Titletown Five, a colt co-owned by Packers Hall of Famers Paul Hornung and Willie Davis, has been installed as the longest shot in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
The horse, who has one win in seven career starts, drew post position No. 3 in the 1 3/16-mile race and is listed at 30-1 on the track’s morning line, which is an estimation of how a horse will be bet by the public.
Titletown Five is trained by D. Wayne Lukas, who has conditioned five Preakness winners and has two other starters in Saturday’s race in Oxbow and Will Take Charge. Orb, the Kentucky Derby winner, is the even-money favorite in the Preakness, which airs Saturday on NBC. Post time is 6:20 p.m. Eastern.
According to the Daily Racing Form, the 77-year-old Hornung owns 30 percent of Titletown Five, with Davis owning a smaller share of the colt that is named for Green Bay and Hornung’s iconic No. 5. Hornung will be attending the race, the Form said, and should the colt pull a major upset, don’t worry about Hornung not having a win bet on his horse.
“We’re going to be first or second,” Hornung told the Form. “Wayne says the horse is doing great. If he says the horse is doing great, that’s good enough for me. I’ll be betting my money.”
A dark bay or brown colt, Titletown Five will be distinguishable by his blue saddle towel and jockey Julien Leparoux’s outfit: white pants, green cap, green silks with yellow stripes on the sleeves and the initials “GB” inside a yellow circle on the chest and back.
Judging from his previous races, Titletown Five figures to be on or close to the lead early in the Preakness. He comes off a fourth-place try in the one-mile Derby Trial at Churchill Downs on April 27, a race in which he sat just off a hot pace and looked a real challenger at the quarter pole before tiring.
Hornung isn’t the only football figure with a horse running at Pimlico on Saturday. Undrafted, a three-year-old gelding owned by Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker, is entered in the Chick Lang Stakes earlier on the card.
NBC’s Preakness coverage Saturday begins at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on the NBC Sports Network, with coverage moving to NBC for another two hours at 4:30.