Preakness 2016 Post Time: Race Schedule, Livestream and NBC TV Info

The previous two years have seen the Kentucky Derby champion win the Preakness Stakes, including American Pharoah on his way to a Triple Crown in 2015. Nyquist will look to make it three consecutive years on Saturday when he leads an 11-horse field into Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course. 

The Preakness Stakes doesn't boast the same pageantry as the Kentucky Derby or Belmont Stakes by virtue of being the Triple Crown's middle race, yet it's also a race where strange things tend to happen. Rachel Alexandra is the last filly to win a Triple Crown race, capturing the Preakness in 2009 after 85 years since the last filly did so. 

Here's a look at the race and the television schedule for Saturday's 141st running of the Preakness Stakes. 

Date	Network	Start Time (ET)	Post Time (ET)	Livestream
Saturday, May 21	NBC	5 p.m.	6:45 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra

Starting Lineup

Post	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Odds
1	Cherry Wine	Dale Romans	Corey Lanerie	25-1
2	Uncle Lino	Gary Sherlock	Fernando Perez	33-1
3	Nyquist	Doug O'Neill	Mario Gutierrez	4-7
4	Awesome Speed	Alan Goldberg	Jevian Toledo	33-1
5	Exaggerator	Keith Desormeaux	Kent Desormeaux	15-4
6	Lani	Mikio Matsunaga	Yutaka Take	40-1
7	Collected	Bob Baffert	Javier Castellano	16-1
8	Laoban	Eric Guillot	Florent Geroux	40-1
9	Abiding Star	Ned Allard	J.D. Acosta	40-1
10	Fellowship	Mark Casse	Jose Lezcano	33-1
11	Stradivari	Todd Pletcher	John Velazquez	8-1

Prediction: Nyquist

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Nyquist has all the momentum coming into the Preakness Stakes, boasting an 8-0 career record and having taken out his key competitors at the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby over the last six weeks. 

Even though less than ideal weather conditions are expected around Baltimore this weekend, Nyquist proved himself to be a master of rain-soaked tracks in his triumph at the Florida Derby. 

His biggest competitor is Exaggerator, who had a brilliant run at the Kentucky Derby, finishing in second place after a slow start led to him being in 15th place early on. 

There is a stigma Exaggerator's jockey, Kent Desormeaux, will have to overcome against Nyquist, as the Kentucky Derby champion has defeated his horse four times in the last year. 

Exaggerator's trainer, Keith Desormeaux, told Ed Gray of the Boston Herald that his horse will have a difficult time beating Nyquist given how things have gone in the past, although he found one reason this weekend could be different:

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Obviously, numbers-wise, horse for horse-wise, it’s tough to think we can beat him, right? But the strongest attribute Exaggerator has is his ability to recover. As you know, this Preakness is run back in two weeks. That’s not normal in this day and age to run a horse back that quickly.

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That's an aspect of the Preakness Stakes that isn't discussed enough. Two weeks is not a significant time in horse racing, which is also one reason why only three of the horses who ran the Kentucky Derby are returning this weekend (Nyquist, Exaggerator and Lani). 

The turnaround is also why a winner could easily come from a horse who didn't take part in the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist looks great on paper and has an impressive highlight reel, yet he's never had less than four weeks in between races. 

Stradivari is a horse getting a late push. Per Odds Shark, he has the third-best odds of any horse in the Preakness field despite only having three career races under his belt. His last two races have been wins by more than 25 lengths combined. 

Ellis Starr of America's Best Racing found numbers within Stradivari's two wins that make him seem even more impressive:

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Even after four months off, Stradivari improved to a 112 figure effort, better than the 107 and 108 figures Nyquist has put forth in his last three victories including the Derby. Stradivari hasn't been farther back than third and a length and a half behind the leaders in the early stages in those races, but I have little doubt that if he finds himself fourth or even fifth in the early stages of the Preakness it will be no problem. He has responded to the cues given by John Velazquez in both races and with more improving to do in only his second start of the year, Stradivari can post the upset in the Preakness.

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The biggest concern with Stradivari is he's never run a race on this kind of stage. It's one thing to dominate at Keeneland and Gulfstream Park, but it's something different racing against the best three-year-old horses in the country when there are more than 100,000 people in the stands.

Nyquist doesn't have those concerns. He's already dazzled on the biggest stage horse racing has to offer, so another run in front of 100,000-plus people won't affect him. Also, the short turnaround time from the Kentucky Derby didn't seem to bother American Pharoah last year or California Chrome the previous year. 

There's been a constant upward trajectory for Nyquist since he debuted last June. Jockey Mario Gutierrez has developed a rapport with the horse and knows when it's time to push him ahead, as he did two weeks ago.

It's not going out on a limb to say Nyquist will win the Preakness Stakes; there is a reason why oddsmakers have given him a substantial edge over the rest of the field.