Napoleon Solo wins Preakness Stakes in trainer Chad Summers’ first Triple Crown victory

Napoleon Solo won the 151st Preakness Stakes on Saturday after trailing in second for most of the 1 3/16 mile track and surging ahead to victory.

In what was essentially a wide-open race, the horse with 7-1 odds overtook pacesetter and 9-2 favorite Taj Mahal for the win. It was both jockey Paco Lopez’s and trainer Chad Summers’ first Triple Crown win, dashing Taj Mahal trainer Brittany Russell’s hopes of becoming the first female trainer to win a Preakness.

“It takes a team to get this done,” Summers said during a post-race interview on the NBC broadcast. “We’ve had everything go wrong this 3-year-old year, and we just kind of stayed the course and stayed the course.

“You know, we had a lot of critics out there that told us to just shut up, and we just kept with it, and it worked out today.”

At the last turn, Napoleon Solo challenged Taj Mahal to take the lead, but Iron Honor had a clear path on the outside and threatened with a late surge. But Lopez pushed Napoleon Solo and did not yield to Flavien Prat, who finished 1 1/4 lengths behind on Iron Honor (9-1) for second. Chip Honcho (10-1) finished third and Ocelli (8-1), the 70-1 longshot who nearly stunned a Kentucky Derby crowd two weeks ago, finished fourth. Taj Mahal finished in 10th place.

The pace was competitive, but the slowest in 75 years. Napoleon Solo became the first horse to win the race from the No. 10 post since 1998, when Real Quiet followed his Derby win with a Preakness victory.

“When you come here having zero experience whatsoever, I was just a kid growing up with my dad and my brother going to Belmont … and watching the horses train,” Summers, a New Jersey native, said on the NBC broadcast. “To come here with a horse that (owner) Mr. (Al) Gold allowed me to pick out for $40,000 and get the job done on a stage like this, it’s just unbelievable.”

With Pimlico Race Course currently undergoing a nine-figure renovation, the 151st Preakness was moved to Laurel Park about a half hour south this year.

Despite the smaller venue with a 4,800 capacity, the 14-horse field was the largest the race had seen in 15 years, although none of the horses had won a Grade 1 or 2 race before Saturday. Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo was also not entered into the race, ensuring there will be no Triple Crown winner for the eighth straight year.

The race was also the last for NBC reporter Donna Brothers, who won more than 1,000 races in her career as a jockey and is retiring.