A field of 20 horses is set to launch from the starting gate for the 2024 Kentucky Derby today. The 150th Run for the Roses is expected to see 19 colts and a gelding dashing down the dirt track at Churchill Downs in Louisville to try to win the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown before tens of thousands of spectators. Florida Derby winner Fierceness was picked by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia last Saturday as the morning line favorite with 5-2 odds. The bay colt drew the No. 17 post position — one that’s produced no Derby winners since starting gates were The No. 16 spot was initially used in 1930, and four Derby winners have started from it, the most recent being Animal Kingdom in 2011.
Positioned at the second post, Sierra Leone trailed Fierceness in the morning line odds with a 3-1 score.
The horses from post No. 10 and up were able to move one spot closer to the inside of the track when 20-1 shot Encino withdrew from this week’s race due to a purported soft tissue ailment, creating an opening in the No. 9 post.
The brown colt Epic Ride, who was third in the Blue Grass Stakes last month, was positioned at the last post at 50-1 odds. Next to him was Society Man, a fellow long shot who finished second at the Wood Memorial in New York.
Here’s the complete list of the 2024 Kentucky Derby horses in order with their morning line odds:
- Dornoch (20-1)
- Sierra Leone (3-1)
- Mystik Dan (20-1)
- Catching Freedom (8-1)
- Catalytic (30-1)
- Just Steel (20-1)
- Honor Marie (20-1)
- Just a Touch (10-1)
- T O Password (30-1)
- Forever Young (10-1)
- Track Phantom (20-1)
- West Saratoga (50-1)
- Endlessly (30-1)
- Domestic Product (30-1)
- Grand Mo the First (50-1)
- Fierceness (5-2)
- Stronghold (20-1)
- Resilience (20-1)
- Society Man (50-1)
- Epic Ride (50-1)
There are only twenty three-year-olds entered in the 1 1/4-mile race. Since Mugatu was the only colt qualified to draw into the field to cover a vacancy, he will not be competing in the Derby as no other horses withdrew from the race by the deadline on Friday morning.
The majority of the horses qualified for the Kentucky Derby by earning points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, a sequence of races that began with the Iroquois Stakes in September and ended on April 13 with the Lexington Stakes. The top five finishers in each of the 36 events received points.A separate invitation to the Kentucky Derby was sent to T O Password, who won the Fukuryu Stakes in Japan last month and amassed enough points to lead the four-race Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Churchill Downs declared earlier this year that the payout for the 2024 Derby would reach a record-breaking $5 million, replacing the $3 million in prize money that has been awarded since 2019.
With $3.1 million going to the winner, $1 million going to the runner-up, $500,000 going to third, $250,000 going to fourth, and $150,000 going to fifth, the $5 million will be divided among the top five finishers in the Derby.The Triple Crown begins with the Derby, which is customarily run on the first Saturday in May. The series’ halfway point is reached two weeks after the Derby in Baltimore with the Preakness Stakes. Due to the building of a new Belmont Park, the Belmont Stakes will conclude the series at Saratoga Springs, New York, in June rather than at the race’s Long Island home.
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