He’s held his weight well, and I think that’s a credit to the Derby being such a trouble-free, clean trip. It enabled him not to use more energy than he needed to. I hope the trip he got helps us in the race here, for sure. He’s eating great. His appetite is strong; his energy is great. He’s really relaxed here. He has good energy on the track, so I’m really happy the way he’s coming into it.

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The other two horses who seem capable of giving Nyquist a run for his money are Stradivari and Gun Runner. The former has been excellent in his last two races, winning by huge margins, while the latter ran even with Nyquist for much of the Kentucky Derby before falling off late and finishing third.

But, again, it's all about Nyquist. Mike Watchmaker of ESPN summed up why it's so difficult to project anything but a Nyquist victory:

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And no matter which way I look at the race, I'm having a difficult time right now coming up with anything other than this: If Nyquist runs his typical race, and certainly if he duplicates his Kentucky Derby, no one is going to beat him in the Preakness.

Moreover, there isn't any reason to think Nyquist won't show up Saturday. The Derby was only his third start of the year. He has been trained with what appears to be a delicate hand for the express purpose of keeping his tank full through the Triple Crown grind. And of course, the best reason of all for expecting Nyquist to be Nyquist in the Preakness is he has shown up, and won, every single time he has been sent postward, over five different racetracks, in three different states.

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But hey, what fun is it to only pick chalk, right? So let's identify a few of the dark-horse candidates.

Keep an eye on Collected, who has won his last two races by a significant margin, including the Lexington Stakes. Uncle Lino is also incredibly intriguing, as he set the the Los Alamitos track record at this year's California Chrome Stakes and also finished third at the Santa Anita Stakes.

Uncle Lion has the type of early speed that could challenge Nyquist or force the horse to run faster earlier than it would like. The question will be whether Lino can sustain that pace and have the stamina to hold off Nyquist, who showed excellent endurance to hold off Exaggerator at the Derby.

Still, an inside draw for Lino could lead to a clean run, which will make the horse dangerous. 

Finally, keep an eye on Lani. The horse didn't have a great line at the Derby but recovered to finish ninth. Keep in mind, that was the horse's first race in North America, and he did so against a full, 20-horse field. That's an intimidating field for most horses, let alone ones making their first race overseas.

Lani was the UAE Derby winner, remember. The smaller field could lead to a cleaner start for the horse. It's hard to know what to expect from Lani, of course, but the Preakness seems a more likely race to showcase the horse's ability than the Derby was ever going to be.

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