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A field of 20 horses is set to launch from the starting gate for the 2024 Kentucky Derbytoday. 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 first used in 1930, while the No. 16 post has been the starting position for four Derby winners, most recentlyAnimal Kingdomin 2011.
Sierra Leone, slotted in the No. 2 post, was right behind Fierceness in the morning line odds with 3-1.
When 20-1 shot Encino scratched from the race this week over areported soft tissue strain, the No. 9 post opened up, allowing the horses from post No. 10 and up to move one space closer to the inside of the track.
Epic Ride, the brown colt who finished third in last month’s Blue Grass Stakes, filled the last post at 50-1 odds, next to fellow long shot Society Man, the chestnut gelding who came in second at New York’s Wood Memorial.
2024 Kentucky Derby horses
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)
The field for the 1 1/4-mile race is limited to 20 3-year-olds. No other horses scratched from the race by Friday morning’s deadline, meaning Mugatu, the other colt eligible to draw into the field to fill a vacancy, won’t be in the Derby.
Most of the horses got to the Derby by earning points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby, a series of races that started in September with the Iroquois Stakes, and concluded at the Lexington Stakes on April 13. Points were given to the top five finishers in each of the 36 races.
Separately, T O Password was invited to the Derby after winning last month’s Fukuryu Stakes in Japan and being awarded enough points to top the four-race Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Earlier this year, Churchill Downs announced the purse for the 2024 Derby would be an all-time high of $5 million, up from the $3 million in prize money that had been up for grabs since 2019.
The $5 million will be split among the top five finishers in the Derby, with $3.1 million for the winner, $1 million for the runner-up, $500,000 for third place, $250,000 for fourth place and $150,000 for fifth place.
The Derby is traditionally held on the first Saturday in May, marking the start of the Triple Crown. Two weeks after the Derby, the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore marks the midpoint of the series. In June, the Belmont Stakes will close out the series in Saratoga Springs, New York, instead of the race’s home on Long Island because of construction of a new Belmont Park.
