Pay Billy profile: 2025 Preakness Stakes odds, post position, history and more to know
Trainer Mike Gorham has been training horses since 1985 and has been to the Preakness Stakes either as a fan or as a trainer running on the undercard 23 times. On Saturday Gorham will saddle his first runner in the Preakness Stakes: Federico Tesio Stakes winner and local favorite Pay Billy.
5 Pay Billy (20-1)
- Trainer Mike Gorham
- Jockey Raul Mena
- Last race 1st in the Federico Tesio by 1 1/2 lengths
- Career record 8 starts: 4 wins, 1 second, 1 third
- Career earnings $234,475
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure 85 (2025 Federico Tesio)
- Sire Improbable
Below, we’ll dig further into Pay Billy as part of our series profiling all the horses competing in the 150th Preakness Stakes on Saturday, May 17. We’ll look back into his past performances, what questions need to be answered on Saturday and analyze how the post draw affects his chances.
Preakness Stakes profiles 1 Goal Oriented | 2 Journalism | 3 American Promise | 4 Heart of Honor | 5 Pay Billy | 6 River Thames | 7 Sandman | 8 Clever Again | 9 Gosger
Preakness Stakes picks Michelle Yu | Gene Menez | Jody Demling
What to know about Pay Billy
Purchased last year for $60,000, Pay Billy already has paid dividends for his owners four times over.
This Kentucky-bred son of Improbable needed four races to break his maiden, but since then he has been a cash machine. He has won four of his last five starts, and his only loss over that stretch was a nose defeat three starts ago.
To be fair, those efforts have come at nearby Laurel Park, which isn’t exactly the birthplace of future Triple Crown champions. Also, the Beyer Speed Figures from those performances have hovered in the low 80s. His career-best Beyer of 85 is the lowest career-best Beyer of any horse in the field. Unless the favorites for the Preakness suddenly regress, he will need to get significantly faster in order to even threaten the top horses on Saturday.
But at least he is in career-best form, and his speed figures are trending in the right direction. In his last race, the Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel Park, he stalked a moderate pace three-wide, pounced on the far turn and outgamed Just a Fair Shake to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
At 20-1 on the morning line, he is the co-longest price in the field at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET, but the local connections could draw some betting interest.
Post draw analysis
Pay Billy drew perfectly in post No. 5, smack dab in the middle of the starting gate. He projects to get a stalking trip similar to the one he received in the Frederico Tesio Stakes but on a much faster pace. If he’s good enough, he should range up around the far turn.
