Preakness date ‘open to all possibilities’ as race searches for media partner

(Lloyd Fox/Baltimore Sun/TNS)

For 75 years, the Preakness Stakes has traditionally been run on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. That might change in 2027.

According to a report by Sports Business Journal, the second leg of the Triple Crown could shift back one week starting in 2027, giving an extra seven days of rest for Derby-winning horses that have historically passed on Pimlico because of the quick turnaround and subsequent health concerns.

Bill Knauf, president and general manager of the Maryland Jockey Club, told The Baltimore Sun that while the organization has not publicly addressed such plans, it is “open to all possibilities on the date of the Preakness as we search for our media partner.”

With NBC Sports in its final year of broadcasting the Preakness, a potential new broadcast partner — which Knauf said is likely to be decided sometime over the next month — opens the door to such monumental change.

The Derby’s home on the first Saturday in May is not expected to change. Whether the final leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, follows suit would depend on the media rights battle for the Baltimore race as well, according to SBJ. Belmont has historically run three weeks after Preakness. One source familiar with the negotiations believes that Belmont might be open to the shift as well, despite past concerns about the structure of the Triple Crown calendar.

The New York Racing Association, which operates Belmont Park in Elmont, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Preakness 151 will not be impacted. It is scheduled to run on May 16, two weeks after the Derby, at Laurel Park while Pimlico Race Course undergoes a $400 million renovation, led by the Maryland Stadium Authority. Knauf told The Sun earlier this month that the Maryland Jockey Club still expects the Preakness to return to Baltimore in 2027, acknowledging that the Pimlico grandstand will be “primarily a temporary construction site” and fully renovated in time for 2028.

A renewed contract with NBC Sports or a pivot to Fox Sports, which currently holds the rights to the Belmont, are the two most likely outcomes, according to a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

The massive redevelopment of Pimlico is the centerpiece of a broader push to reinvigorate the sanctity of the second jewel in Baltimore and to invest in the Park Heights community. State Del. Sandy Rosenberg, a Democrat whose district includes the track, said such plans have already brought new housing to the community. There’s an Enoch Pratt Free Library under construction, and the project could make it a year-round destination.

“People see this race that’s two minutes, and they wonder if the winner of the Kentucky Derby will be the winner of the Preakness, OK,” economist Anirban Basu said, “but economically, most of the activity is happening off the track.”

Still, everything starts with those two minutes. Shifting the racing calendar could be a major catalyst. And there’s a history of winners who have skipped “Old Hilltop,” most of whom cited the need to rest for the third leg of the iconic series.

In 2025, Sovereignty opted to forgo the Preakness and then won at Belmont.

“We want to do what’s best for the horse,” trainer Bill Mott told reporters at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, last year. “Of course, you always think about a Triple Crown, and that’s not something we’re not going to think about.”

Before that, Rich Strike skipped the Preakness in 2022 and ran at Belmont. In 2019, Country House was elevated to Derby winner when Maximum Security was disqualified for interference, but did not run at the Preakness because of illness. In 1982, Gato del Sol opted to rest for the Preakness and then finished second at Belmont. Count Turf was ineligible for the Preakness in 1951, then ran at Belmont three weeks later.

Several prominent names in the sport have been vocal in recent years about the need for an evolved calendar, one that reflects a competitive yet health-conscious approach.

Prominent owner Mike Repole posted on social media last year, “The Preakness being run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, in this new day and age in racing, shows the lack of vision and leadership needed to evolve this sport. I expect the top three finishers of this year’s Derby to skip the Preakness and go right to the Belmont.”

In 2022, NBC racing analyst Randy Moss told The Sun it was “inevitable” that modern racing would encourage people around the sport to reconsider the two-week turnaround. 1/ST Racing, which owns and operates Pimlico, floated the idea in 2023 to run Preakness four weeks after the Derby. PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said that pushing Preakness back would mean “less-inhumane intervals of one month each.”

Change appears to be on the horizon.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.x.com. Sam appears as a host on The Sun’s “Early Birds” podcast.