The next jewel up for grabs in this year’s Triple Crown racing series for three-year old Thoroughbreds is Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

There is already a dark cloud hanging over this season’s three-race series involving trainer Bob Baffert and his colt Medina Spirit as the winner of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 1.

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The colt tested positive for a banned substance after the race. Medina Spirit has made his way to Pimlico in anticipation of running in Saturday’s feature race on a card jammed packed with major graded events.

The way it stands, he continues to hold onto the Kentucky Derby title pending the outcome of a second test. Those results will not be available until after the Preakness has been run.

Taking everything into consideration among the projected field for the Preakness, I came up with a list of horses to work into four exotic bets for this race.

2021 Preakness Stakes Exacta Picks

Medina Spirit was considered to be Baffert’s second-best Kentucky Derby contender for most of the prep race season. His top three-year old was Concert Tour.

This Kentucky-bred colt did not race as a juvenile. The son of Street Sense won his first three races as a three-year old before fading to third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 10. Super Stock won that race with Caddo River finishing second.

Based on that last race, Baffert and the team at Gary and Mary West Stables decided to hold Concert Tour out of the Kentucky Derby to train for the Preakness. That move could pay off big as my favorite to win this race.

Going with the assumption that Medina Spirt does run on Saturday, I am moving him to the Place position in a two-horse exacta bet. He has already proven that he has what it takes to win among the best of the best in this year’s class and I do not see another colt in the projected field getting past either of these two contenders.

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2021 Preakness Stakes Trifecta Picks

Moving to my pick for third place in the 2021 Preakness Stakes as part of a trifecta bet, Crowded Trade is my Show horse. Trained by Chad Brown, this is another Kentucky-bred colt that will be making his 2021 Triple Crown racing debut in the second leg of the series.

Sired by More Than Ready, that could be the catch phrase for a strong showing on Saturday coming off a third-place run in this year’s Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 3. All three of his career races have been at this New York track including a second-place finish in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes in early March.

Crowded Trade will be facing much stiffer competition in this race but he has a great chance to finish in the money as long as he breaks clean out of the gate.

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2021 Preakness Stakes Superfecta Picks

Extending out to the top four finishers in Saturday’s featured race at Pimlico, I added trainer Todd Pletcher’s Unbridled Honor to complete a superfecta wager.

The son of Honor Code should go off at longer odds with a much lower Horse Racing Nation rating (4.77) than most of the other contenders expected to run in this race. However, he caught my eye with a strong second-place finish in this year’s Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 10.

2021 Preakness Stakes Exotic Bets

Exacta: Concert Tour & Medina Spirit

Trifecta: Concert Tour, Medina Spirit & Crowded Trade

Superfecta: Concert Tour, Medina Spirit, Crowded Trade & Unbridled Honor

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