The Preakness Stakes is the second leg of horse racing's Triple Crown. (Photo credit: MDGovpics via Foter.com / CC BY)
The Preakness Stakes are this Saturday in Baltimore, marking the second leg in horse racing’s Triple Crown. This article is designed to tell Canadians about the race and the best ways how to bet Preakness 2016.
Nyquist claimed a comfortable victory at the first major race of the season, the Kentucky Derby May 7 in Louisville. Because of that, he’s a big favourite to win the Preakness. If you want to bet on Nyquist to win, you’d have to bet $148 to win $100 (those odds as of Thursday, May 19 at Sports Interaction.)
Here’s what else you need to know about betting the Preakness this year.
What Time Preakness Stakes Starts, And What TV Channel
The race itself will start at approximately 6:45 p.m. Television coverage of the race, however, will begin at 5 p.m.
Canadians can watch the Preakness Stakes on TSN 1 and TSN3.
How Long Preakness Stakes Is
The Preakness is the shortest of the three races in the Triple Crown, measuring at 1.9 kilometres. That’s just 100 metres shorter than the Kentucky Derby, but half a kilometre shorter than the longest race of the three, the Belmont Stakes.
Best Preakness Betting Sites For Canadians
Sportsbook | Bonus | Overview | |
---|---|---|---|
100% up to $125 | A true Canadian sportsbook, SIA offers many convenient deposit methods. | ReviewBet Now » | |
Best Odds (No Bonus) | Simply the best online sportsbook odds. No sportsbook pays faster. | ReviewBet Now » |
Canadians have a lot of great options when it comes to where to bet the Preakness.
Pinnacle Sports (www.PinnacleSports.com) usually offers the best Preakness odds; William Hill (www.WilliamHill.com) is a United Kingdom book which specialize in horse racing betting; and Bodog (www.Bodog.eu) and Sports Interaction (www.SportsInteraction.com) are sportsbooks that are located in Canada and cater specifically to Canadian players.
If you sign up at William Hill, Bodog or Sports Interaction, you can get a bonus of $100 or more on your first deposit that you can use to bet the Preakness for free!
Preakness Odds To Win
- Nyquist: 4/6
- Exaggerator: 7/2
- Stradivari: 8/1
- Collected: 16/1
- Cherry Wine: 25/1
- Uncle Lino: 33/1
- Awesome Speed: 33/1
- Abiding Star: 33/1
- Fellowship: 40/1
- Lani: 40/1
- Laoban: 40/1
If you bet on Nyquist, you’d win $4 for every $6 you bet (odds as of Thursday, May 19). That’s just a ratio, and doesn’t mean you need to bet to risk $6. You can bet as little as $2 if you would like, but you obviously wouldn’t win that much betting on the favourite.
If you bet $2 on longshots like Fellowship, Lani or Laoban, however, you could win $80, since they pay 40/1.
To see the current 2016 Preakness odds, visit PinnacleSports.com or SportsInteraction.com and go to the horse racing section of their sportsbook.
How To Read Preakness Odds
Before you bet on the Preakness, you need to know how to read horse racing odds.
Sportsbooks list horse racing odds in three main ways: Fraction odds, American odds and Decimal odds.
- Fraction odds indicate how much you’ll win per how much you bet. If a horse is 6/1, you’ll win $6 for every $1 you bet. If the horse is 13/2, you’ll win $13 for every $2.
- American odds indicate how much you have to bet on a favourite to win $100, or what you can win on an underdog if you risk $100. Favourites have a minus (-) sign in front of their odds, and underdogs have a plus (+) sign in front of their odds.
- Decimal odds indicate what your total payout (profit plus your original wager) would be if you multiply them by the amount you risk. If a horse is 1.70, you’d win $170 on a $100 bet (but profit $70, since it includes your original $100 back). If a horse is 6.50, you’d win $650 on a $100 bet (but profit $550).
Horse racing tracks (and some sports betting site racebooks) also use money odds, which show you how much you’ll win on a $2 bet (they’re based on $2, because $2 is the minimum bet). If a horse is listed at $14.30, you’d win $14.30 on a $2 wager.
The payout on fraction and American odds do not include your original wager that you’ll get back if you win, but Decimal odds and money odds do include it. So if the fraction odds are 13/2 and the money odds are $13.00 (on a $2 bet), the fraction odds pay better.
– We wrote an article that fully explains horse racing betting odds.
How To Bet Preakness 2016
There are a lot of options when it comes to betting the Preakness.
The most popular one is trying to pick the winner. This is also the most difficult, but it’s easier in the Preakness because it has a maximum field of 14 horses, compared to a 20-horse field in the Kentucky Derby. Besides, you can hit a big payday if you’re right, especially if you take a big underdog!
If you’re just betting on the winner, you might want to bet on a few different horses to ensure you’ve got some excitement at the finish line. You don’t want the 1 horse you bet on to have some problems early and not be in contention down the stretch.
Here are some other ways how to bet Preakness 2016:
Smaller Risk/Smaller Payouts
You can bet on a horse to finish in the top 2 (known as ‘Place’) or the top 3 (‘Show’). These bets will typically pay you double your money or better.
Or you can try something sportsbooks like Sports Interaction offer, called ‘Each-Way’ betting. If you select ‘Each Way’ on your bet, you can win your bet even if your horse finishes second, third, fourth or fifth.
The minimum bet on Win, Place or Show bets is $2.
Moderate Risk/Moderate Payouts
If just trying to pick the winner doesn’t get your juices flowing, you could give the Exacta a shot. That’s where you pick the top 2 finishers in the race, in order.
A more conservative way to bet the top 2 finishers is the Quinella. It’s like the Exacta, except it doesn’t matter which order the 2 horses you pick finish. Obviously, it doesn’t pay as well as the Exacta.
These exotic (combination) bets have a lower minimum bet, since they’re harder to win. You can play the Exacta for as low as $1 if you want.
Larger Risk/Larger Payouts
If you like to live on the edge, why not try the Trifecta or even the Superfecta? The Trifecta is when you pick the top 3 finishers in order, and the Superfecta is when you pick the top 4 finishers in order. Both are extremely difficult to win, but are rewarded with huge payouts.
If you want to bet 3 or 4 horses but increase your chances of winning, you can also box your bets. Boxing your bets essentially means that you are playing every possible Trifecta or Superfecta combination involving your 3 or 4 horses.
– We wrote an article about how to bet on horse racing that explains more
2016 Preakness: Who Will Win?
Nyquist is a 3/2 favourite, which suggests he has a 60% chance to be the horse who will win the 2016 Preakness. Exaggerator pays 7/2, so he’s considered to have approximately a 22% chance.
With Nyquist’s dominant performance at the Kentucky Derby so fresh in people’s minds, he’ll be the most popular bet at the Preakness. Whether or not there’s good value betting on Nyquist is another question entirely. We suggest boxing him with Exaggerator and one of the other top contenders so that all each has to do is finish in the top 3 for you to get paid.