Preakness Stakes: Mystic Dan continues his bid for history in the second round of the Triple Crown.

CNN
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Secret Dan The Kentucky Derby winner will continue his quest for history on Saturday as he leads the field in this year’s race Preakness Stakes.

The three-year-old upset the odds against Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a stunning photo finish earlier this month and is now favorite to continue his winning streak at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

If Mystic Dan wins again in the Preakness Stakes, he will become the 14th horse in history to win the prestigious Triple Crown — the final leg of which is June 8’s Belmont Stakes.

Coverage of this year’s Preakness Stakes begins at 4:30 pm ET on NBC and The Peacock. Also available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

The tournament itself begins at 7:01 pm ET.

Entering the race at odds of 18-1, Mystic Dan surprisingly came away with a victory after reaching the Kentucky Derby.

As the field turned for home, the winner hit the front and held off a late challenge from Sierra Leone and Forever Young – the three horses who crossed the line together.

It was the 10th time in the race’s history that a horse has lost by a nose, and the first since Grindstone in 1996, the NBC broadcast reported.

“It’s the closest three-horse photo since 1947 when Jet Pilot finished a head in front of Phalanx and a length ahead of Faltless,” Derby later said.

“This is unbelievable. Waiting for them to hang that number over us was the longest minutes I’ve ever felt in my life,” jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said after the race, awaiting the official results.

It was exciting when we hit the wire, but I wasn’t sure we were going to win, so it was too much of a rush to sit here and wait.

Attention now turns to Prick, wondering if Mystic Dan can keep his coveted Triple Crown hopes alive.

Fortunately for the team, the long task was made a little easier after early favorite Mutt withdrew from the race due to a high fever.

Baffert, a Bob Baffert-trained horse, was ineligible to run in the Kentucky Derby due to an ongoing suspension at Churchill Downs, and Mutt now misses his second high-profile race of the year.

Muth’s absence, however, paved the way for Mystic Dan, and the Derby winner was tipped as the most likely champion. According to CBS Sports, Since its inception in 1873, 49% of favorites have won the race.

Mystic Dan’s assistant trainer, Ray Briner, said the horse has recovered well from the Derby win and has a great chance to win the Preakness.

“He’s a natural. “It’s always closed, but when the time comes, it can turn on and off like an ignition switch,” Brenner told reporters.

As luck would have it, Mystic Dan faces tough challenges from the likes of Freedom and the Baffert-trained Imagination, but as this year’s Kentucky Derby has proven, any of the eight horses can claim victory come Saturday.