Napoleon Solo surged around the final turn to claim a redemptive victory in the 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park in Maryland on Saturday, marking the horse’s first win of the 2026 season.
The victory, the second jewel of the U.S. Triple Crown, was a vindication for trainer Chad Summers, whose promising 2-year-old campaign for Napoleon Solo—including a Grade 1 Champagne Stakes win—was followed by a challenging start to his 3-year-old season.
“We’ve had everything go wrong in his 3-year-old year, and we just kind of stayed the course,” Summers told NBC. “We had a lot of critics out there that just told us to just shut up. We just kept with it and it worked out today.”
Jockey Paco Lopez guided Napoleon Solo from a position behind pace-setter Taj Mahal, powering around the final turn to seize the lead. Both Summers and Lopez celebrated their first Preakness victories.
Iron Honor finished second, trained by two-time Preakness winner Chad Brown and ridden by Flavien Prat, while Chip Honcho, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Jose Ortiz, came in third.
The race lacked 2026 Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo, whose connections opted to skip the Preakness. Brittany Russell had hoped to become the first female trainer to win the Preakness with her colt Taj Mahal, but the favorite faded to 10th in the 14-horse field.
Typically held at Pimlico in Baltimore, the Preakness was moved to Laurel Park due to renovations, with the crowd limited to around 4,000 spectators. The Triple Crown series will conclude with the Belmont Stakes on June 6, held at Saratoga for the third consecutive year while Belmont Park undergoes upgrades.
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