Photo:
Ayers Saint Gross and Populous / Maryland Stadium Authority
Maryland officials announced Tuesday that the 2027 Preakness Stakes will move to Sunday, May 23: eight days later than its traditional third-Saturday-in-May slot and 22 days after the Kentucky Derby. The Black-Eyed Susan Stakes for 3-year-old fillies shifts to Saturday, May 22, and NBC extended its broadcast deal through 2032.
The move is Maryland’s answer to a problem that has dogged the middle jewel for years: Recent Derby winners, including Sovereignty and Golden Tempo, have skipped the race to target the Belmont Stakes. It also lands days after Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association unveiled a rival championship series. The racing world had plenty to say about all of it.
Baffert: Triple Crown ‘will always be’ the greatest achievement
Two days before the Preakness announcement, as Churchill Downs and NYRA rolled out their new series, Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert — who has won the Preakness a record-tying eight times and swept the Triple Crown twice — staked out his position on where the sport’s true prize still lies.
I am in favor of any and all new ideas to grow racing and increase interest in our sport. So I welcome The Thoroughbred Series introduced by Churchill and the NYRA and I look forward to competing in the new series.
But the greatest achievement in racing will always be winning…
— Bob Baffert (@BobBaffert) August 3, 2026
Does the new math actually help?
The skeptics went straight to the calendar. The Derby News account boiled the change down to a simple swap of the rest periods — and asked the question hanging over the whole announcement.
So, instead of …
Derby … 2 weeks off … Preakness … 3 weeks off … Belmont
we get …
Derby … 3 weeks off … Preakness … 2 weeks off … Belmont.
Does anyone actually think this helps the Preakness?
— Derby News (@KentuckyDerbyCJ) August 5, 2026
The top-voted comment on Reddit’s r/horseracing made the same case in trainer’s terms.
“I knew they would do this. I was not in favor of moving it, but if it’s going to be moved, move it. I don’t think a week is going to make much of a difference to most of the current crop of trainers. If they won’t run in 2, they won’t in 3.”
— u/VandyGrift on r/horseracing
A day before the announcement, the Inside The Pylons account argued that answering what it called a “kill the Preakness” plan would take a far bigger swing than one week.
Only response to this kill the Preakness/Triple Crown plan is….
Preakness moves to 3 or preferably 4 weeks after Derby.
Raise purse to at least $3M, possibly $5M
Offer Derby winner $5M bonus if they win Preakness and Haskell.
$1M bonus to highest finishing Derby runner.
— Inside The Pylons (@InsideThePylons) August 4, 2026
The Sunday problem
The day of the week drew as much fire as the date. Kentucky breeder Craig Brogden warned that the switch could cost the race the thing Maryland can least afford to lose — its biggest betting day.
The Belmont is not moving and this might be the end of the Preakness as a $100,000,000 handle day. Sunday is not anything like a Saturday for betting handle and this is going to kill the only golden goose that Maryland racing still had. They will all feel good when Black Eyed…
— Craig Brogden (@craigbrogden) August 5, 2026
Alan Gobbi pointed out what else lives on that Sunday of the sports calendar.
Running the Preakness next year at the same time as the final round of the PGA Championship and then most other years on the same day as the Indy 500/Coke 600 is a choice
— Alan Gobbi (@polarcritter) August 5, 2026
Reddit was blunter. “On a Sunday? Lmao this is so dumb,” wrote u/telly69, and Horse Racing Nation reader Bucky05 argued the whole package “just reeks of flipping everybody the bird.”
‘Stick a fork in it’: The obituary writers
Among HRN readers, the loudest camp saw the date change less as a fix than a confirmation of what already has been lost. The story’s most-liked comment cut straight to the breeding shed.
“Stick a fork in the “Triple Crown.” Just admit horses have been bred for sales and studs, not for racing.”
— HRN reader ziggypop
Others read the new date as a tactical strike at New York. If the Belmont stays in its traditional early-June slot — back at Belmont Park and back at 1 1/2 miles — it now would fall less than two weeks after the Preakness.
“Who will want to run 12 furlongs if your horse is bred to go 10 at most and speed sells stallions? This timing is a fantastic shot over NYRA bow. Not that they will do the common sense thing and Belmont back a week or two. But when they get 5 horse field or 10 slow ones, they might change it for 2028.”
— HRN reader Knightsbridge
The case for the move
Not everyone was writing eulogies. TK Kuegler of Wasabi Ventures Stables, who is a Maryland Jockey Club board member, pushed back on the doom, ticking off what Maryland actually got out of the deal.
Real facts of the announcement happeninig:
Largest media contract in the history of Maryland racing
Move back one week for the Preakness
Move Black Eyed Susan to Saturday and Preakness to Sunday
Opens up Friday for even more festivities
6 year deal from NBC
Prime time…
— TK Kuegler (@TKKuegler) August 5, 2026
And some HRN readers saw an opening for the race rather than a retreat — especially with the Belmont’s return to a mile and a half.
“Seems like a smart move on their part. Time will tell. With this spacing the 9 1/2 furlong Preakness might seem more appealing than the 12 furlong Belmont in this era. I personally do not want to see that distance changed, though my guess is it will eventually.”
— HRN reader Bill B.
What happens next belongs to New York. NYRA has not said whether the Belmont will move off its traditional date, and as u/noahproblem asked on Reddit, “who’s going to try to race 1 1/2 miles on slightly less than two weeks rest?” The first Sunday Preakness is 21 months away, set for a rebuilt Pimlico. Whether it arrives as the revival of the middle jewel or the Triple Crown’s formal farewell may depend on what the Belmont does in response.
