Napoleon Solo returned to winning form in the 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, May 16, 2026, taking control entering the homestretch and holding off pre-race favorite Iron Honor in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Napoleon Solo Wins 2026 Preakness 151 at Laurel For Trainer Chad Summers
The 3yold Napoleon Solo gave trainer Chad Summers and owner Gold Square LLC their biggest success of the season when he won the 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, May 16, 2026.
Napoleon Solo took control entering the homestretch and pulled away enough to hold off prerace favourite Iron Honor.
To land the $1.2m Preakness Stakes purse.
After the race, the Sporting Life’s result page showed Napoleon Solo, ridden by Paco Lopez, beat Iron Honor into second, with Chip Honcho third and Ocelli fourth in a 14-runner field on a fast dirt track.
Laurel Victory Resets Napoleon Solo’s Three-year-old Campaign
Napoleon Solo arrived at Laurel with questions to answer – having finished fifth in his previous two races.
But prior to those races has landed the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont At The Big A.
Which then led to his careeer interrupted by minor setbacks and two fifth-place finishes in the Fountain of Youth Stakes and Wood Memorial.
Preakness Stakes Result 2026
🥇NAPOLEON SOLO (79/10)
🥈Iron Honor (41/5)
🥉Chip Honcho (111/10)
Winning Trainer: Chad Summers
Winning Jockey: Paco Lopez
With the Eddie Olczyk Preakness Stakes picks also giving Napoleon Solo as his main bet.
WATCH: Napoleon Solo Winning The 151st Preakness Stakes
That background made the Preakness a genuine test of whether he could carry his speed around two turns against a full field in a Classic-level race.
He answered it by delivering the decisive performance his camp had been waiting for.
Napoleon Solo Wins $1.2m
The Racing Post’s Laurel Park at-a-glance card confirmed the scale of the assignment: a 14-runner Grade 1 over 1m1f110y for a first prize listed at $1.2m (£888,888) the centrepiece of the temporary Laurel staging while Pimlico is rebuilt.
Napoleon Solo’s success therefore stands as more than a routine stakes result.
It is the outcome of one of the year’s signature dirt races, it reshapes the three-year-old picture in the United States, and it gives the desk a clear, fresh lead that has not already been covered in this channel.
Napoleon Solo Won’t Head To The Belmont Stakes
After his win in the 151st Preakness Stakes, trainer Chad Summers and owner Al Gold said their colt will skip the final leg of the Triple Crown
Next Target?
Napoleon Solo’s next summer objective is the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park, scheduled for July 18.
Chad Summers, who is a New Jersey native, highly values the race and has landed it before with Cyberknife in 2022.
Taj Mahal and The Local Challenge Fall Short
The Maryland-trained Taj Mahal had gone into the race as an unbeaten local hope and was one of the headline stories around the meeting, but Sporting Life listed him among the also-ran group rather than the first four.
Iron Honor, who the official Preakness recap identified as the prerace favourite, emerged as the main pursuer, while Chip Honcho completed the podium.
That finishing order gave the race a firm shape for publication: the proven Grade 1 juvenile found his best form again on a major day, and the local favourite was unable to convert home-track momentum into a Classic breakthrough.
