Finally, the biggest horse racing weekend of the year is upon us, as Churchill Downs is prepared to host the 146th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on Saturday – with the Longines Kentucky Oaks coming the day before. Saratoga Race Course has a full slate of its own on Saturday.
Take a look at the schedule, along with previews of the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks, with odds courtesy of JAZZ Sports.
Weekend Racing Calendar
Friday, September 4
Longines Kentucky Oaks (5:45 pm ET, NBC Sports, Churchill Downs) *
Grade I
| POST / NAME | PRICE |
| 1 Swiss Skydiver | +160 |
| 2 Tempers Rising | +5000 |
| 3 Donna Veloce | +1500 |
| 4 Speech | +500 |
| 5 Gamine | +100 |
| 6 Bayerness | +5000 |
| 7 Shedaresthedevil | +2000 |
| 8 Hopeful Growth | +3000 |
| 9 Dream Marie | +5000 |
Swiss Skydiver could have run in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but her trainer opted to keep her in the fillies’ race. She has won four graded stakes races, all on different courses, and she ran away from the rest of the field in the Alabama Stakes (Grade I). She was the runner-up at the Blue Grass Stakes, against a field of males.
Gamine looked ridiculously fast in easy wins at the Acorn Stakes (Grade I) and the Test Stakes (Grade I). There was talk about her entering the Kentucky Derby out of Bob Baffert’s stable after injuries to Nadal and Charlatan. The 1 1/8 miles of the Kentucky Oaks present the only real question for her, as her big wins came in races featuring just one turn.
Speech easily won the Ashland Stakes (Grade I) at Keeneland, and she has run the closest to Gamine of any of the horses in this field, losing an allowance at Oaklawn Park to Gamine by just a neck.
Saturday, September 5
Kentucky Derby (7:01 pm ET, NBC, Churchill Downs) *
Grade I
| POST / NAME | PRICE |
| 1 Finnick the Fierce | +5000 |
| 2 Max Player | +3000 |
| 3 Enforceable | +3000 |
| 4 Storm the Court | +5000 |
| 5 Major Fed | +5000 |
| 6 King Guillermo | +2000 |
| 7 Money Moves | +3000 |
| 8 South Bend | +5000 |
| 9 Mr. Big News | +5000 |
| 10 Thousand Words | +1500 |
| 11 Necker Island | +5000 |
| 12 Sole Volante | +3000 |
| 13 Attachment Rate | +5000 |
| 14 Winning Impression | +5000 |
| 15 Ny Traffic | +2000 |
| 16 Honor A.P. | +500 |
| 17 Tiz The Law | -167 |
| 18 Authentic | +800 |
Despite the chaos of the horse racing year, Tiz The Law has emerged as the heavy favorite, and for good reason. He won the Belmont Stakes back in June, and he has dominated three races since then, all Grade I stakes. If he can win at Churchill Downs, it would just be the Preakness next month remaining in the way of his winning a Triple Crown, joining 13 other horses in that rare honor.
It is interesting that the top three betting choices have the three outside positions. Just one slip at the beginning could prove crucial to the outcome. There’s a reason why Triple Crowns are so rare. This would have been an even more interesting race had Art Collector not scratched the day before the draw. Even so, there will be plenty of intrigue coming from the outside.
Give an edge to your horse-betting with JAZZ Horse Racing’s exclusive content, provided by the hottest pundits in the field.
*Odds are subject to change.
