History
Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore opened on October 25, 1870, and a horse named Preakness won the first stakes race on the program. Three years later, Pimlico honored that horse by naming a race for him.
The Preakness Stakes is now the second race in the Triple Crown for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds. It's run on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and three weeks before the Belmont Stakes.
The winner receives the Woodlawn Vase, one of the richest trophies in sports, created by Tiffany in 1860 and valued at well over $1 million. He also gets a blanket of "black-eyed Susans," Maryland's state flower. Since black-eyed Susans aren't in bloom at that time of the year, though, the blanket is actually made of daisies dyed to look like the real thing.
The Preakness has been run at several different distances: 1 1/2 miles from 1873 through 1888 and in 1890; 1 1/4 miles in 1889; 1 1/16 miles from 1894 through 1900 and in 1908; 1 mile and 70 yards from 1901 through 1907; 1 mile in 1909 and 1910; and 1 1/8 miles from 1911 through 1924. The present distance of 1 3/16 miles was established in 1925.