National Treasure, who led long and hard in the race, held off a late surge from Blazing Sevens to give trainer Bob Baffert an historic eighth Preakness victory. With that, Baffert becomes the winningest trainer in the race's 149 runnings.

Favorite Mage had run back to third at the top of the stretch but could not manage to overtake his two rivals — with Blazing Sevens putting on a spirited challenge to National Treasure in the last two furlongs. Mage held on to show at the finish.

National Treasure seemed to eke out the win, with Blazing Sevens galloping out strongly. The momentum at the line was all with the place horse, to the point that, according to the cliche, had the race been a hundred yards longer, it would have had a different winner. National Treasure was holding on but did not look as if there was much run left in him. The connections of Blazing Sevens, and most especially his trainer Chad Brown, will be sorely missing that one-sixteenth-of-a-mile by which the Preakness is shorter than the Kentucky Derby.

Bottom line: It was a textbook race for the Preakness itself, demonstrating with aching clarity the fact that at Pimlico, in the Preakness, you have to get the business done with dispatch.

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