Preakness Stakes 2027, Date, Distance and What Changed

The 2027 Preakness Stakes runs Sunday, May 23, 2027, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, over 1 3/16 miles. Two things about that sentence have never been true of the Preakness before: it is the first time the race has ever been run on a Sunday, and it returns to a Pimlico that spent 2026 under reconstruction while the race itself ran elsewhere.

The Preakness has traditionally run on the third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. For 2027 it moves eight days later than that usual slot, landing on Sunday, May 23, 22 days after the Derby's May 1 date. Maryland governor Wes Moore explained the move plainly: "We are going to move it back to be able to ensure that the winner of the Kentucky Derby will then be prepared to compete in the second leg of the Triple Crown," as Horse Racing Nation reported. The Belmont Stakes follows another 13 days later, on June 5, so the full 2027 series spreads the three races out more evenly than the old two-week, three-week pattern.

The Preakness left Pimlico for a single running at Laurel Park in May 2026 while demolition and reconstruction went ahead. The rebuild carries a price tag over $400 million, financed through Maryland Stadium Authority bonds, and even the 2027 return will be partial: the new grandstand will not be finished in time, so the track will use temporary seating and hospitality areas for that running.

Ownership changed hands at the same time as the rebuilding. Churchill Downs Incorporated, which owns and runs the Kentucky Derby, made an $85 million bid in April 2026 for the intellectual property rights to the Preakness. The state of Maryland matched that bid and secured ownership on June 18, 2026, rather than let the race's rights pass to the company that already owns the Derby. A newly formed nonprofit operating under the historic Maryland Jockey Club name now manages the track and the race, and has negotiated an NBC Sports broadcast deal running through 2032.

The Preakness's 1 3/16 miles sits between the Derby's 1 1/4 and the Belmont's traditional 1 1/2, a distance change every Triple Crown contender has to adjust to twice in five weeks. For how the betting on any of the three races actually works, the Derby's own betting primer applies the same way at Pimlico and Belmont Park.