Kentucky Derby post positions updated for horses in the 2024 field after scratch
The scratch changed the post positions for over half the field in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
Post positions for the 2024 Kentucky Derby were updated after a horse scratched from the race. Encino, a 20-1 shot that drew the No. 9 post over the weekend, won't be in the 150th running of the first leg of horse racing's Triple Crown on Saturday, officials at Churchill Downs in Louisville announced Tuesday.
Trainer Brad Cox told the Daily Racing Form that Encino has a soft tissue strain in his right front leg.
The post positions correlate with the stalls in the starting gate for the race, with the No. 1 post the closest to the rail on the inside of the track.
The scratch changed the post positions for more than half the Derby field, with horses from the No. 10 post and up each moving in one space to fill the empty spot. Epic Ride, with 50-1 odds, will fill out the field at the No. 20 post. Fierceness, which will now start from the No. 16 post, was listed as the morning line favorite with 5-2 odds.
Here's the list of the 2024 Kentucky Derby horses by post position with their 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. If another horse scratches from the race before Friday at 9 a.m. EDT, then Mugatu is eligible to be added to the field.
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.
Known as the Run for the Roses, 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.