Mage will break from Post Position 3 as the morning-line favorite in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

The Kentucky Derby winner will face seven challengers as he seeks to take the second step toward thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, and he’ll have to beat an entirely new lineup of horse to do it.

Mage finished at the front of a field of 18 in his Kentucky Derby victory on May 6, and he’s the only one from the Run for the Roses to make the trip from Churchill Downs to Pimlico Racing Course for the 148th Preakness Stakes.

Keith Feustle, the Maryland Jockey Club handicapper, set the morning-line odds for Mage at 8-5 to win. The morning-line odds were revealed during Monday afternoon’s post-position draw.

Based on the morning line, the top challengers to Mage will be First Mission at 5-2, National Treasure at 4-1 and Blazing Sevens at 6-1.

First Mission won the Lexington Stakes the last time out. The Kentucky Derby was Mage’s fourth race; the Preakness Stakes will be First Mission’s fourth race. The colt has two wins and one second-place finish.

Blazing Sevens is trained by Chad Brown, who won last year’s Preakness with Early Voting, another colt that did not run in the Kentucky Derby.

National Treasure is trained by Bob Baffert. The Preakness marks the return of Baffert to Triple Crown racing after being banned from the Kentucky Derby. Baffert is tied with R. Wyndham Walden for Preakness Stakes winners with seven. Baffert’s champions run from Silver Charm in 1997 to Justify in 2018. Walden’s last winner was Refund in 1888.

Post time for the Preakness Stakes is 5:50 p.m. CDT Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. NBC will televise the race. NBC’s coverage from Old Hilltop starts at 3:30 p.m., picking up from CNBC, which will begin televising from Pimlico at noon Sunday.

The post positions and morning-line odds for the 148th Preakness Stakes are:

1. National Treasure 4-1

2. Chase the Chaos 50-1

3. Mage 8-5

4. Coffeewithchris 20-1

5. Red Route One 10-1

6. Perform 15-1

7. Blazing Sevens 6-1

8. First Mission 5-2

A look at the field for Saturday’s race:

Blazing Sevens had a bumpy ride in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 4 that might have derailed the colt’s Kentucky Derby prospect. Blazing Sevens won two of his first three races, including a 3.25-length victory over Verifying in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes on Oct. 1, around a third-place run in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes on Sept. 5 (12 lengths behind Forte). Blazing Sevens ran fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4, this time 6.25 lengths behind Forte. In Blazing Seven’s most recent outing, the colt finished third behind Tapit Trice and Verifying in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes on April 8. Trainer: Chad Brown, who won the Preakness in 2017 with Cloud Computing and 2022 with Early Voting. Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr. Record: 6-2-0-2. Earnings: $565,250. Pedigree: Trophy Girl by Good Magic.

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Chase the Chaos has run fast late in his three wins but hasn’t been a factor in his past two outings. The California gelding finished seventh in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 4 and eighth in the California Derby on April 29. Trainer: Ed Moger Jr. Jockey: Sheldon Russell. Record: 8-3-2-1. Earnings: $123,950. Pedigree: Live The Moment by Astern.

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Coffeewithchris is a well-campaigned gelding that has done most of his racing at Laurel Park, including a fifth-place showing in the Federico Tesio Stakes on April 15. Coffeewithchris’ most recent victory came on Feb. 18, when he won the Miracle Wood Stakes. Trainer: John Salzman Jr. Jockey: Jamie Rodriguez. Record: 12-3-3-2. Earnings: $225,600. Pedigree: Andiemac by Ride On Curlin.

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First Mission did not race as a 2-year-old. A winner by 6.75 lengths in his second time out at the Fair Grounds, First Mission went to Keeneland and won the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes on April 15 by overtaking Arabian Lion for a one-half-length victory. Trainer: Brad Cox. Jockey: Luis Saez. Record: 3-2-1-0. Earnings: $276,500. Pedigree: Elude by Street Sense.

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Mage is this year’s Triple Crown hopeful after winning the Kentucky Derby by 1 length on May 6. The colt didn’t race as 2-year-old, then won almost wire-to-wire with the second-longest odds in the field the first time out at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 28. The colt’s other two races were won by Forte, as Mage ran fourth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 4 and second by 1 length in the Grade 1 Florida Derby on April 1. Trainer: Gustavo Delgado. Jockey: Javier Castellano, who won the Preakness in 2006 on Bernardi and 2017 on Cloud Computing. Record: 4-2-1-0. Earnings: $2,107,200. Pedigree: Puca by Good Magic.

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National Treasure led virtually wire-to-wire in his first race. But while the performance has improved since that race at Del Mar on Sept. 3, the colt hasn’t won again. All four races have been graded stakes. National Treasure ran third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 4 and is coming off a fourth-place finish, 3 lengths behind winner Practical Move, in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 8. Trainer: Bob Baffert, who won the Preakness in 1997 with Silver Charm, 1998 with Real Quiet, 2001 with Point Given, 2002 with War Emblem, 2010 with Lookin at Lucky, 2015 with American Pharoah and 2018 with Justify. Jockey: John Velazquez. Record: 5-1-1-2. Earnings: $345,000. Pedigree: Treasure by Quality Road.

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Perform has seven races at seven tracks, but the colt has found something the past two times out. After winning at Tampa Bay Downs on March 11, Perform won the Federico Tesio Stakes by a head after entering the stretch in sixth to punch his ticket to Saturday’s big race. The Preakness will be the colt’s graded-stakes debut. Trainer: Claude McGaughey III. Jockey: Feargal Lynch. Record: 7-2-1-1. Earnings: $130,956. Pedigree: Jane Says by Good Magic.

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Red Route One won the second time out, then tackled six graded stakes in a row without a first-place finish. Red Route One had back-to-back second-place finishes in the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes on Jan. 28 and Grade 2 Rebels Stakes on Feb. 25 before a sixth-place showing at the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby on April 1. Last time out, the colt won for the second time by beating Tapit Shoes by a head with a big stretch run in the Bath House Row Stakes on April 22 at Oaklawn. Trainer: Steve Asmussen, who won the Preakness in 2007 with Curlin and 2009 with Rachel Alexandra. Jockey: Joel Rosario. Record: 9-2-2-1. Earnings: $631,575. Pedigree: Red House by Gun Runner.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.