Preakness Stakes 2018: Everything you need to know

Justify, the Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness Stakes favorite, during a workout at Pimlico. (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

Here is everything you need to know ahead of the 143rd Preakness Stakes.

When: Post time is scheduled for 6:48 p.m. Eastern.

How to watch: Race coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network and will switch to NBA at 5. The coverage will also be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

[In life of horses and hockey, Eddie Olczyk never faced odds like his cancer battle]

Length: The race is 1 3/16 miles long.

Weather: It’s going to be a mess. As the Capital Weather Gang noted Friday, the entire Baltimore-Washington region is under flood watch through Saturday morning after days of rain. Weather.com predicted a 90 percent chance of more precipitation Saturday morning. Though it is expected to tail off over the day, track conditions at Pimlico Race Course are sure to be abysmal.

Odds: The morning-line favorites were Justify (1-2), Good Magic (3-1) and Quip (12-1).

A look at the Preakness field and opening odds

The favorite:

Justify is the Kentucky Derby champion, undefeated in his four-race career and trained by Bob Baffert, whose four previous Derby winners each followed up with a victory in the Preakness. Thus, he will enter the No. 7 starting gate Saturday with what are expected to be the shortest odds since Big Brown, who went off at 1-5 in 2008 and cruised to a 5¼ -length victory.

The chestnut colt is such an overwhelming favorite that it seems like ages ago that people were questioning whether Justify owned enough race experience to win the Kentucky Derby. Before him, no horse in 136 years had won the Derby after not racing as a 2-year-old. But now, the opposite question is being asked in some circles: whether Justify has been pushed too hard. The Preakness will be his fifth career start, all of them in a span of about three months.

Justify enters Preakness Stakes chasing history in weather that could be biblical

Picks and handicapping: Justify showed in the Run for the Roses that he can dominate on a sloppy track, and if he can replicate that speed in what should be terrible conditions at Pimlico Race Course he is going to be tough to beat. Plus, Preakness results have proven more likely to follow the odds than the other Triple Crown Races.

Whatever the weather, Justify will be tough to beat

The Preakness doesn’t tend to surprise, so don’t expect a huge score at the top of your ticket. Still, there could be good returns in betting the trifectas and superfectas.

Best bets for the Preakness

All done with your wagering? Then, if you’re of age (and we hope so, because you’re already gambling), go ahead and relax with a cocktail.

The only Black-Eyed Susan recipe you’ll need for the Preakness

Kentucky Derby recap and history

Justify won the first leg of the Triple Crown by decisively Good Magic by 2½ lengths with Audible another head behind. “He’s a superior horse,” said Bob Baffert, who joined Ben A. Jones as the trainers to win the race at least five times.

Justify wins 144th Kentucky Derby in commanding performance

For the first time in 95 years, one sire produced four entrants at one Derby, including Justify. But that horse, Scat Daddy, died unexpectedly at 11 just as his line was being established.

The Kentucky Derby field is dominated by a horse who died in 2015

Before Justify, the Run for the Roses had not been won by an entrant who had not raced as a 2-year-old since 1882, a time so long ago in American sporting history that its details sound almost foreign.

In the 1882 Kentucky Derby, Apollo pulled off a feat that’s still unmatched

How do thoroughbreds get their names? The rules are surprisingly complex, and the results surprisingly amusing.

Justify? Solomini? How the Kentucky Derby horses get their names.

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