Napoleon Solo gives jockey, trainer first wins in the Preakness Stakes
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- Napoleon Solo won the 2026 Preakness Stakes on Saturday night at Laurel Park in Maryland.
- Napoleon Solo is trained by Chad Summers and was ridden by Paco Lopez in the Preakness.
- The final leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, will be June 6.
Napoleon Solo won the 151st edition of the Grade 1, $2 million Preakness Stakes over a fast main track on Saturday night at Laurel Park in Maryland.
Trained by Chad Summers and ridden by Paco Lopez, Napoleon Solo captured the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown following Golden Tempo’s historic win in the Kentucky Derby on May 2.
Golden Tempo wasn’t one of the 14 runners in Saturday’s Preakness, so there won’t be a Triple Crown winner in 2026.
This was the first time Laurel Park hosted the Preakness, which went 1 and 3/16 miles on the main track. The Preakness is normally run at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, but that track is undergoing a major redevelopment.
As such, it was Napoleon Solo who best adapted to the new environment at Laurel. The horse earned $1.2 million for winning the Preakness.
Napoleon Solo was Summers’ first starter in the Preakness Stakes. Lopez, who is from Mexico, also scored his first Preakness victory with Napoleon Solo.
Iron Honor — who had been installed as the morning-line favorite for the Preakness on Monday at lukewarm 9-2 odds — finished in second place, about a length behind Napoleon Solo. Iron Honor was making up ground on the winner at the wire.
Chip Honcho ran third, and Ocelli finished fourth.
Napoleon Solo went off at 7-1 odds ahead of his Preakness win. Iron Honor had 8-1 odds, while Chip Honcho was offered at 11-1 and Ocelli also went off at 7-1.
A $2 exacta bet on Napoleon Solo and Iron Honor paid $107.20. A $1 trifecta bet on those horses and Chip Honcho produced a $597.10 payout. And a $1 superfecta bet that also included Ocelli yielded a payout of $2,377.80.
Napoleon Solo is owned by Gold Square and was bred by John D. Gunther and Eurowest Bloodstock. Napoleon Solo’s sire is Liam’s Map and his dam is Atomic Blonde, who was by Scat Daddy.
At post time, the race favorite was hometown hero Taj Mahal, who had been a perfect 3 for 3 in his racing career with all of those wins coming at Laurel Park. Taj Mahal went off at 9-2 odds for trainer Brittany T. Russell, and set the early pace in the Preakness.
Taj Mahal held the lead in the race while setting fast fractions of 22.66 seconds for the opening 1/4 mile, 46.66 seconds for the opening 1/2 mile and 1 minute, 12.08 seconds for the opening 3/4 mile. The opening mile of the Preakness was run in 1:38.55.
As the horses began to make the turn for home, Napoleon Solo eased past Taj Mahal and never looked back. Napoleon Solo won the Preakness in 1:58.69.
Prior to the Preakness Stakes, Napoleon Solo had won two of four career races. Both of those wins came in 2025. Napoleon Solo had finished in fifth place in his two most recent starts. The horse ran fifth in both the Fountain of Youth Stakes in February at Gulfstream Park and in the Wood Memorial Stakes in April at Aqueduct.
Napoleon Solo now has a pair of Grade 1 stakes wins, as he also won the Champagne Stakes in October in New York.
Despite being program No. 10 for the Preakness, Napoleon Solo was the final horse in the post parade prior to the race. According to the NBC broadcast, this was done at the request of Summers to help keep the horse calm.
No horse racing Triple Crown winner in 2026
When Golden Tempo’s connections decided against running the horse in the Preakness Stakes, it took away the possibility of having a Triple Crown-winning horse this year.
The most recent Triple Crown winner remains Justify in 2018. Thirteen horses have won all three classic races in the same year: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018).
This is also the second straight year that the Kentucky Derby winner didn’t compete in the Preakness. Sovereignty also skipped the Preakness in 2025 before returning to win last year’s Belmont Stakes.
This year, three horses turned around from the Kentucky Derby to run in the Preakness on just two weeks of rest.
Ocelli, who finished third in the Derby at 70-1 longshot odds, finished in fourth in the Preakness. This was the best finishing position among horses who ran things back after the Derby.
Incredibolt, who ran a respectable sixth in the Derby, and Robusta, who finished 14th in the Run for the Roses, both finished out of the money in the Preakness.
Great White was set to run in the Kentucky Derby as well, before he reared and fell just moments before the race. After being scratched at post-time for the Kentucky Derby, Great White was also an out-of-the-money finisher in the Preakness.
Horse racing’s Triple Crown will conclude with Belmont Stakes
The 2026 Triple Crown season will wrap up June 6 with the 158th running of the Belmont Stakes.
But just like with the Preakness, this year’s Belmont Stakes will take place away from its traditional home.
For the third straight year, the Belmont will be run at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Belmont Park is also undergoing renovations.
This venue change comes with a distance change for the race. The Belmont Stakes is normally held at a distance of 1 and 1/2 miles on the main track, but it’s contested at just 1 and 1/4 miles at Saratoga.
This story was originally published May 16, 2026 at 7:36 PM.
