The horses are entered, the submit positions are drawn, and the morning line is ready. The ultimate countdown to Saturday’s one hundred and fiftieth Kentucky Derby is actually underway, which suggests it’s crunch time for these — current firm very a lot included — hoping to dazzle our pals (and perhaps fatten our wallets) by choosing the winner. 

Sifting via this huge subject of 20 horses, all of them still-developing 3-year-olds and lots of of them with just some begins beneath their belts, presents an attractive problem whether or not you’re a veteran horseplayer or an off-the-cuff fan.

There are numerous methods to handicap the Derby. What follows are a number of information factors, tendencies and angles that will (hopefully) assist form your pondering and sharpen your opinions about this 12 months’s Run for the Roses.

Two vital notes: There are a number of references right here to the Derby qualifying system carried out in 2013. It’s an vital reference level, as a result of it altered the fundamental construction of the race.

Earlier than 2013, Derby slots had been allotted based mostly merely on cash gained in any form of stakes races; that allowed horses who weren’t pure Derby suits (short-distance sprinters, as an illustration) to make it in and deform the dynamics of the race.

Since 2013, Derby qualification has been based mostly on factors awarded to the highest finishers in a sequence of particularly designated races. The system has produced fields a lot heavier on horses who’ve demonstrated success beneath Derby-like situations.

Additionally, the time period “crossed the wire first” seems right here many occasions in reference to current tendencies. That’s as a result of 2019 and 2021 Derbies, during which the horses who crossed the ending wire first — Most Safety in 2019 and Medina Spirit in 2021 — had been finally disqualified, with the second-place finishers designated because the official winners. However for our functions right here, it’s extra helpful to make use of the horses who initially completed first in these Derbies.

Favorites for a purpose

In a subject as large because the Derby — 20 horses, simply essentially the most that may run in a serious race within the U.S. this 12 months — it’s pure to anticipate chaos and to search for an extended shot that’ll blow up your checking account for under a small funding. And, definitely, we’ve witnessed some huge Derby upsets; who amongst us doesn’t want they’d plopped down a couple of bucks on Wealthy Strike at 80-1 two years in the past?

However as thrilling because the Wealthy Strikes are, they’re additionally uncommon. In horse racing, favorites win round 35% of all races run throughout the nation in a given 12 months. And for the reason that Derby switched to its present qualifying system in 2013, their hit charge on this race is even greater:

That’s six of 11 Derbies (54.5%) since 2013 during which the betting favourite has gained. And even when the favourite has fallen brief, it has nonetheless tended to run properly, by no means crossing the wire worse than fifth. In case you had merely positioned the minimal guess of $2 to win on each favourite since 2013, you’d now have a revenue of $19.40, practically double your whole funding.

That having been stated, this 12 months’s favourite, Fierceness, enters the Derby with a peculiar monitor report. He has gained three earlier races in completely dominating trend, by a mixed whole of 31 lengths. However his two different races have been whole clunkers: a 20 ¼-length seventh-place end in final fall’s Champagne Stakes and a baffling third-place end (because the 1-5 favourite towards suspect competitors) in February’s Holy Bull Stakes. Many see Fierceness as the final word growth or bust horse — one who both wins with ease or loses in a rout.

Tempo: Will there be one other meltdown?

This can be the one most important variable within the race. The overall rule is that the quicker the tempo is early, the extra unsustainable it turns into for the horses on or close to the lead. They primarily deplete an excessive amount of gas too quickly and have little in reserve for the stretch run. That enables the closers — horses that sit far off the quick early tempo and preserve vitality — to blow by the tiring leaders within the last phases of the race.

What makes this 12 months’s Derby so fascinating is that, relating to tempo, the 2 favorites embody polar-opposite operating types. 

Sierra Leone is a deep nearer; he prefers to take a seat far off and slowly rev up for one large cost. He stands to profit if he has a sizzling tempo to run into Saturday. Fierceness, in contrast, has proven a want to run at or close to the entrance; a tempo that heats up an excessive amount of might doom him if he will get drawn into it. Extra modest early fractions, in contrast, ought to put him in a stronger place when the race turns for dwelling.

The current historical past of the Derby (since 2013, when the present qualifying system was put in place) demonstrates how essential tempo might be:

Observe that the 2013 and 2022 Derbies featured the quickest opening half-miles — and that every was gained by a horse who was far, far again at that time. And that the one different current deep nearer to complete first, Mage final 12 months, additionally did so amid brisk early fractions. In the meantime, the slower early paces all helped horses on or close to the lead keep there. General, regardless of the previous two years, early velocity has held up pretty properly in current Derbies.

On Saturday, Fierceness’ first activity can be to interrupt cleanly and set up his most well-liked ahead place. That alone isn’t any given, as a result of he’s breaking from the seventeenth submit and might want to work his manner towards the within shortly.

