Excitement continues to grow as the 150th running of the most famous horse race in the US, the Kentucky Derby, draws ever closer. The Run for the Roses at Churchill downs takes place on Saturday, May 4th, 2024.
The first ever Kentucky Derby took place on May 17, 1875, at the Louisville Jockey Club. Aristides wrote his name in the record books that year, and 150 years later, some of the best 3-year-old horses in the world will be hoping to join him.
The purse for this year’s Derby is a massive $5 million, making it the richest in history. The winner will take home $3.1 million, while the runner up receives $1 million, and the third place finisher is awarded $500,000.
The Triple Crown
The historic 1¼-mile Kentucky Derby, along with the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes, makes up one third of the highly coveted Triple Crown, considered one of the most difficult feats in horse racing.
The tough timetable means a horse needs to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, all in the space of five exhausting weeks. Only thirteen horses have ever achieved it and claimed the Triple Crown, with American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) the most recent.
Entry
Horses gain entry to the Kentucky Derby via a tiered point system that is available in select races, but there are only 20 spots up for grabs. To earn their place, they must travel along the Road to the Kentucky Derby, which is a series of select races at tracks across the USA. The top five finishers in each race receive points, and the 20 horses with the most points will earn their place in the starting gate.
Organisers also introduced the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby and the European Road to the Kentucky Derby, to provide entry to the race for a horse based in Japan and Europe.
Early favourites
Mage, with Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano onboard, won last year’s race at odds of 15-1, in front of a crowd of over 150,000 at Churchill Downs. This year’s runners and riders are still taking shape, but early contenders include Sierra Leone, Fierceness, Timberlake, Forever Young, Dornoch, Domestic Product, and Track Phantom. For the very latest information, or to learn more about Kentucky Derby odds and betting, check this out.
Timberlake
Trainer Brad Cox won with Mandaloun in 2021, and he will be hoping Timberlake gives him his second Kentucky Derby in four years. Sired by Into Mischief, already responsible for two Kentucky Derby winners in Authentic and Mandaloun, Cox knows Timberlake has the pedigree.
Dornoch
No horse has ever copied their sibling or half-sibling by winning the Kentucky Derby, but Dornoch is hoping to make history and do just that. Trained by Danny Gargan, Dornoch is from the second crop of Good Magic, who placed second in the 2018 Kentucky Derby. While his mother is Puca, which makes him a full brother to Mage, the surprise 2023 Kentucky Derby winner.
Sierra Leone
Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, Sierra Leone has a shot at becoming the trainers first ever Kentucky Derby winner. The horse was famously the highest-priced yearling at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale at $2.3 million. Sired by Gun Runner, his pedigree is excellent, and there’s every chance he has the required stamina to finally bring it home for Chad Brown.
Domestic Product
Another Chad brown runner, Domestic Product earned 50 points on the 2024 Road to the Kentucky Derby challenge series leaderboard after his triumph in the Tampa Bay Derby on March 9. The son of Practical Joke, Domestic product may lack straight-line speed and experience, but he’s improving with every race and has a winning trainer behind him.
Last Ten Winners of Kentucky Derby
2013 – Orb
2014 – California Chrome
2015 – American Pharoah
2016 – Nyquist
2017 – Always Dreaming
2018 – Justify
2019 – Country House
2020 – Authentic
2021 – Mandaloun
2022 – Rich Strike
2023 – Mage
Long Odds Winners
The thrill of horse racing is its unpredictability, especially when you have 150,000 people cheering you down the home straight to a famous win. The Kentucky Derby is no stranger to surprise victories either with several notable shocks over the years, including recent wins by Giacomo (2005), and Mind that Bird (2009). However, Rich Strike’s victory in 2002 stands out as the biggest modern-day shock.
The horse only made the starting list the day before the race when Ethereal Road was scratched at the last minute. With only one win under his belt, a $30,000 maiden claimer, Rich Strike had only had three races in preparation for the big day, all of which had been on a synthetic track.
It was no surprise then that he started the race as an 80-1 outsider, but it was a huge surprise when Rich Strike led the field home to claim a first-time derby win for owner Richard Dawson, trainer Eric Reed, and jockey Sonny Leon.
