Horse racing’s Triple Crown Winners Club has a mere 13 members. To say it’s an elite club would be a vast understatement.

But it is worth noting that 11 Thoroughbreds have ran and lost in the Kentucky Derby but then came back to sweep the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (another seven Won those two races but did not run in the Derby).

There are also 11 horses that Won the Derby and Belmont but were not successful in the Preakness, the middle jewel of the three classic races for 3-year-olds and at 1 3/16 miles the shortest (by 110 yards).

There have been 23 winners of the Derby and Preakness who didn’t seal the deal in the Belmont (including three who didn’t start in the final leg of the Triple Crown).

That said, a total of 65 horses over the 147 year history of the Triple Crown have Won at least two of the three races restricted to 3-year-olds.

So which path to Victory will this year’s Preakness take?

Will Kentucky Derby Winner MYSTIK DAN join the 36 other horses to Win the first two legs?

Or, perhaps one of the two Derby also-rans will get the glory this time.

Or will one of the new Triple Crown players continue the recent trend of fresh horses Winning the Preakness.

The last four Preakness Winners – the filly SWISS SKYDIVER (2020), ROMBAUER (2021), EARLY VOTING (2022), and NATIONAL TREASURE last year– did not participate in the Derby.

Five of the eight Preakness entrants on Saturday did not contest the Kentucky Derby, so the fresh horse angle has strength in numbers and quality.

Among the five fresh horses is a Bob Baffert trained horse- IMAGINATION. He’s a horse that likes to engage with others but not necessarily Win (as indicated by his record of 2 Wins and four 2nd place finishes in six starts).

Baffert, has a record eight Victories from 25 starts in the Preakness.

Trainer Chad Brown is beginning to warm up to the Preakness, having Won his first Preakness with CLOUD COMPUTING (2017), and Won again with EARLY VOTING (2022). Brown saddled 2nd place finisher last year- BLAZING SEVENS.

Brown sends TUSCAN GOLD to Pimlico off an eight-week break from his Stakes debut, a 3rd-place finish to CATCHING FREEDOM in the G2 Louisiana Derby. The colt has just one Victory from three starts but appears to have plenty of upside.

D. Wayne Lukas has six Preakness Wins, the first being CODEX, in 1980. He’s saddled 45 Preakness runners since then. Lukas will have two in the line-up this year, including SEIZE THE GREY, who Won the G2 Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Lukas’ other entrant, JUST STEEL, finished well up the track in the Derby after pushing a fast early pace.

The other two newcomers to the Triple Crown are MUGATU, who was on the Also-Eligible list but did not draw in to the Derby field, and UNCLE HEAVY, Winner of the G3 Withers in February at Aqueduct.

There is one other horse with a good chance to dash the Triple Crown dreams of MYSTIK DAN and that’s CATCHING FREEDOM, who finished less than two lengths out of the three-way photo finish in the Derby.

This colt, (sired by CONSTITUTION) fits a profile that suggests he could become the 16th horses since 1990 to Win the Preakness after falling short in the Kentucky Derby.

The Preakness Stakes is slated as race 13 on a card of 14 with a scheduled Post Time of 7:00.

Best of luck no matter how you play it.