Preakness trainer bonus returns with $100,000 at Laurel Park weekend

The real question around Preakness weekend is whether $100,000 in trainer bonuses actually changes behavior or just sweetens the brochure. For barns with enough depth to start at least five horses across Laurel Park’s stakes races, it changes plenty: the top point earner gets $50,000, and the payouts run all the way through sixth place, so a stable that can place runners often and place them well has something real to chase.

The structure makes the incentive more than a side note. Trainers earn 10 points for a win, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one point for fifth through last, which means every start matters once a barn qualifies. The bonus returns for its 10th consecutive year in 2026, a sign it has become part of the Preakness weekend machinery rather than a one-off add-on.

That machinery is heavy. Laurel Park’s 2026 Preakness weekend features 15 stakes races, seven of them graded, with $4.2 million in purses. The centerpiece remains the 151st Preakness Stakes on May 16, but the card also includes the 102nd Black-Eyed Susan on May 15, along with the Dinner Party, Gallorette, Maryland Sprint, Chick Lang, Skipat, Sir Barton, James W. Murphy, Jim McKay Turf Sprint, Pimlico Special, Miss Preakness, Allaire du Pont Distaff, Hilltop and The Very One. The UAE President Cup is part of Preakness Day, but it does not count toward the trainer bonus standings.

That breadth is exactly why the bonus has teeth. A barn with multiple live horses can stack points across the weekend, while a smaller outfit needs a sharp strike rate to keep pace. Steve Asmussen proved the point by winning the bonus four times in the first seven years of the program, taking it in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2022. Brad Cox won in 2019, Mike Maker in 2020, Graham Motion in 2023, Cherie DeVaux in 2024 and Brendan Walsh in 2025.

DeVaux’s 2024 win carried extra weight. She became the first female trainer to top the standings, finishing with 34 points, four ahead of Asmussen, after starting horses in five stakes and going three-for-three in stakes on Black-Eyed Susan Day. Her name lands differently now, too, after she became the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Walsh’s 2025 victory was even tighter in the standings than the point total suggests only if you ignore the bigger lesson: at Preakness weekend, barn depth, placement and timing can pay just as quickly as the headline race itself.