With the Kentucky Derby behind us, it's time to see if Nyquist can win the Preakness Stakes and leave Baltimore with a chance at the Triple Crown. But first he must face a big field of 3-year-olds in the second leg of the series. Want to know who he'll be facing? We've got you covered with our 2016 Preakness Cheat Sheet.
Once post positions are drawn, we'll update with post positions and morning-line odds and we'll be sure to update with any changes to the riding assignments in the coming days.
Awesome Speed
Jockey: TBD
Trainer: Alan Goldberg
Owner: Colts Neck Stables
Career record: 6 starts - 4 wins - 0 seconds - 0 thirds
Career earnings: $223,660
Earnings per start: $37,277
Pedigree: Awesome Again --Speedy Escape, by Aptitude
Color: Dark bay or brown
Running style: Pacemaker/stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: After losing his debut, Awesome Speed won his next three starts, including two stakes races. Awesome Speed skipped the last round of Kentucky Derby prep races after finishing fourth in the Fountain of Youth Stakes in February. Awesome Speed will be coming into the Preakness off a six-week break after winning the Federico Tesio Stakes via the disqualification of Governor Malibu.
Cherry Wine
Jockey: Robby Albarado
Trainer: Dale Romans
Owner: William Pacella and Frank L. Jones Jr.
Career record: 8 starts - 2 wins - 1 seconds - 2 thirds
Career earnings: $218,878
Earnings per start: $27,360
Pedigree: Paddy O'Prado -- C. S. Royce, by Unbridled's Song
Color: Gray or Roan
Running style: Closer
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Cherry Wine has really started to come into his own in the last five months or so. He won back-to-back races by a combined margin of 15¼ lengths before finishing fourth in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes and third in the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes. He was beaten just a head for second in the Blue Grass, which cost him a spot in the Kentucky Derby field. After sitting on the Kentucky Derby also-eligible list, Cherry Wine was rerouted to the Preakness where he looks guaranteed to get a spot in the field.
Collected
Jockey: TBD
Trainer: Bob Baffert
Owner: Speedway Stable
Career record: 6 starts - 4 wins - 1 seconds - 0 thirds
Career earnings: $433,700
Earnings per start: $72,283
Pedigree: City Zip - Helena Bay, by Johannesburg
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Pacesetter
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Collected finished second in a Grade 3 in his second start and won the Grade 3 Sham Stakes in his third start. A winner of the Sunland Park Festival of Racing Stakes, Collected is coming into the Preakness off an easy, confidence-boosting four-length victory in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes. Collected is from the family of champions Blushing Groom and Agnes Digital.
Dazzling Gem
Jockey: Joe Talamo
Trainer: Brad Cox
Owner: Steve Landers Racing
Career record: 3 starts - 2 wins - 0 seconds - 1 third
Career earnings: $182,800
Earnings per start: $60,933
Pedigree: Misremembered - Dazzler, by Vindication
Color: Bay
Running style: Front-runner/stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Dazzling Gem made his stakes debut in the Grade 2 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby, finishing third behind Gun Runner, in his third start. Dazzling Gem needed to finish third or better in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby to secure a spot in the Kentucky Derby but had to reroute from the Kentucky Derby when he finished fourth. He hasn't run since that race and will be coming into the Preakness off a five-week break. Dazzling Gem is from the family of champion Serena's Song and his dam's (mother's) sire, Vindication, won the Grade 1 Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 2002.
Exaggerator
Jockey: Kent Desormeaux
Trainer: Keith Desormeaux
Owner: Big Chief Racing, Head of Plains Partners, Rocker O Ranch, et al.
Career record: 10 starts - 4 wins - 3 seconds - 1 third
Career earnings: $2,071,120
Earnings per start: $207,112
Pedigree: Curlin - Dawn Raid, by Vindication
Color: Dark Bay or Brown
Running style: Stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Exaggerator has faced elite competition since early in his 2-year-old season, winning the Grade 2 Saratoga Special Stakes in his third start before a runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Claiborne Breeders' Futurity and a fourth-place finish in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He delivered a visually stunning victory in his final prep for the Kentucky Derby, when he closed from last to first in the Santa Anita Derby and powered clear to win by 6¼ lengths. He lived up to his billing as a consistent horse who always runs his race in the Kentucky Derby to make an impressive late run for second place. Exaggerator has finished behind Nyquist in four races, including their debuts last June.
Fellowship
Jockey: Jose Lezcano
Trainer: Mark Casse
Owner: Jacks or Better Farm
Career record: 12 starts - 2 wins - 3 seconds - 3 thirds
Career earnings: $574,715
Earnings per start: $47,893
Pedigree: Awesome of Course -- Go Girlfriend Go, by Demidoff
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Stalker/closer
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Fellowship debuted last May and has made at least one start in every month except for December and March since then. Fellowship has won at distances from 4½ furlongs to 1 1/16 miles, finishing first, second or third at five different distances. Fellowship was transferred to Mark Casse after the Florida Derby in April and finished fourth in the Pat Day Mile Stakes before taking aim on the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Gun Runner (will not start)
Jockey: Florent Geroux
Trainer: Steve Asmussen
Owner: Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm
Career record: 6 starts - 4 wins - 0 seconds - 1 thirds
Career earnings: $1,106,920
Earnings per start: $184,487
Pedigree: Candy Ride -- Quiet Giant, by Giant's Causeway
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Gun Runner won the first two starts of his career before finishing fourth on a sloppy track in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in his stakes debut. He surged to the top of the Road to the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard with back-to-back wins in the Grade 2 Veterans Ford Risen Star Stakes and Grade 2 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby, the latter a 4 ½-length runaway. Gun Runner was valiant in defeat in the Kentucky Derby, holding on to finish third after being involved in a hot pace. Gun Runner is out of the Grade 2-winning Giant's Causeway mare Quiet Giant, a half-sister (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam.
