According to NBC Sports' Nathan Ackerman:

Brian Hernandez Jr., from Layafette, La., has one Triple Crown win — the 2024 Kentucky Derby, of course. He’s had four attempts in the Preakness. He gained widespread praise for his masterful rail-skimming technique at Churchill Downs a couple weeks ago, helping him become the first jockey since 2009 (and eighth all time) to win the Kentucky Oaks and Derby in the same year.

“Brian’s amazing,” McPeek said after the Derby win. “Probably one of the most underrated riders in racing. But not anymore.”

When I picked Just Steel in the Derby, I acknowledged that my track record was poor and that I was listening to my heart more than my head. The story of a resurgent 88-year-old D. Wayne Lukas, his career unexpectedly rejuvenated with a bundle of talented additions to his barn, resonates powerfully with me. 

But you see what that got me. 

So this time, I’ll go with my head. A modest pace seems likely, so I’d like a horse who won’t be too far from the front. A stalker type that has shown an ability to sit just off the pace and then turn it on as they turn for home appeals to me. I’d also like it to be a horse that has put up strong speed figures. And a jockey who has enjoyed Triple Crown success would be a plus, too. Oh, and of course, I’m also looking for a price.

By God, I’ve done it again. I’ve talked myself into D. Wayne Lukas and Just Steel.

NBC Sports' Nathan Ackerman breaks it down:

Mystik Dan’s trainer is Ken McPeek, who became the fourth trainer ever to win the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby in the same year, when Thorpedo Anna won the former and Mystik Dan the latter. McPeek is the first trainer to win both in the same year since 1952.

The Derby win completed the career Triple Crown for McPeek, whose Swiss Skydiver won the Preakness in 2020. McPeek has won each Triple Crown race exactly once.

The Bob Baffert-trained Muth was scratched before the Preakness after running a fever before travel. Here's why Mystik Dan, Imagination and Tuscan Gold are the beneficiaries.

The trend of trainers’ refusing to run horses on short rest is embodied by Brad Cox. In the past five years, as of this writing, his horses have made a total of 4,741 starts in races across the country. How many of those starts came two weeks or less after the previous ones? Just 60.

Not surprisingly, then, none of the nine Derby horses Cox fielded before this year ever attempted the two-week turnaround in Baltimore. But in a decision that has caught many off guard, he’s going for it Saturday with Catching Freedom, the fourth-place Derby finisher.

And, rare as it is, when Cox does send out horses on short rest like that, his stats are eye-catching. Of the 60 he has run on two weeks’ (or less) rest, an impressive 16 (27%) have won. And if we set exact parameters similar to the Preakness — races at distances run on dirt with short rest — Cox is one-for-one, with Tawny Port winning (at 5-1) the 2022 Lexington Stakes exactly two weeks after a run in the Blue Grass Stakes.

Here's why I like his long-shot odds to win the Preakness Stakes after topping the field in the Pat Day Mile two weeks ago.

Mystik Dan owner Lance Gasaway’s thoughts were with his father, Clint, the man who got his son into horse racing, who died one year ago.

“You know, it’s like, this is for him now,” Lance Gasaway said. “This is his last run with Mystik Dan.”

Mystik Dan is a favorite to win today’s Preakness.

Clint Gasaway died at his home in Gould, Arkansas, on May 4, 2023, at the age of 85.

Mystik Dan won this year's Kentucky Derby, which was held exactly one year to the day after Clint Gasaway died.

Balnikhov slogged through the wet grass and pulled away to win the Dinner Party Stakes, the top undercard contest ahead of the 13th race at Pimlico, the Preakness.

Jockey Frankie Dettori bided his time before hitting the Irish import's accelerator down the stretch to outduel Crabs N Beer and Running Bee.

The $500,000 Dinner Party is the eighth-oldest graded stakes race in America and was first run in 1870 on the opening day of brand-new Pimlico Race Course.

That inaugural race was won by the famed colt Preakness, whose tragic death in 1881 led this classic American race to be named in his honor.

When it comes to the Derby winner, here’s the picture that emerges:   

• 23 of 25 Kentucky Derby winners ran in the Preakness.
• 18 of them finished in the top three.
• 10 of them won.

That’s 10 wins from the last 23 Derby winners who contested the Preakness — a hit rate of 43%. And it makes sense. The Preakness is a far more compact and much less chaotic race than a 20-horse Derby donnybrook. And especially in recent years, as trainers have shied away from running horses on short rest, many of the most talented Derby also-rans have simply skipped this race.

On Saturday, besides Mystik Dan, only two Derby alums will compete: fourth-place finisher Catching Freedom and 17th-place Just Steel.

Mystik Dan, of course, isn’t an ordinary Derby champ. He was a long shot, winning at 18-1 odds. That creates skepticism. Was it a fluke? A product of that flawless, rail-skimming trip that jockey Brian Hernandez worked out? That’s why it was Muth, not Mystik Dan, who was initially tabbed as the favorite.