Bodemeister has been installed the 4-1 favourite for the Kentucky Derby with Union Rags the second choice in a full field of 20 horses.
Trained by three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert, Bodemeister will start from barrier six while his stablemate Liaison (50-1) has the outside gate.
Union Rags drew barrier four and and was listed at 9-2 with undefeated Gemologist the third choice at 6-1.
It’s the third time Baffert has had the early Derby favourite. The first two didn’t work out.
Lookin At Lucky drew the dreaded inside post in 2010, got trapped along the rail and finished sixth.
In 2001, Point Given wound up fifth before going on to win the Preakness and Belmont stakes, the final two legs of the Triple Crown.
“At least we’re in a position where we have a good chance of winning,” Baffert said.
“If I got the one-hole I would be thinking they just don’t want me to win this Derby. After Lookin At Lucky, when he got the one-hole, the excitement just left me because I knew he had too much to overcome.”
Baffert had a heart attack on March 26 in Dubai, scaring his seven-year-old son Bode who was with him and is the namesake of the Derby favourite.
“I just hope I have a chance to get my heart rate going turning for home,” said Baffert, whose War Emblem was the last all-the-way Derby winner in 2002.
Union Rags is trained by Michael Matz who won the Derby in 2006 with Barbaro only to have the colt stunningly break down after the start of the Preakness.
“The horses that are around him, the horses in the one and three don’t have that much speed,” Matz said.
“That should push us closer to where Bodemeister is and we know that horse has speed. It looks like it ends up all right, we just have to be running away from the gate.”
Wood Memorial winner Gemologist drew barrier 15 and is one of two trained by Todd Pletcher who won his first Derby in 2010 with Super Saver. The other, El Padrino, will be in the next stall toward the outside as one of two 20-1 shots.
“I wouldn’t trade places with anybody,” said Elliott Walden, president of WinStar Farm which owns Gemologist.
Since 20 horses can’t fit in one starting gate, an auxiliary gate is used, creating a gap between the No. 14 and 15 stalls.
“We get a little air there,” Walden said. “If there’s a misstep or something, you kind of recover a little bit without getting jammed up.”
Optimizer is the record 45th Derby starter for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a four-time Derby winner.
The colt will start from gate two and is one of five 50-1 shots. He got into the field when Mark Valeski was withdrawn from consideration Tuesday.
“It’s OK because we’re not a speed horse anyway,” Lukas said.
If all 20 horses start, the $US2,219,600 ($A2.15 million) purse would be the richest since 2005 when the Derby became a guaranteed $2 million event.
Post time for Saturday’s race is is 6:24 pm (8.25am Sunday AEST).
