Preakness Stakes to air on NBC with changes through 2032 - WBAL-TV

The landscape of American horse racing is undergoing its most radical structural evolution in decades. Maryland Governor Wes Moore and leaders of the newly reorganized, non-profit Maryland Jockey Club announced a sweeping overhaul for the Preakness Stakes, shifting the storied race one week later on the calendar and onto a Sunday for the first time in its history.

Beginning in 2027, the 152nd Preakness will be run at Pimlico Race Course on Sunday, May 23, sitting 22 days after the Kentucky Derby instead of the traditional two-week interval. The adjustment marks an absolute break from continuity: no Triple Crown race has ever been contested on a Sunday since the series began in 1873. To accommodate the change, the supporting Black-Eyed Susan Stakes card for fillies will slide from Friday to Saturday, May 22.

The strategic calculus behind the calendar shift is straightforward yet desperate. For decades, the two-week turnaround between Louisville and Baltimore was a fixture of the sport. Recently, however, it has become an anomaly. Two consecutive years and three of the past five Kentucky Derby winners have bypassed the Preakness entirely, opting instead for a five-week rest before targeting the Belmont Stakes. Of the 95 horses entering the Derby since 2022, a meager 13 have made the trip to Pimlico, yielding just a single victor in that window. Maryland Jockey Club CEO Bill Knauf noted that modern training methods demand a reevaluation of traditional spacing, stating that the extra week opens the race to potential participants who rely on contemporary equine preparation routines.

Yet the calendar fix introduces an immediate scheduling paradox for the remainder of the Triple Crown. Because the Belmont Stakes is locked into its early June slot—returning in 2027 to a newly reconstructed Belmont Park on June 5—compressing the Preakness backward creates a tight 13-day squeeze between the second and third jewels. Trainers who are reluctant to run on two weeks' rest before the Preakness may now find themselves squeezed by an even tighter turnaround heading into New York. While Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has signaled he will continue pointing the right Derby horses toward Baltimore, the broader industry consensus remains fractured. The total duration of the Triple Crown series stays compressed within five weeks, leaving owners and conditioners to navigate a high-stakes puzzle where solving the Derby-to-Preakness gap risks destabilizing the Preakness-to-Belmont path.