The 2025 Preakness Stakes featured a field of nine horses competing on a dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore for a distance of 1 3/16 miles, all vying for the prestigious Middle Jewel title.

With coveted trainers such as Bob Baffert returning to Pimlico, there was a lot of intrigue around this race, even if Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty opted out of the race in order to focus on the Belmont Stakes. Regardless, Derby runner-up Journalism entered the race as the odds-on favorite for the win at Pimlico, just as the horse did at Churchill Downs. This time though, Journalism didn’t disappoint.

After a slow start, and getting pinned to the railing around the last turn, Journalism kicked into high gear down the final straightaway, squeezing in between horses, then moving to the outside of Gosger, who had been in front for almost the entire race. Journalism took the lead at the absolute last second, winning by less than a length to take the crown at the Middle Jewel.

Here’s everything that happened at the 2025 Preakness Stakes:

Preakness replay: Watch the full race

Preakness payouts:

Figures based on $2 bet (odds in parentheses)

• Journalism (Even): $4.00 Win; $2.80 Place; $2.40 Show
• Gosger (15-1): $9.00 Place; $5.40 Show
• Sandman (6-1): $3.60 Show

Bets

• $2 Exacta (2-9): $33.80
• $1 Trifecta (2-9-7): $73.50
• $1 Superfecta (2-9-7-1): $303.40

2025 Preakness Stakes full results

*Horses listed alongside their pre-race odds

1. Journalism (EVEN) – 1:55.47
2. Gosger (15-1)
3. Sandman (6-1)
4. Goal Oriented (8-1)
5. Heart of Honor (20-1)
6. River Thames (9-1)
7. Pay Billy (11-1)
8. American Promise (9-1)
9. Clever Again (5-1)

Who won 2025 Preakness Stakes?

Pre-race favorite Journalism won the race in exhilarating fashion. After trailing for the first three-quarters of the race and being bumped into the inside railing on the last turn, Journalism found an extra gear on the final straightaway, pulling ahead of runner-up Gosger at the last possible second. Those two horses were far out in front of third-place Sandman, but that did not at all take away from the intensity that the race brought.

The 2025 Preakness was thrilling … and a big missed opportunity for horse racing

As Journalism won Saturday’s 150th edition of the Preakness, surviving one of the most rough-and-tumble stretch runs you’ll ever see and coming back from what seemed like an impossible position with 1/8th of a mile to go, you can understand why the state of Maryland is about to invest $400 million to give Pimlico Race Course the facelift it deserves

But, as thrilling as Saturday’s race was, and as great of a horse as Journalism appears to be, did anyone but the sport’s dwindling die-hards care? The answer, of course, is not really. The moment Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty was withdrawn from consideration for the Preakness, the race was essentially rendered meaningless in the greater sports landscape. 

And it didn’t have to be that way. — Dan Wolken

Click here to read Wolken’s full column on the 2025 Preakness and the state of horse racing.

When is 2025 Belmont Stakes?

The 157th running of the Belmont Stakes will take place on Saturday, June 7 at 6:50 p.m. ET. The race will actually be shorter than the usual 1.5 miles though. The race will be hosted by the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York, which boasts a smaller dirt track.

The final leg of horse racing’s triple crown sets up as a showdown between Preakness champion Journalism and Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty.

How did Journalism get its name?

Journalism got its name from one of its co-owners, Aron Wellman, who was a former sports editor of his high school newspaper in Beverly Hills, California.

Wellman and other owners bought the horse for $825,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale in 2023, but had some difficulty in coming up with a name off its sire and dam — Curlin and Mopotism, respectively — so they settled on Journalism. − John Leuzzi

What time is the 2025 Preakness Stakes?

The 150th running of the Preakness Stakes will be held Saturday, May 17. Post time is 6:50 p.m. ET

When is the 2025 Preakness Stakes?

• Date: Saturday, May 17, 2025
• Time: 6:50 p.m. ET
• Stream: Peacock | Fubo (free trial)
• TV: NBC
• Location: Pimlico Race Course (Baltimore)

The 150th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course is set for Saturday, May 17, 2025. Fans can watch the race, which will be streamed on Peacock, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports.

