Preakness to receive purse boost

By: SPORTS NETWORK

Baltimore, MD (SportsNetwork.com) - The 2014 Preakness Stakes, second leg of racing's Triple Crown, will receive a 50 percent purse bump to $1.5 million. The 139th Preakness will be conducted at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, May 17.

"The Preakness Stakes is the centerpiece of a terrific stakes program that weekend," said Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas. "Seventeen of the twenty-six races on Preakness and Black-Eyed Susan days are stakes. With this increase the total value of our stakes program over the two-day period is nearly $4 million."

Run at the distance of 1 3/16 miles, the Preakness last received a purse increase in 1998 when it was doubled to $1 million.

"I support the move," said Maryland Racing Commission chairman Bruce Quade. "It is another step in bringing Maryland racing back to a preeminent spot in the racing landscape."

The 2013 Preakness was won by Oxbow, trained by Hall of Fame member D. Wayne Lukas and ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens for Calumet Farm.