Preakness Stakes 2024 predictions, picks, horses, odds, time: Best bets from expert who hit last year’s winner

Flavien Prat will aim for the third victory in a Triple Crown race of his career when he rides Catching Freedom on Saturday in the 2024 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Prat won his first Triple Crown event in 2019, when Country House was awarded the victory in the Kentucky Derby following the disqualification of Maximum Security due to interference. Two years later, the 31-year-old French jockey made his Preakness debut and guided Rombauer to the win. Prat hopes to go 2-for-2 in the race on Catching Freedom, who won three of his first five career starts before finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby. Catching Freedom is 7-2 and Mystik Dan is the 8-5 in the 2024 Preakness Stakes odds. Trained by Bob Baffert, Imagination is 3-1, while Tuscan Gold rounds out the top four in the eight-horse Preakness Stakes 2024 field at 9-2. 

Post time for the second leg of the Triple Crown is 7:01 p.m. ET. With an accomplished field set to enter the starting gate on Saturday, you’ll want to see what SportsLine writer Gene Menez has to say before making any Preakness Stakes picks or horse racing predictions, given the success he had in last year’s race.

A former reporter and editor at Sports Illustrated, Menez covered an array of sports, including horse racing, for the magazine and its website for almost 14 years. Between 2010 and 2012, he served as SI’s handicapper for the Triple Crown races and correctly predicted Super Saver to win the Kentucky Derby in 2010.

In 2015, while writing for Sports on Earth, Menez accurately gave out the Kentucky Derby superfecta (American Pharoah, Firing Line, Dortmund and Frosted), which paid $1,268.20 for $2. Then in 2017, he tweeted out his Kentucky Derby picks, including Always Dreaming to win, and hit the Pick 4, which paid almost $6,900 on a $1 bet.

In a span of seven races last year for SportsLine, he cashed the winner of the Lecomte Stakes, the exacta in the Southwest Stakes, the winner of the Holy Bull Stakes, the winner of the Sam F. Davis Stakes, and the trifecta in the Jenny Wiley Stakes. Most importantly, he correctly called National Treasure to win last year’s Preakness.

For Saturday, Menez has handicapped the 2024 Preakness Stakes field, made his picks and constructed his best bets. You can head to SportsLine now to see them.

Top 2024 Preakness Stakes predictions

One surprise: Menez is completely tossing Mystik Dan, even though he is the Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness 2024 favorite. An 18-1 longshot, Mystik Dan edged Sierra Leone by a nose at Churchill Downs to win the 150th Kentucky Derby. It was the third career win and second in three starts for the colt, who will be starting on two weeks’ rest for just the second time.

The result from the first time Mystik Dan ran on short rest was not a good one. After recording his first victory on Nov. 12, he finished in fifth place in his start 13 days later, eight lengths behind winner Who Dey. “To me, this is a red flag,” Menez told SportsLine. Menez will not be using Mystik Dan in any of his wagers. You can see all of Menez’s 2024 Preakness Stakes bets here.

How to make 2024 Preakness Stakes picks

Moreover, Menez’s top pick is a horse who is “set up to run a career-best race.” He also is high on a double-digit longshot who should “come running late.” He is including these horses in his wagers, and so should you. He’s sharing which horses to back at SportsLine.

So who wins Preakness Stakes 149? What double-digit longshot has a big chance, and how has Menez constructed his wagers? Visit SportsLine to see Menez’s picks for the Preakness Stakes, all from the expert who nailed last year’s winner, and find out. 

2024 Preakness Stakes odds, contenders, post positions