[4] Of the other 17 Derby contenders, Gun Runner remained under consideration until Tuesday of Preakness week, then his trainer decided to rest him and train for races later in the summer instead.

Awesome Speed, who won the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, earned an automatic entry to the Preakness.

[8] Of the horses who had not been on the Kentucky Derby trail, Stradivari, a lightly raced colt trained by Todd Pletcher, Collected, a Bob Baffert-trainee who won the Lexington Stakes, and Uncle Lino, a west coast horse who won the inaugural California Chrome Stakes drew press interest.

[13] On a sloppy but sealed track, Nyquist fell prey to a blistering early pace set by Uncle Lino.

The second-place finisher, Cherry Wine, had hit his head on the starting gate and was second-to-last for much of the race but saved ground on the rail and rallied in the stretch to take second place over Nyquist by a nose,[1] thus destroying any chance for the first back-to-back Triple Crown winners since 1977–78.