There won’t be a Triple Crown winner in 2026, but Preakness 151 will still be one for the books. For the first time, the middle jewel was held at Laurel Park—30 miles south of its traditional home in Park Heights—while Pimlico Race Course undergoes renovations.
On one hand, it was an iconic weekend for the underdog Anne Arundel County track, which has been around for 114 years. Pastel-clad fans in the sold-out grandstands watched as Napoleon Solo charged to victory while sipping cherry-garnished Black-Eyed Susans. But it was also bittersweet, as the facility prepares to transition into a training headquarters and cease live racing for good next year.
That being said, the scaled-down festivities (crowds were capped at 4,900 with no InfieldFest concert) marked Laurel Park’s first and last Preakness.
Contributing photographer J.M. Giordano was on the ground to capture all of the pageantry and nostalgia on film (and an early digital camera) as the day went on.
