PREAKNESS STAKES

1 3/16-mile (about 1,900-metre) flat race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held at Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Md., U.S., annually in mid-May. Fillies carry 121 pounds (55 kg), colts 126 pounds (57 kg). A Triple Crown race (following the Kentucky Derby and preceding the Belmont Stakes), the Preakness was first run as a 1 1/2-mile event in 1873. The race was discontinued after the 1889 running at 1 1/4 mile, then was renewed at 1 1/16 mile at Gravesend, N.Y., in 1894. It was returned to Pimlico as a 1-mile event in 1909 and was run in two divisions in 1918. The present distance was established in 1925.