By R.G. Mason

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The 2024 Kentucky Derby (officially, the 150th Running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve) will be the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby. It will take place on May 4, 2024, at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky. The race is open to 20 horses, who qualified for the race through the 2024 Road to the Kentucky Derby.

The race will be broadcast by NBC. Coverage of undercard events will begin at noon EDT on USA Network before transitioning to the main NBC network for pre-race activities at 2:30 p.m. EDT. The entirety of the day will also be streamed on NBC’s streaming platform Peacock. FanDuel TV will also provide live streaming from 10:30 a.m. to noon EDT and from 7:30 p.m. EDT until festivities end.

The field is limited to twenty horses who qualify based on points earned in the 2024 Road to the Kentucky Derby, a series of designated races that was first introduced in 2013. This point system replaced the previous graded stakes race earnings system. The Main Road consists mostly of races in North America and one in Dubai, the Japan Road consists of four races in Japan, and the European Road consists of seven races in Great Britain, Ireland and France. T O Password qualified via the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby. Horses trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who is suspended from entering and racing horses at tracks owned by Churchill Downs did not earn any qualification points.

ENTRIES

The field was drawn on April 27. Fierceness was installed as the 5-to-2 favorite and drew post number 17.

On April 30, Encino was scratched from the entry list after suffering a soft tissue strain, which allowed the John Ennis-trained Epic Ride to qualify from the also-eligible list.

a.  Mugatu was second on the also-eligible list. He did not draw in to the field as there was only one scratch from the original field of 20 before race day.