After finishing as runner-up at the Kentucky Derby earlier this month, the heavy-favorite Journalism earned a thrilling victory Saturday at the 150th Preakness Stakes at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, the second leg of the Triple Crown.

Journalism, who entered with 8-5 odds, came from behind down the stretch to defeat a field of eight other horses. 

Gosger was second by a half-length after getting passed by Journalism just before the wire. Sandman was third and Goal Oriented fourth. Journalism went 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.37.

Journalism gave trainer Michael McCarthy his second Preakness victory. It is Umberto Rispoli's first in a Triple Crown race, and he is the first jockey from Italy to win one of them.    

Notably absent from the race, however, was Sovereignty, the 3-year-old colt who won the Kentucky Derby. Sovereignty is still expected to run in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 at the Saratoga Race Course in New York, setting up a possible and much-awaited rematch with Journalism.

This is the fifth time in seven years that the Preakness, for various reasons, was contested without a Triple Crown bid at stake.  

But Journalism staked his claim for 3-year-old horse of the year by winning the $2 million American classic race run at the old Pimlico Race Course for the last time before it's torn down and rebuilt. The Preakness is set to be held at nearby Laurel Park, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., next year before a planned return to the new Pimlico in 2027.    

Journalism thrived on a warm day that dried out the track after torrential rain fell at Pimlico for much of the past week. Those conditions suited him better than the slop at Churchill Downs in the Derby.  

Journalism is the first horse to win the Preakness after running in the Kentucky Derby since Mark Casse-trained War of Will in 2019. Only two others from the 19 in the Derby participated in the Preakness: Casse's Sandman and fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas' American Promise.