The Preakness is always the middle child of the Triple Crown — no Triple Crown bid this year after Great White went down at Churchill, no glamour like Belmont, just Pimlico and a field that begged for a price. The Barstool gambling crew spent all week trying to find the number, and by Friday the preview show was already pointing toward longshots over chalk.
Portnoy and Elio break down the field on the Preakness Preview Show the day before post.
Portnoy locked in on Great White, the Derby faller looking for redemption at a shorter price. Elio went a different direction entirely and stuck his flag in Napoleon Solo at a juicy number, then said it on camera so there'd be receipts.
Elio puts Napoleon Solo on the record as his Preakness pick.
Then came Saturday, and the real twist: while horseplayers were glued to NBC, Elio was reportedly stuck at a kid's dance recital with no signal. Napoleon Solo ran the 151st Preakness down at 7-1 anyway, and the original Stool Streams syndicate member nailed it without even being able to watch it live.
The call as Napoleon Solo hits the wire at 7-1.
The aftermath was peak Elio. He made it home, took the lap from Portnoy congratulating the pick, and then dropped the line that should be stitched on a pillow at Pimlico — that with WiFi at the recital, the new track might be his.
Elio's post-race lament about the dance recital dead zone.
This is exactly the kind of weekend that keeps people locked into horse racing twice a year. A scratched Derby favorite, a 7-1 winner, a Barstool guy putting his name on it 24 hours early, and a punchline about missing the WiFi window at a kid's recital. Bring on Belmont.