Twenty horses stampeding towards the primary flip in a battle for place. A screaming crowd of 150,000 and perhaps some showers that dampen the Churchill Downs dust strip.
It’s the one hundred and fiftieth Kentucky Derby. Beyond a few early wagering favorites, it is a wide-open race.
Post time is 6:57 p.m. ET on Saturday. The forecast requires 81 levels with a 60% probability of scattered showers and thunderstorms.
That type of climate could profit six horses which have received within the mud or slop earlier than, together with early favorites Fierceness and Sierra Leone. The others with expertise on messy surfaces are Dornoch, Just a Touch, Mystik Dan and Society Man.
The Derby will reply the perennial query of which 3-year-old can finest deal with working 1 1/4 miles in entrance of the most important crowd they may ever see and listen to.
Fierceness and jockey John Velazquez will break from the No. 17 put up, which has by no means produced a derby winner.
The costliest colt within the 20-horse discipline is Sierra Leone at $2.3 million.
“A variety of occasions you purchase an costly horse like that they usually cannot run,” mentioned Peter Brandt, one of many six house owners. “We’ve very, very fortunate he is made it this far. We’re wanting ahead to this race but additionally wanting ahead to the way forward for caring for this horse.”
Conversely, Larry Demeritte shelled out simply $11,000 to purchase Saratoga West. The 74-year-old Bahamas native has received 180 races and practically $5 million in purse cash since he began coaching in 1984. Demeritte is simply the second Black coach since 1951 to saddle a horse for the derby.
“This is really superb how we obtained to this place with this horse,” he mentioned.
The Derby winner earns $3.1 million from the report purse of $5 million.
For the second straight 12 months, Japan has two entries: Forever Young and T O Password. The nation has by no means received the race.
This 12 months’s race is one for the ages, too. D. Wayne Lukas, the 88-year-old coach with 4 derby wins, saddles Just Steel. Frankie Dettori, the famed Italian jockey, is again to experience Society Man at age 53 after a 24-year absence.
Trainer Todd Pletcher, who saddles Fierceness, is within the derby for the twenty fourth 12 months and it by no means will get previous. He’s received it twice.
“If something, it simply turns into extra nerve-wracking,” he mentioned.
