Preakness 2016 Contenders: Horses and Jockeys with Best Chance at Pimlico

The middle jewel of the Triple Crown may not be as easy for Nyquist as the betting public would like to think.

The Kentucky Derby winner is a powerful 3-5 favorite, according to Preakness.com, but the 1 3/16-mile Preakness at Pimlico Race Course often requires superior tactics for a horse to come out ahead in the race.  

Two factors are likely to come into play here, and one of them is a constant at the Baltimore race track. Pimlico has much tighter turns than many of the tracks that feature the best thoroughbred runners, and it is difficult for horses and jockeys to make their moves while running the curves.

The other factor is the weather. According to Weather.com, rain is in the forecast Saturday, which will alter the track. While Nyquist is undefeated in eight previous races, he has never run in sloppy or muddy conditions.

However, top contender Exaggerator (3-1) has run in the slop before and has performed well. Exaggerator, trained by Keith Desormeaux and ridden by his brother Kent Desormeaux, splashed home first in the Santa Anita Derby in April.

Exaggerator is a come-from-behind runner, and most horses who excel in the mud tend to be front-runners.

Mario Gutierrez, Nyquist's jockey, understands that Exaggerator is a strong finisher. While Nyquist will have little recourse if the other horses set a blazing pace early in the race and set it up for Exaggerator to make a late charge, Gutierrez can keep his horse close to the front-runners in the early part of the race before he makes his move near the top of the stretch.

Post	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Odds
1	Cherry Wine	Dale Romans	Corey Lanerie	20-1
2	Uncle Lino	Gary Sherlock	Fernando Perez	20-1
3	Nyquist	Doug O'Neill	Mario Gutierrez	3-5
4	Awesome Speed	Alan Goldberg	Jevian Toledo	30-1
5	Exaggerator	Keith Desormeaux	Kent Desormeaux	3-1
6	Lani	Mikio Matsunaga	Yutaka Take	30-1
7	Collected	Bob Baffert	Javier Castellano	10-1
8	Laoban	Eric Guillot	Florent Geroux	30-1
9	Abiding Star	Ned Allar	J.D. Acosta	30-1
10	Fellowship	Mark Casse	Jose Lezcano	30-1
11	Stradivari	Todd Pletcher	John Velazquez	8-1

The key for Nyquist is staying close in the early part of the race and hope that the front-runners don't take it out too quickly. If they do, Nyquist will most likely expend quite a bit of energy before the stretch run, and Exaggerator could pass him as a result.

O'Neill is confident that Gutierrez will give him the proper ride. "Mario is such a great rider," O'Neill told Jeremy Balan of The Blood Horse. "He'll know the pace. If they're flying, we'll sit off. If they're not flying, we'll set it."

Garry Jones/Associated Press

Stradivari, who is trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velasquez, will start out of the 11th hole and is considered a major factor in the race. Stradivari has run only three times, but he has won his last two races by 25 lengths combined.

Stradivari is an X-factor here because he could be good enough to run with the top two, but his lack of racing history could indicate he's not ready to be on the track with the best competition.

The fourth colt to look out for in the field of 11 is Cherry Wine, who is trained by Dale Romans and ridden by Robby Albarado.

Cherry Wine likes to break alertly and go to the front. If he can get there and is not joined by a couple of other horses who push the pace early, he might have a shot to keep the lead well into the stretch. If that happens, an upset is a legitimate possibility.