If there is such a thing as home-track advantage for the 2025 Preakness Stakes, then Pay Billy has it. His last seven starts have all come at Laurel Park, which is just outside of Baltimore and fewer than 30 miles from Pimlico Race Course. The colt has won five of his last six races at Laurel, including three straight, making himself one of the top potential 2025 Preakness Stakes sleeper picks. However, the latest 2025 Preakness Stakes odds may indicate otherwise since Pay Billy is tied for the biggest of longshots at 20-1. Gosger is the other horse in the 2025 Preakness Stakes field at 20-1 for Saturday’s race with a 7:01 p.m. ET post time.
At the other end of the 2025 Preakness Stakes betting odds is Journalism, who has never won outside of California, but is the 8-5 favorite. He’s followed by Sandman (4-1) and River Thames (9-2). Before making any 2025 Preakness Stakes picks, be sure to see the horse racing predictions and 2025 Preakness Stakes futures bets from SportsLine’s elite horse racing expert Jody Demling, considering his domination of Triple Crown races.
A fixture in the horse racing world who has been writing about, talking about and betting on races for years, Demling hit the top three finishers in the Kentucky Derby in the correct order. He also called 10 of the last 20 Preakness winners, including 2023 when he hit the winner, exacta, trifecta and superfecta. He hit the trifecta in the 2024 Preakness Stakes and has predicted the winner of the Belmont Stakes four of the last seven years. Anyone who has followed those picks on sites like FanDuel Racing and TwinSpires is up huge.
Now, with the 2025 Preakness Stakes post positions set and odds on the board, Demling is sharing his 2025 Preakness Stakes betting picks and 2025 Preakness Stakes predictions over at SportsLine to help you figure out how to bet the Preakness Stakes. Go here to see them.
Top 2025 Preakness predictions, expert analysis
Will Sovereignty run in the Preakness Stakes 2025? No, Sovereignty won’t run at Pimlico in the Preakness 2025. Sired by Into Mischief out of the Bernardini mare Crowned, Sovereignty captured graded-stakes wins in the Street Sense Stakes and Fountain of Youth Stakes before finishing second to Tappan Street in the Florida Derby. With Tappan Street out because of an injury, he went off as the second favorite (5-1) at Churchill Downs.
Sovereignty was squeezed inside out of the gates but jockey Junior Alvarado got him settled in along the rail. He was 13 1/2 lengths off the pace set by Citizen Bull in the backstretch, where he and Journalism began moving up through the field. The pair swung wide around the final turn and dueled down the homestretch, but Sovereignty pulled away in the final furlong for a 1 1/2-length win.
Demling just revealed his 2025 Preakness Stakes projections for Journalism, the Kentucky Derby favorite who finished a hard-fought second in the first leg of the Triple Crown. Sovereignty is the only horse that has defeated Journalism in a race over his last five starts, as the latter entered the Derby on a four-race win streak. The horse has three stakes victories to his name but no wins of any kind outside of Southern California. The climate and track conditions that Baltimore will present are much different than what he saw on the West Coast, and he still needs to prove he can excel in a different environment.
His trainer in Michael McCarthy has little to prove at Pimlico as he won in his lone previous start at the Preakness. McCarthy saddled Rombauer to a 2021 Preakness win, despite being a 12-1 longshot. Meanwhile, jockey Umberto Rispoli has never ridden in the Preakness before after coming up just short in his Kentucky Derby debut aboard the horse. The Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown will be Journalism’s third career start as the betting favorite, and he has a victory and a runner-up in the prior two. See which other 2025 Preakness Stakes horses to avoid at SportsLine.
One surprise: Demling is high on Clever Again, even though he’s a 5-1 longshot for anyone taking advantage of Preakness Stakes promo codes. After a runner-up in his first career start at Keeneland, Clever Again headed to Oaklawn Park for his next two races. He won both, including a stakes win in late March. That victory included the horse besting Gaming, a Bob Baffert-trained colt who won the Futurity at Del Mar as a juvenile.
Clever Again’s pedigree is as strong as you’ll get with any racehorse. He’s the son of 2015 Triple Crown champion American Pharoah, but the bloodlines don’t stop there. Clever Again’s dam was also a graded stakes winner, while his damsire won multiple Grade 1 races overseas. While Clever Again lacks the experience of several others in the Preakness field, Demling says the horse “had a 101 speed figure and will be a contender.” See which horses to back at SportsLine now.
How to make 2025 Preakness Stakes picks, bets
Demling is especially high on a huge longshot who “could be a factor” and will spice up your exotics. Demling is sharing which horse it is, along with his entire projected 2025 Preakness Stakes leaderboard, over at SportsLine.
Which horse wins the Preakness Stakes 2025, and which huge longshot is a must-back? Check out the latest 2025 Preakness Stakes odds below, then visit SportsLine to see Demling’s picks for the Preakness Stakes, all from the expert who nailed the top three in correct order at the Kentucky Derby and nailed the last two Preakness trifectas.
2025 Preakness Stakes odds, post positions
2025 Preakness Stakes horses, contenders, profiles
Preakness Stakes profiles 1 Goal Oriented | 2 Journalism | 3 American Promise | 4 Heart of Honor | 5 Pay Billy | 6 River Thames | 7 Sandman | 8 Clever Again | 9 Gosger