PREAKNESS STAKES (G1)
Laurel Park - 16th May 2026
The Preakness Stakes may not have had the glamour of the hunt for the American Triple Crown this year, but it did have its own drama and a story of redemption as NAPOLEON SOLO finally delivered on the promise that he had shown last year. He is named after Robert Vaughn’s character in the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and much like his fictional namesake, Napoleon Solo had been hiding in plain sight in the lead up to this year’s Preakness. He had been an impressive winner on debut at Saratoga last August and had followed that with a superb display of speed in the Champagne Stakes at Aqueduct in early October, a race where he recorded a top speed of 43.35 mph and ran consecutive furlongs of 10.52 and 10.69s to blast his way to the front in the back straight. However, since that day he had largely been in the wilderness as he ran below par races in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and then the Wood Memorial last time. He had at least returned to prominent racing tactics last time, but it still required a leap of faith to think that he could win a 14 runner Preakness Stakes from the 10th gate.
We already knew that he was a fast horse and top speed of 42.43 mph recorded around the bends of Laurel Park fully supports that theory. Although the well drawn Taj Mahal recorded the fastest time for each of the opening 3 splits, Napoleon Solo was always within 2% of his time and was able to lie up on the leaders hind quarters into the first turn. Paco Lopez had his mount ideally placed from that moment on and when asked to stretch as they headed into the far turn, he received an immediate response as Taj Mahal began to fade. I won’t dwell on Taj Mahal, who lost his unbeaten record on Saturday evening. The excellent Peter Fornatale highlighted in the lead up to this race that you have to go back to 1983 to find the last Tesio Stakes winner who went on to win the Preakness (Deputed Testamony) and having been able to lead, it may simply be that this was a step too far for Brittany Russell’s charge. Instead, we should focus on the winner, who battled bravely in the home straight and showed a far more willing attitude than he had on his 2 previous starts to hold off the late attentions of Iron Honor and Chip Honcho. Despite a finishing speed of 94.4%, Napoleon Solo recorded a race best 13.54s for the final furlong and galloped on through the line to record a run-out speed of 32.17 mph. Although not the biggest horse, his average stride length of 24.42 ft ranked 4th and when combined with an average stride frequency of 2.39 strides per second (ranked 2nd) it was enough to see him last home. His owner, Al Gold, suggested after the race that had they not won here he would have returned to the sprinting ranks but that now the Haskell Stakes may be his next target. He appears to have turned over a new leaf and had apparently been pleasing those who watch the track work in the lead up to this race, but the Haskell is likely to require a further step forward and it will be interesting to see if Napoleon Solo can repeat this level of performance.
This race is relatively hard to assess as a single piece of form. This was the first time that the race has been run at Laurel Park whilst the redevelopment of Pimlico is underway, so it wouldn’t be fair to try and compare the data from the more recent renewals. The connections of the winner and the runner-up from the Derby had both passed on the opportunity to run for the Triple Crown, but we did have the Derby 3rd (Ocelli) in the field. He finished 4th and although he remains a maiden after 8 starts, he has shown a consistent level of form and will presumably break that tag at some point. His race was essentially lost in the opening 200 yards when he was squeezed for room and forced to drop back under Tyler Gaffalione. A second split of 11.64s ranked only 12th of the 14 runners and he faced an uphill task from that point onwards. To his credit, he battled on to finish 4th and his closing quarter of a mile, run in 27.14s, was only 0.23s slower than the winner. He’s a talented horse and very genuine, but despite similar average stride length figures, a lower peak stride frequency of 2.29 per second, compared with the 2.53 per second recorded by Napoleon Solo, marks the difference in speed between the pair. He ran another fine race and after being caught behind horses on the inside rail, it was always going to be a difficult task to try and close on the leaders as the data would suggest that he lacks the turn-of-foot required to recover from that position. As a result of the way Ocelli’s race panned out, we can only use his run tentatively when trying to assess how this form compares to the Kentucky Derby.