Lani
Jockey: Yutaka Take
Trainer: Mikio Matsunaga
Owner: Yoko Maeda
Career record: 7 starts - 3 wins - 1 seconds - 0 thirds
Career earnings: $1,366,618
Earnings per start: $195,231
Pedigree: Tapit - Heavenly Romance, by Sunday Silence
Color: Gray or Roan
Running style: Press/pacesetter
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Lani is by two-time leading U.S. sire Tapit out of the elite Japanese racemare Heavenly Romance, by 1989 Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner Sunday Silence. Bred in Kentucky, Lani made the first five starts of his career in Japan, where he won twice before shipping to Dubai and winning the UAE Derby. Lani made a name for himself at Churchill Downs for his high-spirited temperament and finished ninth in the Kentucky Derby. He will be the first Japanese-based horse to run in the Preakness Stakes.
Laoban
Jockey: Cornelio Velasquez
Trainer: Eric J. Guillot
Owner: McCormick Racing and Southern Equine Stable
Career record: 5 starts - 0 wins - 2 seconds - 1 third
Career earnings: $151,250
Earnings per start: $30,250
Pedigree: Uncle Mo - Chattertown, by Speightstown
Color: Dark Bay or Brown
Running style: Front-runner
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Laoban set the pace and then faded late in both the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes and the Grade 1 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes. Unfortunately, his fourth in the Blue Grass Stakes left him on the outside looking in for the Kentucky Derby, needing one scratch to draw into the field. When no one scratched out of the field, he was rerouted to the Preakness, a distance he should be able to handle better than the Kentucky Derby's 1 1/4 miles.
Nyquist
Jockey: Mario Gutierrez
Trainer: Doug O'Neill
Owner: Reddam Racing
Career record: 8 starts - 8 wins - 0 seconds - 0 thirds
Career earnings: $4,954,200
Earnings per start: $619,275
Pedigree: Uncle Mo â Seeking Gabrielle, by Forestry
Color: Bay
Running style: Front-runner/stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Perhaps no 3-year-old in recent memory rolled into the Triple Crown with as impressive a resume as Nyquist's. He's won all eight of his races, including a very fast Kentucky Derby. He was named champion 2-year-old male after a season capped by a win in the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Nyquist enters the second leg of the Triple Crown after winning the fastest Kentucky Derby in 13 years. Nyquist and his sire, Uncle Mo, are the first father/son duo to win champion 2-year-old male honors since Seattle Slew and Vindication in 2002, and Nyquist is the first champion 2-year-old to stay undefeated through the Kentucky Derby since Seattle Slew. He shares the same connections as 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another.
Stradivari
Jockey: John Velazquez
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Owner: John Gunther, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, John Magnier
Career record: 3 starts - 2 wins - 0 seconds - 0 thirds
Career earnings: $64,200
Earnings per start: $21,400
Pedigree: Medaglia d'Oro - Bending Strings, by American Chance
Color: Dark bay or brown
Running style: Pacemaker/stalker
Notable achievements and interesting facts: Stradivari made his debut in early November, finishing fourth. But since then, he has been impressive in his two starts with a combined margin of victory of 25¾ lengths. Stradivari has won at 1 1/16 miles and 1 1/8 miles, with the colt getting better the farther he goes, but the Preakness will be his first start in a stakes race. Stradivari is by Medaglia d'Oro, who finished second in the 2002 Belmont Stakes and both the 2002 and 2003 Breeders' Cup Classic, and he is out of multiple graded stakes winner Bending Strings.
Jockey: Fernando Hernandez Perez
Trainer: Gary Sherlock
Owner: Tom Mansor, Purple Shamrock Racing and Gary Sherlock
Career record: 7 starts - 2 win - 2 seconds - 2 thirds
Career earnings: $316,160
Earnings per start: $45,166
Pedigree: Uncle Mo - Haysee, by Orientate
Color: Bay
Running style: Stalker/presser
Notable achievements and interesting facts: After steadily improving in his first four races, Uncle Lino took a step in the wrong direction when fourth, beaten by 10 lengths, in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes and third, beaten by 8½ lengths, in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. But when Uncle Lino dropped down to listed stakes company at the end of last month, he won the California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos. By 2015 leading freshman sire Uncle Mo, who will probably have three horses in this race, and out of a half-sister (same dam [mother], different sire [father]) to 2011 Preakness winner Shackleford, Uncle Lino is worth taking a look at.
