The Preakness Stakes is moving back a week — and a day — but staying with its longtime broadcast partner in NBC.
NBC has reached a media rights extension with the Maryland Jockey Club to continue carrying The Preakness Stakes through 2032, it was announced Wednesday. Starting next year, the race will move one week later in the calendar and shift from its longtime Saturday slot to Sunday.
The schedule changes will create a greater buffer between the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, presumably allowing the Derby-winning horse to participate more often in the second leg of the Triple Crown. Since Justify won the last Triple Crown in 2018, the Derby winner has skipped the Preakness five times in eight years — including the last two.
There has been considerable concern about the Preakness losing relevance given the absence of the Derby winner in recent years. On Monday, Churchill Downs and the New York Racing Association — which operate the Derby and Belmont Stakes respectively — announced plans for a six-race “Thoroughbred Championship Series” that does not include the Preakness.
NBC and Fox are splitting the events in the new Thoroughbred Championship Series, with NBC carrying the three at Churchill Downs and Fox carrying the three operated by the NYRA. The two networks have been in something of a long-standing arms race for the jewel events in horse racing. NBC reportedly faced competition from Fox — and streamers Netflix and Amazon — for the Preakness.
With the Preakness extension, NBC now owns rights to the first two legs of the Triple Crown through the same year in 2032, as the network previously struck an extension with the Derby two years ago. NBC also owns rights to the Breeders Cup through 2030, locking in three of the four biggest events in horse racing through the end of the decade. Fox Sports owns rights to The Belmont Stakes through 2031.
The new Sunday slot for the Preakness had been floated for years, but now has the added benefit of tying the race to NBC Sports’ broader Sunday night programming strategy. The Preakness is set to continue airing in its traditional late afternoon or early evening window, per Wednesday’s announcement, presumably leading into one of NBC’s Sunday night games. (Next year’s date of May 23 would presumably coincide with “Sunday Night Baseball” — assuming baseball is being played — as the network does not have an NBA conference final this coming season.)
It is not clear whether the race could be ‘flexed’ into primetime in the event there is no baseball next May.
The Sunday date will allow the Black Eyed Susan to shift to a Saturday window on NBC. Last year’s race aired in a Friday night slot on the network.