But when he does do this, the tempo query turns into pivotal. A lot of horses will even be scrambling for early place; Monitor Phantom, T O Password, Dornoch and Only a Contact are amongst those that might contest the tempo. Will they set blazing fractions and — in the event that they do — will it draw Fierceness into an early, draining duel? Or will Fierceness have it his manner, getting a modest tempo to take a seat off of earlier than he revs his engine and leaves the sector within the mud? The instance of Justify above can also be value recalling; he endured a lightning-fast early tempo in 2018 and nonetheless managed to carry up and win anyway.

In the meantime, Sierra Leone figures to have firm towards the again of the pack, too. Catching Freedom and Honor Marie are two different well-regarded closers who, like Sierra Leone, needs to be doing their finest operating late. For all of them, the tempo up entrance can’t get sizzling sufficient. 

Pace rankings: A threshold quantity?

Evaluating all 20 horses within the subject with each other is a frightening activity. In any case, they’re every solely 3 years previous and principally haven’t raced that a lot, they usually’ve taken numerous routes to the Derby — operating in several qualifying races at completely different tracks with various configurations and beneath various situations.

Pace rankings are an try and flatten all of that out into one easy-to-compare quantity. Many distinctive formulation, every with its personal proprietary logic, have sprouted up. The perfect-known might be the Beyer Pace Determine system, which takes its title from creator Andrew Beyer. These numbers might be discovered within the Every day Racing Kind, which you’ll in all probability encounter on any journey to the monitor. The essential concept: The upper the quantity, the quicker the horse.

In relation to this 12 months’s Derby, the Beyer rankings provide a possible angle for sizing up the sector. each unrestricted stakes race at the very least a mile in size that every horse has run, right here is the best Beyer determine every has put up coming into the Derby:

Based mostly on the Beyer Rankings, Fierceness, with a excessive of 110, towers over the remainder of this 12 months’s subject — that’s a nine-point benefit over his nearest foes.

Furthermore, the 101 excessive for Japan’s Eternally Younger is simply an unofficial estimate supplied by a Beyer figure-maker from a race within the Center East. And the 101 for Mystik Dan got here on a muddy monitor at Oaklawn Park in February; outdoors of that race, his finest quantity is simply 89, suggesting Mystik Dan might have a moist floor to excel (in different phrases: If it rains Saturday, he’ll out of the blue change into a preferred choose).

Horses getting into the Derby with the best Beyer rankings don’t at all times win, however since 2000 six of them have: Justify (2018), California Chrome (2014), Avenue Sense (2007), Large Brown (2008), Battle Emblem (2002) and Fusaichi Pegasus (2000). And a seventh, Most Safety (2019), crossed the wire first however was finally disqualified for interference. All instructed, a dozen horses who’ve crossed the wire first since 2000 got here in with one of many three highest Beyers.

Additionally of be aware: Since 2000, all however two horses that crossed the wire first within the Derby had beforehand posted at the very least a 94 Beyer ranking in a stakes race a mile or longer. The 2 exceptions are two of essentially the most mystifying long-shot winners of all time: Mine That Fowl (2009), who got here in with a finest Beyer of simply 81, and Wealthy Strike (2022), who’d beforehand maxed out at 84. Neither of them ever gained one other race after their memorable Derby upsets. As you’ll be able to see above, precisely half of this 12 months’s subject has beforehand run a 94 Beyer or higher.

Fierceness’ 110 Beyer, together with the nine-point hole to the subsequent finest, explains why he’s the favourite on this race. However lest anybody assume that makes him invincible, take into account that the one different Derby horse this century to enter with such a marked Beyer benefit — Bellamy Street, 12 factors higher than anybody else in 2005 — ended up ending sixth. 

‘Closing fractions’

Credit score for this angle goes to Jennie Rees, a adorned horse racing journalist who handles publicity for Kentucky Downs. As a result of the 1 ¼-mile Derby is often the longest any of those horses have ever run, her concept is that any earlier means they’ve proven to complete powerfully supplies an vital clue about their health and endurance.

To measure that, Rees proposed taking a look at how every horse completed its last pre-Derby prep race, crediting those who both ran the final quarter-mile in 13 seconds or much less or the final three-eighths of a mile in 38 seconds or much less. These benchmarks haven’t been good, however the overwhelming majority of current Derby winners have checked at the very least one of many containers.

Which members of this 12 months’s subject qualify for consideration beneath the “last fractions” idea? For that, we owe deep gratitude to J. Keeler Johnson, a Bloodhorse contributor who carried out some tediously heroic math to plot numbers for every horse. As a result of actual official occasions aren’t obtainable from each Derby prep race, there’s subjectivity concerned right here, and never each quantity cruncher will give you the identical occasions. 

However Johnson provides a meticulous and compelling methodology, and he discovered that eight horses on this 12 months’s subject fail to satisfy both standards: Catalytic, Dornoch, Epic Experience, Grand Mo the First, Only a Contact, Stronghold, Sierra Leone, T O Password and West Saratoga.