Watch the 2025 Preakness States on Fubo

2025 Preakness Stakes post positions

Here’s where each horse landed, and morning-line odds:

1. Goal Oriented (Flavien Prat) | early odds: 6-1
2. Journalism (Umberto Rispoli) | early odds: 8-5
3. American Promise (Nik Juarez) | early odds: 15-1
4. Heart of Honor (Saffie Osborne) | early odds: 12-1
5. Pay Billy (Raul Mena) | early odds: 20-1
6. River Thames (Irad Ortiz Jr.) | early odds: 9-2
7. Sandman (John Velazquez) | early odds: 4-1
8. Clever Again (Jose Ortiz) | early odds: 5-1
9. Gosger (Luis Saez) | early odds: 20-1

Is Sovereignty at the 2025 Preakness?

The Kentucky Derby winner trained by Bill Mott, Sovereignty, will not compete in the Preakness Stakes, disappointing hopes for a Triple Crown winner for the seventh consecutive year. The Triple Crown, consisting of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, is one of the most coveted titles in horse racing. Sovereignty’s victory over the favorite Journalism at Churchill Downs, with a time of 2:02.31, was a surprise. His withdrawal from the Preakness Stakes was an even bigger shock.

What is the 2025 Preakness Stakes purse?

The purse amount for the 150th annual Preakness Stakes has not yet been disclosed. Last year’s winner, Seize The Gray, received a Woodlawn Vase and $1.2 million from the total $2 million purse.

Time for horse racing to realize Triple Crown must change

Every Kentucky Derby-winning trainer has the same day-after script when it comes to bringing their horse to the Preakness. And the line is usually some non-committal variation of “they’ll tell us” if they’re physically ready to run back just two weeks later in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. 

Well, Bill Mott wasn’t kidding Sunday, the morning after Sovereignty’s victory. You could almost see the thought bubble forming around his words, telling everyone not to be too surprised if he and the management team at Godolphin, which owns the horse, decided to take a pass on Baltimore. — Dan Wolken

Preakness predictions: Expert picks

The Courier Journal: Journalism to win (2-3-8 finish)

Ed DeRosa writes, “As I discussed in a Courier Journal video, the win pool of this race will be very interesting given how inefficient that same pool was in the Kentucky Derby. I am referencing No. 2 Journalism being 3-1 in the win pool but closer to 2-1 in other pools. Sovereignty was the fourth choice in win wagering but second choice in the other pools. I bring this up because there is no sense trying to get cute with exactas, trifectas and such when a horse like Journalism — easily one of the top 3-year-olds in the country and the best/most accomplished horse on paper among this group — might be more than even money. I will bet him to win at odds of 6-5 or better. No. 3 American Promise should run better here than in the Derby. That seven-week layoff is an eternity for a D. Wayne Lukas trainee. No. 8 Clever Again is the “new shooter” with the heaviest artillery.”

NBC Sports: Clever Again

Staff writes the following with an added finish order: “For the Preakness, I am looking at the newcomers to the Triple Crown trail for a winner. Clever Again, Goal Oriented and River Thames all have potential to improve here. Clever Again was very impressive at Oaklawn in the Hot Springs Stakes, and as a son of American Pharoah, he should have no problem with the distance. The allowance race win by Goal Oriented at Churchill on Derby Day was tremendous, and he’s undefeated in two starts with a license to get better. And as impressive as Sovereignty was in the Derby, we shouldn’t forget that the horse that finished a neck behind him in the Fountain of Youth Stakes was River Thames. It’s tough to separate these horses, but here it is:”

• Clever Again
• Goal Oriented
• Journalism
• River Thames

Where is the Preakness Stakes?

The Preakness Stakes will enjoy its 150th running. It will take place at the iconic Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

Last ten Preakness winners:

• 2024: Seize the Grey
• 2023: National Treasure
• 2022: Early Voting
• 2021: Rombauer
• 2020: Swiss Skydiver
• 2019: War of Will
• 2018: Justify (won Triple Crown)
• 2017: Cloud Computing
• 2016: Exaggerator
• 2015: American Pharoah (won Triple Crown)

Why are Kentucky Derby winning horses not competing at the Preakness?

It’s become a trend in recent years to see Derby winning horses opt out of the Preakness. With load management becoming a more popular training technique, it appears that many trainers are opting out of the Preakness for their horses’ health.

The short two-week turnaround between the Derby and Preakness can sometimes prevent horses from recovering fully after their race at Churchill Downs. Even Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott, hinted that he’d rather focus on the Belmont Stakes, which is set for five weeks after the Derby, in order to give Sovereignty more time to recover. While the Triple Crown is a coveted achievement worth chasing, many trainers are focusing on maintaining their horses’ health and long-term success instead.

