2012 Preakness Stakes Post Positions

Now that post positions for the 2012 Preakness Stakes have been announced, we can now take a closer look at the field and make more critical predictions about what’s going to happen Saturday night. It’s worth noting that at Pimlico Race Course, post position No.1 gets the inside rail and post position No.11 gets the outside of the field.

Of course, everyone by now knows at least two names from that list: Kentucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another and runner up, Bodemeister. Trained by two seasoned veterans of the sport, Bob Baffert and Doug O’Neill were pleased with the 2012 Preakness Stakes Post Position draw.

After spending the better part of the week tied at 3/1 odds to win the 2012 Preakness Stakes, Bodemeister woke up as the early morning betting line favorite.

“I installed Bodemeister as the 8/5 favored,” said oddsmaker and racing analyst for Pimlico Race Course, Frank Carulli. He ran a tremendous race as the favorite in the Kentucky Derby enough so that I think he’s a deserving favored with much less pace-pressure than it was at the Kentucky Derby. I think he will be the favored, it’s just a question of how long the public will make him. I made him 8/5.”

Technically speaking, the Preakness Stakes lines went from listing them both at 3/1, to all of the sudden putting Bodemeister ahead as a +150 money-line favorite over I’ll Have Another at +200 ML.

Could the change in odds have been affected by the post position draw? Sign up to get free 2012 Preakness Stakes Picks right here! And without further ado, check out the 137^th 2012 Preakness Stakes post positions for the official 11-horse field:

1. Tiger Walk
2. Teeth of the Dog
3. Pretention
4. Zetterholm
5. Went the Day Well
6. Creative Cause
7. Bodemeister
8. Daddy Nose Best
9. I’ll Have Another
10. 10. Optimizer
11. 11. Cozzetti

According to Baffert, the Hall of Famer, the way that Bodemeister ran Churchill Downs should be a great indicator of how he will do in Pimlico, which is a shorter track. After expressing how pleased he was with the post position draws, Baffert claims Bodemeister should have a great showing based on his experience and how well he looked two weeks ago.

“Usually the horse that ran really well in the Derby does well here,” he said shortly after finding out Bodemeister would be breaking out of gate No.7. “He’s the kind of horse that really surprises me. He just has a very efficient stride.  He has brilliant speed, but if I hadn’t seen the clock, I wouldn’t have known he was going that fast at the Derby.”

For O’Neill, he was very vocal about his desire to draw the 6^th spot at the Preakness Stakes earlier this week when he met with a group of reporters. Nonetheless, the controversial trainer believes this track is tailor-made for I’ll Have Another’s strengths. He did go on to say that he wanted to get a position outside if his rival Bodemeister. Fortunately, being in the seventh spot puts I’ll Have Another right where O’Neill wanted to be.

“Being outside of Bodemeister I think is a good thing,” O’Neill said. “If you didn’t know anything about him — just the look of him — he looks like a sprinter, doesn’t he? He’s got such a powerful hind end. He’s got so much natural energy. The way he moves over the ground, he doesn’t look like he’s going that fast. At the quarter pole, it looked like he was giving everyone the slip. At the eighth pole, he had a little surge. But at the sixteenth pole, he was stopping.”

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