What time will the 2024 Preakness Stakes start? What TV channel is the race on?

BALTIMORE —  Trying to plan your Saturday? Want to watch the Preakness? Need some help?

Here’s what you need to know. The official start time of the second leg of the triple crown has been a bit of a moving target. Four different times have been floated but all within 15 minutes of each other. The reality is that NBC will ultimately decide when the race starts.

We’re going to go with gates opening at 4:01 p.m. if you are in Los Angeles.

That’s 7:01 p.m. in Baltimore and all along the Eastern time zone.

If you are in the Midwest and in the Central time zone, such as Chicago, back it up an hour and make it 6:01 p.m.

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And finally, if you are in the Mountain time zone, such as Denver, it’s 5:01 p.m.

But be forewarned, you might want to start watching your local NBC affiliate about 15 minutes before the scheduled start of the race, just to be safe. Rain is expected Saturday, so officials might make some adjustments on the fly and move the time again.

Now if you’re really into racing, you can start your coverage with FanDuel TV at 7:30 a.m. in Los Angeles or 10:30 a.m. in Baltimore. Its coverage will air throughout the day but may not always be live. Mini-NBC, known as CNBC, will start coverage at 10:30 a.m. in Los Angeles and 1:30 p.m. in Baltimore. The big network takes over three hours later (1:30 p.m. PDT). All of the coverage can be streamed live on Peacock.

If you forgot which station is NBC, remember it’s Channel 4 in Los Angeles and New York, Channel 5 in Chicago, Channel 9 in Denver and Channel 11 in Baltimore.

The day at Pimlico is full of stakes races, and, if you pick the right network, you can watch them, too. And to simplify things, we’ll use Pacific times.

• 10:28 a.m. Chick Lang Stakes
  
• 11:08 a.m. Gallorette Stakes
  
• 11:48 a.m. Maryland Sprint Stakes
  
• 12:30 p.m. James W. Murphy Stakes
  
• 1:10 p.m. Sir Barton Stakes
  
• 1:53 p.m. Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes
  
• 2:52 p.m. Dinner Party Stakes
  
• 4:01 p.m. Preakness Stakes

So, that’s the lineup. A Mystik Dan win would set up a possible Triple Crown at the Belmont, which is actually at Saratoga this year, in three weeks.