Kentucky Derby winner skips Preakness, leaving Triple Crown bid off the table for 2026

The 151st Preakness Stakes will run Saturday without the one horse capable of chasing history.

Golden Tempo, the longshot winner of this year’s Kentucky Derby, will not compete in the second leg of the Triple Crown at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland, with trainer Cherie DeVaux instead pointing the colt toward the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course. Post time Saturday is approximately 6:50 p.m. ET.

“We are incredibly excited for what lies ahead with this very special horse,” Ms. DeVaux said in announcing the decision.

The move ends any possibility of a Triple Crown run in 2026 and marks the second consecutive year the Kentucky Derby winner has bypassed the Preakness. Last year, Sovereignty skipped the race before winning the Belmont Stakes under trainer Bill Mott. The last Triple Crown winner was Justify in 2018.

Ms. DeVaux, the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner, cited the horse’s long-term health and the difficult two-week turnaround between the Derby and Preakness as factors. She is also from Saratoga Springs, New York, where the Belmont is being held for the third and final time while Belmont Park undergoes renovations.

All but one of the horses that ran at Churchill Downs on May 2 will be absent at Laurel Park on Saturday. The exception is Ocelli, who finished third in the Kentucky Derby at 70-1 odds as a maiden and enters the Preakness at 6-1 from post No. 2.

The race is running at a new venue. The Preakness is being held at Laurel Park for the first time in the race’s history while its traditional home, Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, undergoes a complete reconstruction. The race is expected to return to Pimlico in 2027.

With Golden Tempo absent, a 14-horse field will contest the $2 million race, led by Iron Honor (9-2) as the morning-line favorite. Taj Mahal (5-1) and Chip Honcho (5-1) are co-favorites alongside Iron Honor, with Incredibolt (5-1) and Ocelli (6-1) also among the frontrunners. Napoleon Solo enters at 8-1.

Taj Mahal carries local appeal as the undefeated winner of the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park — a race that earned him an automatic bid to the Preakness — trained by the husband-and-wife team of Sheldon and Brittany Russell. Chip Honcho will break from gate No. 6, historically the most successful post position at the Preakness with 17 winners since the starting gate was introduced in 1909. Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Jose Ortiz has picked up the mount on Chip Honcho for Saturday’s race.

The last three Preakness winners have started from gate No. 5 or lower. Last year’s winner, Journalism, broke from gate No. 2.