Napoleon Solo wins 151st Preakness Stakes

Here are the payouts for the top three finishers at the Preakness:

1. Napoleon Solo: $1.2 million

2. Iron Honor: $400,000

3. Chip Honcho: $220,000

Now for the answer every horse racing fan wants to know: what was the payout for the winning horse? A $2 bet on Napoleon Solo (at 7-1 odds) would’ve paid $17.80 to win, $9.80 to place, and $7.40 to show.

A $2 bet on Iron Honor would’ve paid $9.20 to place and $6.60 to show, and a $2 bet on Chip Honcho to show would’ve netted $8.20.

A $2 Exacta bet would’ve won $107.20.

A $1 Trifecta bet would’ve won $597.10.

And a $1 Superfecta bet would’ve won $2,377.80.

Napoleon Solo ended up winning the Preakness by just more than one length, and Iron Honor finished second, while Chip Honcho came in third. Here's the full order of the finish:

1. Napoleon Solo

2. Iron Honor

3. Chip Honcho

4. Ocelli

5. Incredibolt (Steve Kornacki's Preakness pick)

Taj Mahal, the favorite that led for much of the race, faded down the stretch and finished 10th.

Napoleon Solo won the 151st Preakness Stakes on Saturday after taking control entering the homestretch and pulling away to hold off prerace favorite Iron Honor.

Paco Lopez, right, leading Napoleon Solo to a first place finish on Saturday. Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

Napoleon Solo, trained by Chad Summers, entered the race at 10-1 odds.

Taj Mahal led the 14-horse field through the first half-mile in 46.66 seconds and was still in front just before the top of the homestretch, as Napoleon Solo took the lead. Taj Mahal drifted behind, and although Iron Honor tried to challenge for the lead, Solo opened up a lead to win by a length.

Chip Honcho finished third.

This was a surprising win because Napoleon Solo had finished fifth in both of his starts this year, including the Wood Memorial.

The Preakness has begun.

Heather Diehl / Getty Images

We're moments away from the start of the 151st Preakness. Get to a TV and turn on NBC now! (Or Peacock works too.)

Horse racing will undergo a significant change after the running of today's Preakness. In the coming days, a deal is expected to close that will see the first two legs of the Triple Crown come under the ownership of the same entity.

The deal was first announced in late April, when the parent company of the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs Inc., said it would spend $85 million to purchase the intellectual rights of the Preakness Stakes and the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, a race of 3-year-old fillies the day before the Preakness.

Under the deal, Churchill Downs "will license to the State of Maryland the intellectual property rights necessary to conduct the running of the Preakness Stakes and Black-Eyed Susan Stakes in exchange for an annual fee," an announcement at the time said.

Steve Kornacki explains the history that Ocelli is chasing at the Preakness and whether the Kentucky Derby’s third-place finisher can take the next step.

The Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore has hosted the Preakness since the 1870s. But the track is currently undergoing a reported $400 million makeover, and as a result, this year's race will be held at Laurel Park, a track just outside of Washington, D.C. The Pimlico renovations are expected to be finished in time for the Preakness to return there in 2027.

Chasing Liberty had lost six races in a row until Saturday's undercard at Laurel Park, when Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. led Chasing Liberty to a narrow win in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint.

Ortiz rode Renegade at the Kentucky Derby, finishing second two weeks ago. But with Renegade sitting out the Preakness Stakes, Ortiz had to find another mount. Instead today he will ride Talkin, a horse Ortiz has never ridden before, according to NBC Sports analyst Donna Brothers.

Steve Kornacki points out the differences between Pimlico and Laurel Park and how the dimensions of the latter may affect how the race is run.

Danny Gargan managed to pull Irad Ortiz Jr. in as the mount for Talkin. This alone suggests he should be shorter than 20-1 and will probably get a bet on race day. The son of Good Magic is clearly improving, and if he can recapture his early 2-year-old form, he may be a surprise winner in this field.

Claude McGaughey III’s 7-year-old trainee becomes the first horse in a century to win back-to-back Dinner Party Stakes.

Brittany and Sheldon Russell lean on each other to succeed as a wife/husband and trainer/jockey team.

In the early 1980s, Maryland created a race called the Tesio Stakes that was designed to be a feeder into the Preakness for local horses. And in those early days, the Tesio produced Deputed Testamony, a Maryland-bred who won the 1983 Preakness at 14-1 odds. But since then, the Tesio’s track record has been positively dismal. This year could be different, though.

Taj Mahal began his career in the barn of the legendary Bob Baffert before being transferred by his owners to Brittany Russell, who has become the star trainer of the Maryland circuit. And under Russell, Taj Mahal is now 3-for-3, including an eye-opening win at the Tesio, where he raced on the leader and then, just as it seemed he was about to run out of gas and give way, found a new gear and accelerated away from the rest of the field.

Preakness Stakes entry, Taj Mahal trains during morning workouts at Laurel Park.  Gregory Fisher / Imagn Images

Taj Mahal is an unusually talented Tesio winner. And this is an unusually modest Preakness field. He rates a legitimate contender, especially when you consider that his three-race career has taken place exclusively at Laurel Park. He’s the only horse in this field who’s run on this track before.

