How to Bet the Preakness Stakes in 2026 (Horse Race Betting Explained)

The Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, happens at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland, on Saturday, May 16. Though the race traditionally happens at Pimlico in Baltimore, that racetrack is being renovated, meaning the Preakness is making a one-year detour to Laurel before returning to its traditional home in 2027. The Triple Crown began at Churchill Downs on May 2 and concludes three weeks after the Preakness, with the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga.

The Preakness Stakes is one of the most exciting races to watch, and is one of the best betting races of the year. After all, horses are facing the challenge of going 1 3/16 miles on dirt. Many have never tried the distance. And, any horses coming out of the 1 ¼-mile Kentucky Derby have to stay in form and run another taxing race just two weeks later, an uncommonly short turnaround given how most top horses are trained nowadays.

Even if you’ve never bet on a horse race before, FanDuel Research can help you learn how to bet on horse racing just in time for Preakness. Keep on reading to find out how to become part of the action!

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How and Where to Bet on Horse Racing

You’ve already found the best place to bet on horse racing online: FanDuel! In states that offer sports betting, you can bet on horse racing in your FanDuel Sportsbook app, the same place where you can go to bet on other sports. Anywhere else, you can bet the races through FanDuel Racing.

FanDuel is the industry leader in sports betting. FanDuel offers access to a full variety of wagers, convenient deposit options, and the best customer service in the betting world.

Here are the simple steps to betting the Preakness at FanDuel:

1. Click here to visit the FanDuel Preakness Betting site. This will direct you to the appropriate place to sign up based on what state you live in.
2. Click the Join Now button to sign up for FanDuel! By signing up, you automatically claim your Preakness bonus offer.
3. Fund your FanDuel account! It’s easy: you can use a credit card, debit card, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, or online banking for the quickest transfer, or use other methods like PayNearMe, wire transfer, gift cards, Play+, or cash at the counter if you have a local FanDuel Sportsbook location.
4. Bet your horse in the Preakness.
5. Watch the Preakness, knowing you’re a part of the action by having a bet down on your horse!

Just in time for the big event, it’s a good time to get to know the full range of betting options. Once you learn the available wagers, you’ll be able to make any of these bets on the Preakness, and when doing horse betting all year long through FanDuel!

Horse Racing Odds

It is important to know how to read horse racing odds since they reflect the public’s belief of what the chances of each horse winning are.

In American racing, odds are typically shown as a fraction: think 6-5, 7-2, or 5-1. This expresses how much you get back in winnings. This is the format in the racing program, the tote board, and racing broadcasts on television.

For example, let’s say you bet $2 on a horse in the Preakness. Their post-time odds are 10-1, and they win. Congratulations! You’re going to get back $22: $20 because 10-1 odds mean you win ten times your betting stake, plus your original $2 betting stake.

Wagering on horse races is parimutuel betting. This means that the payout on each horse is based on the actual money wagered on each one. This means odds aren’t final until the race starts. But, you can always track the odds through the FanDuel website or app.

Betting horse racing is a game of information. In addition to watching race replays and reading past performances, following the odds can give you a lot of valuable data. It gives you an idea of what horses may be “hot on the board” (more heavily bet than expected, either based on the morning line or your own assessment) or “cold on the board” (less bet than expected), so you can think through why that may be the case. Following the odds can also lead you to an overlay: odds that pay better than your assessment of the horse’s true chance of winning.

Horse Racing Betting Options

In the Preakness at Laurel or Pimlico, as well as horse races all year long, you have a large range of options for how to play the race. It may seem complex at first if you’re a beginner, but after playing a few races, the options will seem like second nature. It is a good idea to learn about all of your horse racing betting options. After all, you’ll have different opinions on different races, and knowing the right bet in any situation is the best way to turn your opinions into real money!

Straight Bets

Straight bets refer to the simplest, most classic horse racing bets: win, place, and show. These are bets you make on one horse.

On a win bet, a victory for your horse is a victory for you, simple as that. Traditionally speaking, when discussing a horse’s odds, these are the odds on a win bet. Win bets typically pay the most of any straight bets because they are the hardest to hit: you need the horse to finish first. Period.

Other straight bets can cash even if a horse does not win. A place bet pays off if a horse finishes first or second. For a show bet to cash, the horse must finish first, second, or third.

You can also bet a horse across the board. This means that you place the same amount of money on them to win, place, and show. If they win, all three bets cash. If they run second, the place and show bets cash. If they finish third, just the show portion hits.

Exotic Bets

Straight bets cover just one horse, but exotic bets allow you to bet on the performance of more than one horse. Typically, they pay more money when you win than straight bets do. However, they are also more difficult to hit.

There are two major bet types for exotics. Intra-race, or vertical, exotics involve betting on the finishing order of one race. You can also bet multi-race, or horizontal, exotic bets that require you to pick the winners of multiple races.

Intra-Race Exotics

If you have opinions on multiple horses in a race, intra-race exotics or vertical exotics can often be the right bet. The major kinds of intra-race exotics include:

• Exacta: Pick the first two horses in the correct order.
• Quinella: Pick the first two finishers, no exact order necessary.
• Trifecta: Pick the first three horses in the correct order.
• Superfecta: Pick the first four horses in the correct order.
• Super High Five: Pick the first five horses in the correct order.

Typically, bettors will bet more than one combination in a race. Common ways of covering multiple combinations include a box, key, or part-wheel.

In a box, you are covering all possible combinations of a group of horses finishing in the requisite spots. Be careful, though: the price can skyrocket quickly as you add more horses. A $1 exacta box with two horses is just $2. It is $6 for three horses, $12 for four, $20 for five. A trifecta box cost can rise even more quickly: with a $1 base bet, it is $12 for three horses, $24 for four, and already $60 for five.

Another reason boxing may not be the best choice is that it puts equal weight on all combinations, and you may have a stronger opinion on a particular horse finishing in a particular spot. That is where keys and part-wheels come in.

In a key, you denote a single horse to finish in a particular place, betting a few other horses in the other spot or spots. You can key a horse in any spot: though keying a winner is most common, it can be a good bet to key a horse in second place, especially if their past performances reveal that they finish second a lot.

In a part-wheel, you choose horses for each spot. For example, if you think that there are two horses who could possibly win, three who could finish second, and six who could finish third, you could do a trifecta part-wheel.

Multi-Race Exotics

If you’re more comfortable choosing horses simply to win, or you have strong win opinions in consecutive races, go for a multi-race (or horizontal) exotic!

The simplest of these is a Daily Double: picking the winners of two consecutive races. They get longer and more difficult from there: Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, and Pick 6. Many tracks offer Daily Doubles and Pick 3s for any group of two or three consecutive races, called “rolling” Daily Doubles or Pick 3s, starting in the first race. The last rolling Daily Double starts in the second-to-last race, while the final rolling Pick 3 begins three races from the end.

Longer sequences are offered one or more times during the day; make sure to check the racing program or FanDuel betting interface to see when those are offered. On days with major stakes races like the Preakness Stakes, tracks also often offer special wagers, including bets that link races on Friday and Saturday.

What are the Preakness best bets and picks for 2026?

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The above author is a FanDuel employee and is not eligible to compete in public daily fantasy contests or place sports betting wagers on FanDuel. The advice provided by the author does not necessarily represent the views of FanDuel. Taking the author's advice will not guarantee a successful outcome. You should use your own judgment when participating in daily fantasy contests or placing sports wagers.