Visitors Guide

Starting post positions for the 134th Preakness® Stakes will be drawn Wednesday afternoon, May 13, 2009. Pimlico racing officials will use a pill pull, which employs a small numbered ball in a blind draw, to decide post positions for the middle jewel of racing's Triple Crown.

The Preakness post position draw is scheduled for 5 p.m. in adjacent area adjacent to the Pimlico stakes barn. Connections will be available for media interviews immediately following the draw

The Preakness is limited to 14 starters. Fourteen of the last 17 years have produced double-digit starters.

LIST OF WINNERS POST POSITION SINCE 1909 (pdf)

See the photos of the 2009 Preakness Draw in our photo gallery. (Click Here)

Experience sunrise over Old Hilltop at Pimlico racecourse. Starting at 6am, we will meet in the Pimlico Grandstand and form into smaller groups. After enjoying the sunrise, you will get an insider’s perspective on racing during an escorted tour of the Preakness Stakes Barn. Then we will visit with a trainer on the apron of the track to watch the horses go through their morning workouts. A morning like this at Pimlico can’t be beat!

To book a tour, please call Phone: (410) 542-9400 and ask for Sunrise Tours. Admission is free.

It all started in the late 1930s on the porch of the Pimlico Clubhouse where a group of trainers, owners and dignitaries would gather to detail the merits of their horses.

The group met from the first training period at 6am to the end of training at 10am. Notable trainers such as Yancey Christmas and Horatio Luro would swap information with the other gentlemen, telling some of the best racing stories, but offering no alibis. The veracity of some of these tales was questionable as conflicting information regarding the condition of the horse, jockey, track and trainer was combined with half-truths.

Today’s Alibi Breakfast, named in the 1940s by publicity director David Woods, is a modern update of the original ritual: media people gather with owners, trainers, jockeys and horsemen to celebrate Preakness and solicit race predictions.

See the photos of the 2009 Alibi Breakfast in our photo gallery. (Click Here)

Experience sunrise over Old Hilltop at Pimlico racecourse. Starting at 6am, we will meet in the Pimlico Grandstand and form into smaller groups. After enjoying the sunrise, you will get an insider’s perspective on racing during an escorted tour of the Preakness Stakes Barn. Then we will visit with a trainer on the apron of the track to watch the horses go through their morning workouts. A morning like this at Pimlico can’t be beat!

To book a tour, please call Phone: (410) 542-9400 and ask for Sunrise Tours. Admission is free.

The 2009 Preakness Parade of Lights will be held on Friday, May 15, at 8:30 p.m. This year the parade will feature illuminated floats, bands, giant balloons, equestrian units and the world-famous Budweiser Clydesdales. The 2009 Grand Marshal is Baltimore’s own Stacy Keibler, who the next day at Pimlico Race Course will be the celebrity host of the InfieldFEST, presented by Bud Light, at the 134th Preakness® Stakes. 

The Preakness parade steps-off on Pratt Street and Eutaw Street and continues east on Pratt Street to Market Place. Spectators can catch the best views of the parade near the reviewing stand located on the northwest corner of Pratt and Light streets. 

This parade is presented by Mayor Sheila Dixon and produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and Preakness Celebration, Inc. For more information on the Preakness Parade of Lights, call 1-877-BALTIMORE. 

Don't miss the crowning of the Champion Jockey! In addition to the great stakes on Black-Eyed Susan Day, eight of the nation’s top jockeys are slated to compete in Pimlico’s inaugual Jockey Challenge. The riders square off in four Challenge races throughout the day, with points awarded based upon their finish. The winner receives the top prize of $14,000 and bragging rights as the Jockey Challenge Champion. Riders scheduled to participate are Rafael Bejarano, Kent Desormeaux, Ramon Dominguez, Garrett Gomez, Julien Leparoux, Mario Pino, Edgar Prado, and John Velazquez. As a show of appreciation to these athletes, Pimlico is making a $5,000 contribution to the Permanently Disabled Jockey’s fund.

This Jockey Autograph Session gives you a chance to get autographs from the best jockeys in the country. Track patrons, race fans from far and wide and your favorite jockeys gather to mingle, meet and talk track. Access like this doesn’t come along every day – and previous years saw excellent turnouts – so be sure to get there early!

See the photos of the Jockey Autograph Session in our photo gallery. (Click Here)

Daily racing form handicapping seminar with Andrew Beyer, Jay Privman and Mike Watchmaker.
(11:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon).

See the photos of the DRF Handicapping Seminar in our photo gallery. (Click Here)

With 9,530 career victories, no one knows more about winning and sportsmanship than Laffit Pincay, Jr. Meet this award-winning, record-setting, hall of fame champion as he signs copies of his biography, LAFFIT: Anatomy of a Winner. This is a very special opportunity for Preakness fans as they will be able to obtain first printings of this 2009 biography one full month before it becomes available to the rest of the world.

LAFFIT: Anatomy of a Winner is written by Madelyn Cain and published by Affirmed Press. It will be available for purchase at $28 on the day of the signing.

See the photos of the Book Signing Session in our photo gallery. (Click Here)

One of Pimlico’s oldest stakes races, the Black-Eyed Susan was first run at Pimlico in 1919 as the Pimlico Oaks; but the name was later changed in 1952 to compliment the Preakness and to acknowledge the Maryland state flower. Deemed a Grade II event since 1976, the mile and one-eighth test for three-year-old fillies is traditionally run the Friday before the Preakness. This historical race has long been recognized as the middle jewel of the "traditional" filly Triple Crown, which also includes the Kentucky Oaks (at Churchill Downs) and the Coaching Club American Oaks (at Belmont Park).

Among the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes winners are such classic fillies as Nellie Morse, who was the only filly ever to also take the Preakness; Gallorette; High Voltage; Caesar's Wish and Wide Country.

The stars are out at dawn during Pimlico’s popular Sunrise at Old Hilltop. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the Preakness contenders and their connections, as you watch the morning workouts, visit with racing experts and enjoy a guided tour of the stable area, including a stop at the preakness barn.

Admission is FREE!!!

For the first time ever, the 2009 Preakness InfieldFEST, presented by Bud Light, will feature a concert with performances by Rock and Roll Hall of Famers ZZ Top, Grammy-nominated Buckcherry and Maryland’s own Charm City Devils. Watch the Toyota Pro Beach East Volleyball Tour as they kick off their 2009 season with professional beach volleyball doubles tournaments showcasing their top female players.

Our interactive tent will feature oxygen bars and stations to recharge phones and iPods, Rock Band, Virtual Reality Competition, NASCAR Competition and several VR Tournaments where winners will be given titles of 2009 Preakness InfieldFEST Champion Gamer.

Click hereto visit The New Infield brought to you by Bud Light.

From its beginnings as an agreement among sportsmen one evening in 1868, The Preakness Day is still a true test of a horse's ability and class, a race where remarkable horses go head to head to be declared number one in this great classic. Every third Saturday in May the best Derby horses gather for the opportunity to become a Triple Crown Prospect. Much goes on during this colorful time at Pimlico, but it has always been the horse that draws the fans. As poet Ogden Nash wrote:

“The Derby is a race of aristocratic sleekness, for horses of birth to prove their worth to run in the Preakness.”