Welcome back to May, Preakness Stakes. After the 2020 race was moved to the fall due to the global pandemic, Pimlico on Saturday, May 15, play host to the 146th running of the second leg of the Triple Crown.
And, yes, Medina Spirit — the Kentucky Derby victor whose win was marred by a positive drug test — will race in the Preakness. The Bob Baffert-trained horse drew the No. 3 post for Saturday's race. Medina Spirit (and Baffert, who was immediately banned from Churchill Downs), is awaiting a second drug test. Two other horses trained by Baffert also will undergo additional testing. Concert Tour will compete in the Preakness, and Beautiful Gift is expected to run in Friday's Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.
The Preakness itself is scheduled for 6:50 p.m. Eastern on May 15 in Baltimore. That's 3:50 p.m. on the West Coast, and nearly Midnight in the UK.
Concert Tour, with Mike Smith aboard, had 5-2 odds on Wednesday, and Medina Spirit was at 9-5 odds with jockey John Velazquez.
How to watch the Preakness Stakes in the United States
Coverage for the 146th Preakness Stakes is approximately three days long, hopping across three different television networks, two satellites, three streaming services and a couple of Discord channels.
That's what it feels like, anyway. In reality, what you get is about four hours of coverage before the race finally gets going. Here's how that breaks down:
- 2 p.m. Eastern: Pre-race coverage on NBCSN, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
- 5 p.m. Eastern: Pre-race coverage on NBC proper.
- 6:50 p.m. Eastern: Post time on NBC.
NBC proper and NBCSN are available on every major streaming service, from FuboTV and Hulu With Live TV, to YouTube TV and Sling TV.
All have free trials, so you can sign up this week and watch the race for free before deciding if you want to keep the service afterward. Sling TV is the least expensive out of the bunch, though, with Sling Blue landing at $35 a month. That's just half of the fuller Sling package, though, and even combing Sling Orange and Sling Blue doesn't get you as many channels as the other services. But that's also why it's $50 for both and not $65, like YouTube TV, FuboTV and Hulu With Live TV.
Or if you're really looking to do things on the cheap, consider a good over-the-air antenna, which (if positioned properly) should get your local broadcast of NBC, and you can watch the race that way.
