The horses are entered, the submit positions are drawn, and the morning line is about. The ultimate countdown to Saturday’s a hundred and fiftieth Kentucky Derby is really underway, which suggests it’s crunch time for these — current firm very a lot included — hoping to dazzle our mates (and perhaps fatten our wallets) by choosing the winner.
Sifting by this large area of 20 horses, all of them still-developing 3-year-olds and plenty 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, developments and angles that will (hopefully) assist form your pondering and sharpen your opinions about this 12 months’s Run for the Roses.
Two necessary notes: There are a number of references right here to the Derby qualifying system carried out in 2013. It’s an necessary reference level, as a result of it altered the essential construction of the race.
Earlier than 2013, Derby slots had been allotted based mostly merely on cash received in any sort of stakes races; that allowed horses who weren’t pure Derby suits (short-distance sprinters, for example) to make it in and warp the dynamics of the race.
Since 2013, Derby qualification has been based mostly on factors awarded to the highest finishers in a collection 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 instances in reference to latest developments. That’s as a result of 2019 and 2021 Derbies, by 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 area as huge 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 count on chaos and to search for a protracted shot that’ll blow up your checking account for under a small funding. And, actually, we’ve witnessed some large Derby upsets; who amongst us doesn’t want they’d plopped down a couple of dollars 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 increased:
That’s six of 11 Derbies (54.5%) since 2013 by which the betting favourite has received. And even when the favourite has fallen quick, it has nonetheless tended to run effectively, by no means crossing the wire worse than fifth. When you had merely positioned the minimal wager of $2 to win on each favourite since 2013, you’ll now have a revenue of $19.40, almost double your whole funding.
That having been stated, this 12 months’s favourite, Fierceness, enters the Derby with a peculiar observe document. He has received three earlier races in completely dominating style, 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 vital variable within the race. The overall rule is that the sooner the tempo is early, the extra unsustainable it turns into for the horses on or close to the lead. They primarily expend an excessive amount of gas too quickly and have little in reserve for the stretch run. That permits 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, with regards to tempo, the 2 favorites embody polar-opposite operating kinds.
Sierra Leone is a deep nearer; he prefers to sit down far off and slowly rev up for one huge cost. He stands to profit if he has a scorching tempo to run into Saturday. Fierceness, in contrast, has proven a need to run at or close to the entrance; a tempo that heats up an excessive amount of may 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 latest historical past of the Derby (since 2013, when the present qualifying system was put in place) demonstrates how essential tempo could be:
Be aware that the 2013 and 2022 Derbies featured the quickest opening half-miles — and that every was received by a horse who was far, far again at that time. And that the one different latest 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. Total, regardless of the previous two years, early velocity has held up pretty effectively in latest Derbies.
On Saturday, Fierceness’ first activity will probably be to interrupt cleanly and set up his most well-liked ahead place. That alone is not any given, as a result of he’s breaking from the seventeenth submit and might want to work his approach towards the within rapidly.
But when he does do this, the tempo query turns into pivotal. A lot of horses can even be scrambling for early place; Monitor Phantom, T O Password, Dornoch and Only a Contact are amongst those that may 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 approach, getting a modest tempo to sit down off of earlier than he revs his engine and leaves the sphere within the mud? The instance of Justify above can 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 scorching sufficient.
Velocity scores: A threshold quantity?
Evaluating all 20 horses within the area with each other is a frightening activity. In any case, they’re every solely 3 years outdated and principally haven’t raced that a lot, and so they’ve taken numerous routes to the Derby — operating in numerous qualifying races at completely different tracks with various configurations and beneath various situations.
Velocity scores 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 most effective-known might be the Beyer Velocity Determine system, which takes its identify from creator Andrew Beyer. These numbers could be discovered within the Day by day Racing Type, which you’ll in all probability encounter on any journey to the observe. The fundamental thought: The upper the quantity, the sooner the horse.
Relating to this 12 months’s Derby, the Beyer scores supply a possible angle for sizing up the sphere. Taking a look at each unrestricted stakes race at the 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 Scores, Fierceness, with a excessive of 110, towers over the remainder of this 12 months’s area — that’s a nine-point benefit over his nearest foes.