Which post produces the best results at the Preakness?

Post 6 has produced 17 winners at the event since 1909 with the most recent being 2021 winner Rombauer. Triple Crown winner Justify in 2018 ran out of Post 6 at the Preakness.

Here’s a full list of the Preakness winners out of Post 6 since 1909:

• 1915: Rhine Maiden
• 1924: Nelly Morse
• 1927: Bostonian
• 1928: Victorian
• 1935: Omaha
• 1939: Challedon
• 1950: Hill Prince
• 1952: Blue Man
• 1960: Bally Ache
• 1962: Greek Money
• 1966: Kauai King
• 1974: Little Current
• 1983: Deputed Testamony
• 2006: Bernardini
• 2013: Oxbow
• 2018: Justify
• 2021: Rombauer

Last-minute Preakness odds:

*All horses listed in order of post position; odds via TwinSpires.com

1) Goal Oriented 7-1

2) Journalism 6-5

3) American Promise 9-1

4) Heart of Honor 20-1

5) Pay Billy 11-1

6) River Thames 9-1

7) Sandman 5-1

8) Clever Again 5-1

9) Gosger 19-1

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May 17 high school baseball highlights

Updated: 7:53 PM EDT May 17, 2025

It was a perfect day for the Scarborough Red Storm, plus Thornton Academy and South Portland won.

It was a light Saturday for high school sports across the Cape and Islands with just five games on the schedule across three sports.

Mashpee (7-12) and Barnstable (4-14) baseball were the lone Cape matchup, which the Falcons won 11-4 to halt a three-game losing streak.

Jake Kross went 2-for-3 with a triple and a run scored, while Matt Gaitane went 1-for-3 with a triple, a RBI, and a run scored for the Red Hawks in the loss.

In other high school sports action:

Baseball 

Nantucket 5, O’Bryant 4; O’Bryant 7, Nantucket 4: The Whalers (7-10) split a pair of games in a double-header against O’Bryant.

Girls Lacrosse 

Old Colony 9, Bourne 8: Janice Bouchard tallied a four goals, but the Canalmen’s (4-10) comeback fell short as they dropped to a second straight defeat. Taylor Simard had two goals, while Ava Tosca Tessa Stone had one goal each. Eliza Denientolis, Mallory Doyle and Lila Moerman played well on defense, and Mia Lowden totaled 12 saves. 

Boys Lacrosse 

Plymouth North 7, Barnstable 5: The Red Hawks (8-9) fell in a non-league matchup, which was their third defeat in the last five games.

Nantucket 16, Whitman-Hanson Reg. 3: The Whalers (9-4) beat Whitman-Hanson Regional for the second time this season.

Allen Gunn covers high school sports for the Cape Cod Times. You can contact him at agunn@gannett.com and follow him on X at @allentgunn.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

MCLA James Birge awaits the graduates’ traditional walk through the college’s gates on the way to commencement. See more photos here. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MCLA’s Class of 2025 was reminded to move forward with love, kindness, and pursuing what is just.

“I grew up wanting to be like my grandmother. When my grandmother was alive, she always talked about us living in the end times, but somehow her acceptance that we were living in the world’s last movement made her capacity for kindness even higher. It made her want to be better at love,” said keynote speaker Kiese Laymon, an award-winning author and Rice University professor.

“She understood that all great human beings do not get a ceremony, but we must be ceremonious to all human beings in this world.”

Per tradition, graduates marched through the iron gates on Church Street before receiving 187 undergraduate and 38 graduate degrees in the sciences, arts, business, education, and more. This was the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ 126th annual commencement.

“MCLA is a small institution, but it delivers big results,” said Paul Paradiso, who earned a master of business administration.

“I’m standing here alone only because I’ve been surrounded by a community of students and faculty. We’re here because of both group effort and individual drive. We work independently on projects, yet none of us got here entirely on our own.”

President James Birge reminded students that this day is a culmination of years of academic work and accomplishment.

“During your time at MCLA, you have compiled a long list of accomplishments and inspired us with your success in the classroom, in the lab, on the stage, in the gallery, on the athletic playing surfaces, and in the community. You’ve studied abroad, conducted research, participated in service trips and internships, and created community service programs to meet the needs you saw in our community,” he said.