Most of them are lengthy pictures — with the evident exceptions of Sierra Leone and Only a Contact, who completed first and second respectively within the Blue Grass Stakes a month in the past. Given his overpowering stretch run in that race, it’s notably shocking to search out Sierra Leone’s title on the record. And a few contend that the Keeneland floor he was operating on that day was biased towards front-running horses — making his means to return from behind and win fairly spectacular, irrespective of the fractional occasions.

Each different horse within the Derby subject checks each “last fractions” containers, aside from lengthy shot Society Man, who misses on one and solely barely makes the minimize on the opposite (a 12.95-second last quarter-mile within the Wooden Memorial). 

The Japan issue

Again in 1989, an American horse named Sunday Silence attained glory by profitable the Derby and the Preakness, the primary two jewels of the Triple Crown. And but, when he was retired from racing, Sunday Silence discovered himself undesirable as a stallion — till a Japanese breeder swooped in and took him to his dwelling nation. There, to an astonishing diploma, Sunday Silence flourished as a sire, primarily serving as the muse for contemporary Japanese racing. 

After many years of regular progress, Japanese-bred horses — most of them direct descendants of Sunday Silence — are exploding onto the worldwide stage, having taken down two prestigious Breeders’ Cup races and the world’s two richest races (the $20 million Saudi Cup and the $12 million Dubai World Cup) in simply the previous couple of years. It appears like a Derby breakthrough is simply a matter of time.

This 12 months, two Japanese-bred horses, Eternally Younger and T O Password, are within the subject. Each descend from Sunday Silence, as did the 4 earlier Japanese-bred horses to make the Run for the Roses:

These outcomes aren’t a lot to have a look at, although the pattern dimension is proscribed and Derma Sotogake completed sixth final 12 months solely after he encountered points on the beginning gate and site visitors throughout the race. In different phrases, his efficiency was stronger than it seems to be on paper.

There are some distinctive unknowns with this 12 months’s Japanese entrants. They each needed to endure lengthy abroad journeys simply to get to Kentucky and can be operating on North American soil for the primary time. How will they alter?

And each must defy another historical past, too. In Eternally Younger’s case, that has to do with the UAE Derby in Dubai, the race that he gained to qualify for Louisville. Horses going to the Kentucky Derby from that race are a mixed 0-19, by no means ending higher than fifth. In the meantime, T O Password, who has raced solely in Japan, has made simply two begins in his whole profession. No trendy horse has ever gained the Derby with such little expertise, and nearly none have even tried. To discover a horse that pulled that off, you’d must go all the way in which again to Leonatus in 1883.

The stratospheric trajectory of Japanese racing makes each of this 12 months’s entrants at the very least value keeping track of. However solely Eternally Younger is taken into account a most important contender. He has gained all 5 races he has run, confronted worldwide competitors in Dubai and turned in flashy performances that definitely look Derby-worthy. Now, 35 years later, it’s doable the title Sunday Silence will resound as soon as extra.

My choose for the Kentucky Derby 

Playing cards on the desk first: I’ve picked a grand whole of 1 Derby winner within the final 10 years — and that winner was later disqualified (though I did get to maintain the cash). That itself may very well be a productive angle so that you can take into account, one which my family and friends members have used efficiently earlier than: If I’m choosing it, keep away from it. 

In relation to this race, although, I’m not going with the favourite. For one factor, I simply hate taking favorites, particularly in a race just like the Derby, with so many horses operating and a lot potential chaos. Fierceness is clearly essentially the most gifted, however to me he has been too inconsistent, and an excessive amount of can go mistaken breaking from such an out of doors submit.

And Sierra Leone, the opposite potential favourite, will face a novel problem together with his come-from-the-clouds operating type. With 19 different horses on the monitor, he’ll must maneuver his manner via and round site visitors like he has by no means confronted earlier than. As with Fierceness, I gained’t be in any respect stunned if he wins, however an excessive amount of might go mistaken for him on this race for me to take him at brief odds.

What I really like is looking for an extended shot, and I’ve received my eye on one specifically. He has a operating type that has fared properly previously, not contesting the tempo however not sitting thus far off it that he will get buried in site visitors. His most up-to-date race, the Arkansas Derby, was his finest but, and there’s purpose to assume he might enhance additional. He additionally checks each “last fractions” containers, and his prime Beyer velocity determine is 95 — on the proper aspect of the road, the place nearly each Derby winner this century has been.

And, hey, I’m sentimental, too. His coach is 88 years previous, he has gained 4 Derbies earlier than, and he nonetheless heads to the barn within the wee hours of each morning seeking extra. I’ll admit my coronary heart might be speaking my head into this one, however the odds can be large and the Derby solely comes round yearly, so why not? I’m going with D. Wayne Lukas and Simply Metal.