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Preakness 2021 Payout: Prize-Money Payout, Order of Finish and Reaction
May 15, 2021
When Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, it initially felt like a feel-good story. Rombauer, with a late surge, became a similar story in Saturday's Preakness Stakes. The Michael McCarthy-trained horse closed as an 11-1 long shot.
Medina Spirit's victory was quickly tainted when he tested positive for an excessive amount of the steroid betamethasone. The horse was cleared to race in the Preakness but still carried an aura of controversy.
"If Medina Spirit goes and wins the Preakness on Saturday, the general public is going to just immediately say, 'Oh, well, look, there's still something funny going on,'" NBC Sports betting analyst Matt Bernier said, per the Associated Press (h/t USA Today).
Medina Spirit was a heavy morning-line betting favorite but closed at 2-1 and was nearly caught by Midnight Bourbon, who closed at 3-1.
There will be no Triple Crown winner this year, but that won't matter to jockey Flavien Prat and Rombauer, who chased down Medina Spirit and Midnight Bourbon in the final stretch.
2021 Preakness Results and Prize Payout
1. Rombauer $600,000
2. Midnight Bourbon $200,000
3. Medina Spirit 110,000
4. Keepmeinmind $60,000
5. Crowded Trade $30,000
6. Unbridled Honor
7. France Go de Ina
8. Risk Taking
9. Concert Tour
10. Ram
While Baffert is a big name in the horse-racing world, McCarthy doesn't maintain such a massive profile. A former protege of Todd Pletcher, McCarthy has only been training his own stable since 2014. The win came as a relative surprise to the trainer himself.
"It was like an out-of-body experience," an emotional McCarthy said during the post-race NBC broadcast.
Plenty of racing fans were thrilled to see McCarthy take home the win Saturday, though.
Like McCarthy, Rombauer didn't carry a ton of fanfare coming into the Preakness. The horse didn't run in the Kentucky Derby and was coming off a third-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes. Rombauer's last win came in February at the El Camino Real Derby.
For a large portion of the race, it appeared Medina Spirit would keep his Triple Crown hopes alive. However, Midnight Bourbon closed late, and the two ran nearly neck-and-neck down the stretch. It was the long shot Rombauer, though, who exploded on the outside, took the lead and pulled away in the end.
This was the second Triple Crown race Prat has won but the first time he crossed the finish line in the lead. He raced Country House at the 2019 Kentucky Derby and was awarded the win when Maximum Security was disqualified.
The final jewel of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, is up next on June 5.
Closing odds via Associated Press' Howard Fendrich (h/t ClickOrlando.com).