“You were inducted into honor societies, held office in the student government, produced works of art, theater, dance, and spoken word, scored goals, runs, and baskets, and crossed finish lines. Some of you returned to school after time off, bringing with you professional and life experiences that enriched class discussions and that underscored the importance of lifelong learning.”

Birge said he and his colleagues are called to their work at MCLA by one common purpose: to contribute to the education of the next generation of leaders.

Brigh Cote, a communications major with a concentration in public relations and corporate communication, explained that she has transferred colleges twice and joined the Army, where she currently serves as a sergeant. Cote’s time at MCLA has “meant the world for me” for a variety of reasons, one being its inclusive nature.

“The very first time I heard about this school, I was sitting in my kitchen after having a meeting with my previous college that informed me that I was being fined $50 for being in a relationship with someone of the same sex. I knew I had to get out of a place like that,” she explained.

“How could I attend a college where being myself cost me money? I immediately began googling hockey teams that needed players, when my sister called me to tell me that a college named Massachusetts, College of Liberal Arts, was looking for players as they were about to start a program. I emailed the coach, and it wasn’t even 20 minutes after I sent the email that we set up a phone call.”

Cote had only one question for MCLA’s hockey coach: Can I be gay on your team?  She reported that the line went silent for a minute before her phone buzzed and a photo of two LGBTQ+ mugs appeared on the screen.

“He returned to the phone and said, ‘I will have to ask my athletic director and her wife to see if that will be a problem,'” Cote reported, followed by laughs and cheers from the crowd.

During her first hockey season, which was also the first time in MCLA history that the women’s team was established to take part in a regular season, little girls from around the city would stand outside the team’s door before they entered the ice and gave out high-fives.

“I learned a lot from them without them even knowing. At the last home game of the season, I’m about to take the ice for the third period when I feel the tap on my shoulder. It was one of the little girl’s moms, and she told me, ‘I just wanted to tell you, you’re my daughter’s favorite player. You’re super feisty, and she enjoys watching you play,’ I said, ‘Thank you,’ and I had to skate onto the ice,” she explained.

“…It hit me at that moment that we had an impact on this town, showing little girls from the Berkshires that they could be just like us.”

A “heartbreaking” injury in 2024 ended Cote’s college athletic career, but she became the official voice of the MCLA women’s hockey league. “This had helped me overcome the intense feelings I had because of not playing, but gave me a sense of purpose,” she explained.

Cote told fellow graduates to be the person they once needed.

“Be the teammate, the friend, the voice, the encouragement, the safe space, because out there, someone is hoping to find the kind of community we have built here at MCLA,” she said.

“Don’t shrink yourself to fit into places that you weren’t built for. Expand them, fill them with your truth.”

During the ceremony, honorary doctorates were conferred to Laymon, NAACP Berkshire County Branch President Dennis L. Powell, North Adams Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Malkas, and state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier.

Laymon spoke about Sesame Street, grandmothers, and style.

His grandmother did not have a commencement ceremony at home in Mississippi because she could not go to any high school, college, or university, and instead, had to drop out of high school to work.

“My grandmother was the greatest human being in my life, but she could not vote in our state by law until her late 30s. Her third child, my mother, did not go to school with white children until she was a junior in high school in 1969. Sesame Street also debuted in 1969,” he explained.

Six months later, Mississippi voted to remove the children’s show from televisions across the state. The rationale leaked to the New York Times was “Some of the members of the commission were very much opposed to showing the series because it used a highly integrated cast of children,” Laymon reported.

Twenty-two days later, his grandmother joined others in publicly challenging the decision not to air Sesame Street and won. Six years after the show aired, Laymon was born and received the teachings of Sesame Street along with those of a “Palestinian, Jewish character in this big old book called the Bible named Jesus.”

“‘They’re the same teachings,’ she would say,” he reported.

“Treat folks as we want to be treated, share, be honest, be kind, admit mistakes, accept others’ mistakes, and revise, and finally, fight tyranny by all means necessary. I wasn’t a great student, but I was a great student of my grandma.”

He said his grandmother passed away a few months ago at the age of 95, around the time of statewide diversity, equity, and inclusion bans.

“Our desire to organize, our capacity for kindness, and our desire to revise all that we have is the only thing that will save us; it is all that has ever saved us from tyranny,” Laymon said, asking that graduates exhibit love in honor of his grandmother.

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