Whit Beckman’s 4-year-old gelding Bring the Smoke brings the speed down the final stretch in the Maryland Sprint at Laurel Park with an exciting finish.

Steve Asmussen’s trainee runs away from the field down the final stretch to win the Chick Lang Stakes by 3 lengths at Laurel Park.

In 1940, when Bimelech won the Preakness, the horse was draped with a blanket decorated with black-eyed Susans, also known as the yellow coneflower, the official Maryland state flower. A tradition was born.

Every year, a new blanket is made for the race's winner. It is constructed through a painstaking process: Four people work up to eight hours until they produce a 7.5-foot-long blanket that features thousands of the flowers.

When today's winner is presented this beautiful blanket, spare a thought for the worker who meticulously placed each flower into position.

Napoleon Solo is 8-1 on the morning line. That could be a steal if you believe he can recover the form he showed in a big race last fall, an open-lengths romp in the Champagne Stakes in New York. In that gate-to-wire win, Napoleon Solo notched a Beyer speed rating of 95, tops in this field. But in two races since then, he’s been an afterthought. Excuses are available if you’re looking for them, though.

In the first of those races, by his trainer’s own admission, he wasn’t fully revved up coming off of a long rest. And in the second, he contested a trying pace that produced a meltdown. The bullish case is that with several races under his belt, he’s finally in good form and a more tactical ride could make the difference. Then again, he figures to be in the mix early, and there’s a lot of speed around him, at least on paper, making another meltdown a real possibility.

Gary Capuano’s trainee Big Cuddle outlasts favorite Final Story down the final stretch with 18-year-old Yedsit Hazlewood on board to win the Sir Barton Stakes at Laurel Park.

Trainer Chad Brown has developed a proven strategy for winning the Preakness. Multiple times, he has had his horse skip the Kentucky Derby, rest up and focus on this race. And it has paid off.

Brown followed that blueprint in 2017 with Cloud Computing and in 2022 with Early Voting, both of whom won the Preakness. And he did it again in 2023 with Blazing Sevens, who barely finished second that year.

Now Brown is following the same formula with Iron Honor, a horse that enters this year's Preakness as one of the favorites. Iron Honor won his first two career races but finished seventh at the Wood Memorial Stakes in early April in a weak field. He collided with another horse during the first turn. In other words: Iron Honor has showed promise but is no sure thing.

We'll see if Brown's strategy pays off again. There's a reason he's a five-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer of the Year.

Back in 1860, Tiffany & Co. created a silver trophy for the Woodlawn Racing Association that came to be called the Woodlawn vase. It stood about 3 feet tall, weighed about 30 pounds and was transferred each year to the winner of the Preakness, for nearly a century.

But in 1953, the Vanderbilt family put an end to that tradition. That year, A.G. Vanderbilt won the Preakness with Native Dancer, and "his wife did not want to take on the immense responsibility of the vase’s safekeeping," according to the Preakness website. In the 1980s, the vase was said to be worth $1 million.

Now, the Preakness winner is given a replica of the trophy, worth a measly $30,000, while the original sits on display in a Baltimore museum.

Yes, Taj Mahal is trained by Brittany Russell and will be ridden by Sheldon Russell, a wife and husband duo. If Taj Mahal wins, he'd become the first horse to win a Triple Crown race with a married couple in those roles.

Brittany Russell on May 15 in Laurel, Md. Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP

“The dream, the goal was always to get one that would take us to one of the big races, and he’s sort of taken us there,” Sheldon Russell told The Associated Press.

The major headline out of the Kentucky Derby? Cherie DeVaux made history as the first female trainer to win the Derby. A few years ago, in 2023, Jena Antonucci made history when she won the Belmont Stakes with Arcangelo. But no female trainer has ever won the Preakness.

That could change today with Brittany Russell and her horse Taj Mahal. The stars seem to be aligning in her favor. This year's Preakness is being run at Laurel Park, her home track, and Taj Mahal's jockey will be her husband, Sheldon.

“It would sort of feel probably a little fairytale-like,” Brittany Russell told The Associated Press. “Jena opened the door just a couple years ago with Arcangelo, and Cherie got it done in the Kentucky Derby. The fact that I feel like I have a live one in the Preakness here, look, there’s some pressure and I certainly hope we can do it, but it would mean an awful lot.”

A few days before the Kentucky Derby, Ocelli became a late add to the field after another horse was scratched. Entering the race, Ocelli had 70-1 odds.

But Ocelli surprised everyone and was leading in the final furlough, before being overtaken by Golden Tempo and Renegade. Ocelli ended up taking third. He only lost the race by one length.

Now, a few weeks later, Ocelli will run the Preakness, while the top two Derby finishers sit out. Ocelli's odds sit at 6-1, making him a contender but not the favorite. Pundits have pointed to his homestretch speed as a strength on this track. But we should note: Ocelli has never won a race. If he finishes first today, he'd be the first maiden winner of the Preakness since 1888.

Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick break down the current odds for who will win the 151st Preakness Stakes, with Iron Honor (9-2), Chip Honcho (5-1), Incredibolt (5-1) and Taj Mahal (5-1) the current favorites.