Royal Orbit (April 25, 1956 - c. 1980) was an AmericanThoroughbredracehorse best known as the winner of thePreakness Stakes, the second leg of theU.S. Triple Crown races.

Royal Orbit was a chestnut horse bred byfilm mogulLouis B. Mayer. He was sired by the imported British stallionRoyal Charger out of Admiral's Belle, a daughter of the 1937U.S. Triple Crown winner,War Admiral. Royal Orbit was purchased at the JulyKeeneland Sales by businessman Jacques Braunstein and raced by his widow, Halina Gregory Braunstein. He was trained byReggie Cornell.

Royal Orbit was a top two-year-old colt racing inCalifornia, notably winning the 1958Los Feliz Stakes and finishing second toTomy Lee in theDel Mar Futurity. The following year he was second to theHall of FamefillySilver Spoon in theSanta Anita Derby. In his only out-of-the-money finish in twenty career races, Royal Orbit ran fourth to winner Tomy Lee in the 1959Kentucky Derby underjockeyWilliam Harmatz. However, Royal Orbit and Harmatz came back to win the 85th running of thePreakness Stakes and in theBelmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown series, he finished third to winnerSword Dancer.

Retired at the end of the 1959 racing season, Royal Orbit stood in Kentucky and at theMaryland branch ofE.P. Taylor'sWindfields Farm. His offspring would meet with modest success, the best of which was multiple stakes winner,Quicken Tree. In 1971 he was sent to a breeding farm inIreland. Two years later he was shipped toArgentina where he spent a year before going toBrazil in 1975.

• 1956 racehorse births
• Racehorses bred in Kentucky
• Racehorses trained in the United States
• Preakness Stakes winners
• Thoroughbred family 7-e

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata