Rombauer wins the Preakness Stakes.

BALTIMORE — Rombauer, ridden by Flavien Prat, held off Midnight Bourbon and the embattled Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit to capture the 146th Preakness Stakes in front of a limited crowd at sun-splashed Pimlico Race Course on Saturday.

Sent off at 11-1 odds, Rombauer covered the mile and three-sixteenths in 1:53.62 and paid $25.60 on a $2 bet to win. Midnight Bourbon finished second, three and a half lengths back, while Medina Spirit held on for third.

Prat lucked into his first victory in a Triple Crown race, in the 2019 Kentucky Derby aboard Country House, when Maximum Security was disqualified for interference. He acknowledged this time around was a lot different.

“There’s so much history behind these races, and to win one is great, and to win the Preakness is even better,” Prat, who is French, said on NBC after the race.

Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit dueled for the lead throughout most of the race, with Rombauer, trained by Michael McCarthy, coming from behind to take control in the final turn.

It was the first Preakness appearance, let alone victory, for McCarthy, who became emotional during the postrace news conference, saying he wished his biggest supporters, his wife and children were able to attend. He vowed to bring them to New York for the Belmont on June 5, “or maybe not,” he added, acknowledging that he didn’t want to push his luck.

“I’m so proud of this horse, everybody involved,” McCarthy said of the colt’s connections, including the owners John and Diane Fradkin, who had to convince McCarthy not to run in the Kentucky Derby. “It just goes to show you that small players in the game can be successful as well.”

Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby on May 1 to give the trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh victory in the race, went off as the 2-1 favorite after nearly being excluded from the race when it was disclosed that he had failed a drug test after the Derby.

Medina Spirit tested positive for betamethasone, a corticosteroid, but officials in Kentucky are awaiting results from a second sample — a process that could take weeks — to determine if his Derby victory will be overturned.

The race, which regularly brings a crowd of well over 100,000 to Pimilico Race Course, was run without spectators in 2020 and with only 10,000 in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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