Key keywords: 2026 Preakness Stakes, Preakness Stakes 2026 contenders, Pimlico Race Course, Triple Crown second leg, Thoroughbred horse racing 2026, Preakness Stakes official entries, 2026 Kentucky Derby top finishers, Preakness Stakes post positions, Maryland thoroughbred racing The 151st running of the Preakness Stakes, the highly anticipated second leg of American Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, is set to take place on May 16, 2026 at Baltimore’s historic Pimlico Race Course, and race officials have finally released the full official roster of 10 horses set to compete for the $2 million purse and the iconic Woodlawn Vase. Leading the pack is 2026 Kentucky Derby winner Golden Spire, a 3-year-old chestnut colt trained by four-time Preakness winning conditioner Todd Pletcher, who dominated the 1 1/4 mile Derby at Churchill Downs two weeks prior with a blistering 2 1/2 length victory. Golden Spire, who drew post position 5 for the Preakness’s 1 3/16 mile dirt test, has posted three consecutive bullet workouts at Pimlico in the lead-up to the race, with Pletcher noting that the shorter distance and Pimlico’s tighter turns play perfectly to the colt’s early speed and agility. Joining Golden Spire from the Kentucky Derby are second-place finisher Silver Vortex, a dark bay colt ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith who closed from 12th place in the final furlong at Churchill Downs to nearly upset the winner, and third-place finisher Coastal Blaze, a Florida-bred colt with a proven track record on wet tracks, a key factor given the 60% chance of rain forecast for race day. Four contenders skipped the Kentucky Derby to focus specifically on the Preakness, including Storm’s End, a lightly raced colt trained by Chad Brown who won the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes in March before sitting out the Derby to avoid the wear and tear of the longer distance. Storm’s End drew the outside post 9, which his jockey Joel Rosario noted will give him plenty of room to work his signature late kick without getting boxed in on the first turn. The field is rounded out by the fan-voted wildcard entry Rising Tide, a homebred Maryland colt who has won four of his six career starts at nearby Laurel Park, and five other graded stakes winners from across the country. Race officials anticipate more than 110,000 fans will pack the newly renovated Pimlico grandstands for the event, which also includes the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for 3-year-old fillies as the main undercard race. With the Triple Crown still on the line for Golden Spire, the 2026 Preakness is already being billed as one of the most highly anticipated races of the decade, with viewership projections estimating more than 15 million households will tune in to watch the race live across national broadcast and streaming platforms.