Furthermore, the 101 excessive for Japan’s Ceaselessly Younger is simply an unofficial estimate offered by a Beyer figure-maker from a race within the Center East. And the 101 for Mystik Dan got here on a muddy observe at Oaklawn Park in February; exterior 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 grow to be a well-liked decide).
Horses getting into the Derby with the best Beyer scores 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 advised, a dozen horses who’ve crossed the wire first since 2000 got here in with one of many three highest Beyers.
Additionally of notice: Since 2000, all however two horses that crossed the wire first within the Derby had beforehand posted at the least a 94 Beyer score 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 Hen (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 received one other race after their memorable Derby upsets. As you’ll be able to see above, precisely half of this 12 months’s area 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 suppose 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.
‘Remaining fractions’
Credit score for this angle goes to Jennie Rees, a embellished horse racing journalist who handles publicity for Kentucky Downs. As a result of the 1 ¼-mile Derby is usually the longest any of those horses have ever run, her thought is that any earlier potential they’ve proven to complete powerfully offers an necessary clue about their health and endurance.
To measure that, Rees proposed 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 latest Derby winners have checked at the least one of many containers.
Which members of this 12 months’s area 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 plan numbers for every horse. As a result of precise official instances aren’t obtainable from each Derby prep race, there’s subjectivity concerned right here, and never each quantity cruncher will provide you with the identical instances.
However Johnson provides a meticulous and compelling methodology, and he discovered that eight horses on this 12 months’s area fail to satisfy both standards: Catalytic, Dornoch, Epic Trip, Grand Mo the First, Only a Contact, Stronghold, Sierra Leone, T O Password and West Saratoga.
Most of them are lengthy pictures — with the obvious 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 stunning to seek out Sierra Leone’s identify on the listing. And a few contend that the Keeneland floor he was operating on that day was biased towards front-running horses — making his potential to return from behind and win fairly spectacular, regardless of the fractional instances.
Each different horse within the Derby area checks each “last fractions” containers, aside from lengthy shot Society Man, who misses on one and solely barely makes the reduce 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 a long time 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 looks like a Derby breakthrough is simply a matter of time.
This 12 months, two Japanese-bred horses, Ceaselessly Younger and T O Password, are within the area. 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 take 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 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 will probably be operating on North American soil for the primary time. How will they modify?
And each should defy another historical past, too. In Ceaselessly Younger’s case, that has to do with the UAE Derby in Dubai, the race that he received 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 received the Derby with such little expertise, and virtually none have even tried. To discover a horse that pulled that off, you’d must go all the best way again to Leonatus in 1883.
The stratospheric trajectory of Japanese racing makes each of this 12 months’s entrants at the least value keeping track of. However solely Ceaselessly Younger is taken into account a major contender. He has received all 5 races he has run, confronted worldwide competitors in Dubai and turned in flashy performances that actually look Derby-worthy. Now, 35 years later, it’s doable the identify Sunday Silence will resound as soon as extra.
My decide 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.
Relating 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 flawed breaking from such an out of doors submit.
And Sierra Leone, the opposite potential favourite, will face a novel problem along with his come-from-the-clouds operating model. With 19 different horses on the observe, he’ll must maneuver his approach by and round visitors like he has by no means confronted earlier than. As with Fierceness, I received’t be in any respect shocked if he wins, however an excessive amount of may go flawed for him on this race for me to take him at quick odds.
What I like is looking for a protracted shot, and I’ve bought my eye on one specifically. He has a operating model that has fared effectively previously, not contesting the tempo however not sitting to date off it that he will get buried in visitors. His most up-to-date race, the Arkansas Derby, was his finest but, and there’s purpose to suppose he may enhance additional. He additionally checks each “last fractions” containers, and his prime Beyer velocity determine is 95 — on the best 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 outdated, he has received 4 Derbies earlier than, and he nonetheless heads to the barn within the wee hours of each morning in quest of extra. I’ll admit my coronary heart might be speaking my head into this one, however the odds will probably be huge and the Derby solely comes round annually, so why not? I’m going with D. Wayne Lukas and Simply Metal.
