A Laurel-trained horse and its jockey will take aim at one of horse racing’s biggest prizes at this year’s Preakness Stakes — on a track they know well.

The 151st running of the $2 million Preakness Stakes will be held Saturday, May 16, at Laurel Park, drawing national attention as the race relocates from its longtime home at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, which is undergoing renovations.

Among the field is Taj Mahal, who earned his spot by winning the Federico Tesio on April 18 at Laurel Park.

Taj Mahal has won each of his three career starts at Laurel, site of his training regimen under Brittany Russell, Maryland’s winningest trainer in each of the past three years. He captured the Tesio by 8 1/4 lengths.

“It was really impressive,” Russell said in a press release. “You want to see a really big run from him to give you confidence that he should go on to the Preakness, and I do. I feel like he did that.”

Taj Mahal’s victory followed his Feb. 21 win in the Wood Memorial. He won his first race Feb. 6 by 4 1/4 lengths.

His jockey is Russell’s husband, Sheldon Russell. She said she liked how he guided the 3-year-old colt in the Tesio, taking him from the outermost No. 10 post position to a 10-length lead on the rail. His advantage shrank to less than three lengths before Sheldon pushed him across the finish line in the 1 1/8-mile contest.

“He said he knew he had [a winning] horse the whole time,” Brittany said. “He was just trying to give him a breather because he ran so hard. He said he was just hard on his hands the first part of the race, so he had to give him a chance to take a breath. He knew he had gears.”

Sired by 2016 Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist out of Oola Gal, Taj Mahal was bred in Florida and has career earnings of $178,200. He will be Russell’s first horse to compete in a Triple Crown race.

“On the big day, for him to be able to have the chance to do it at home, I’d love to think it’s a major advantage,” Russell said. “No traveling or anything.”

Other contenders

Crupper also earned an automatic berth into the Preakness by winning the Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on April 18. The winner of the May 2 Kentucky Derby — first held in 1875, two years after the inaugural Preakness — will also line up for a chance to continue a Triple Crown bid with races in Laurel and the Belmont Stakes on June 6.

Talkin, based at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, will skip the 20-horse Kentucky Derby and ship to Laurel in an attempt to give trainer Danny Gargan his second Triple Crown race victory (Dornoch, 2024 Belmont Stakes).

“He fits the smaller field. I think he’ll like that track. It’s a shorter distance,” Gargan said. “He really doesn’t want to go a mile and a quarter, probably. Hopefully that’s the race he can jump up and run big. … I’d love to win the Preakness.”