2026 Kentucky Derby

Coverage of the 2026 Kentucky Derby begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC. Peacock will stream early coverage beginning at noon ET.

The post time for the 2026 Kentucky Derby is 6:57 p.m. ET.

https://www.espn.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/48638070/2026-kentucky-derby-date-horses-odds-format-purse

To earn a spot in the starting gate of the Kentucky Derby, a 3-year-old horse must compete in a series of designated races from September through mid-April. Points are awarded to the top five finishers in each race. The 20 horses with the most points, or the horses who win their international series, earn a spot in the starting gate in Louisville on the first Saturday in May.

What three races make up horse racing's Triple Crown?
The Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes are the three races needed to accomplish the Triple Crown.

What is the purse for the 2026 Kentucky Derby?
For the third straight year, the Kentucky Derby purse will be $5 million. The winner will receive $3.1 million, while the runner-up gets $1 million.

What are the post positions for the 2026 Kentucky Derby? (Scratched horses not denoted)

Kentucky Derby down to 19 horses after The Puma scratched
Churchill Downs officials announced The Puma was out because of a swollen leg from a skin infection. He was ruled out less than 12 hours before the 6:57 p.m. ET post time, past the deadline for Corona de Oro to draw into the field off the also-eligible list.
The Puma is the fourth scratch from the field this week, with one coming each of the past four days. Silent Tactic was ruled out Wednesday, Fulleffort on Thursday and Right to Party on Friday, with Great White, Ocelli and Robusta getting in.

Renegade remains the favorite after opening as such on the morning line a week ago. The Todd Pletcher-trained colt would be the first to win the Derby out of the inside No. 1 post position in four decades.

Post 1: Renegade (4-1)

Post 2: Albus (30-1)

Post 3: Intrepido (50-1)

Post 4: Litmus Test (50-1)

Post 6: Commandment (6-1)

Post 7: Danon Bourbon (20-1)

Post 8: So Happy (15-1)

Post 10: Wonder Dean (30-1)

Post 11: Incredibolt (20-1)

Post 12: Chief Wallabee (8-1)

Post 14: Potente (20-1)

Post 15: Emerging Market (15-1)

Post 16: Pavlovian (30-1)

Post 17: Six Speed (50-1)

Post 18: Further Ado (6-1)

Post 19: Golden Tempo (30-1)

Post 21: Great White (50-1)

Post 22: Ocelli (50-1)

Post 23: Robusta (50-1)

I have $5 across the board on Golden Tempo, based on nothing.

I will be watching with great interest as I like horses and horse racing.I don't bet-I'd be bankrupt in days. But, I like to look at and research the genealogy and breeding ancestry of the race horses and such. Doing so adds further evidence to my hypothesis that there is too much inbreeding in race horses.

Looking forward to an exciting race with a photo finish!

Chief Wallabee for the win. I know nothing about horse racing.

Great White just bucked off his jockey and fell loading into the gate. Horse scratched! Jockey just lost a ride.

First female trainer to win!

The Yankees have a highly rated prospect who made his first big league start this week. It was mentioned that his two cousins were competing as riders in the Derby. I went with the brother who had more experience and better odds.
I had no idea he was the second coming of Forego. Based on this race, I won't bet on him in the Preakness, which is a shorter race.

Quote: billryan

I have $5 across the board on Golden Tempo, based on nothing.
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Nice hit!

Golden Tempo is skipping the Preaskness. This will be the third Derby winner to skip the Preakness in the last five years. Racing's Triple Crown is becoming irrelevant.

Quote: billryan

Golden Tempo is skipping the Preaskness. This will be the third Derby winner to skip the Preakness in the last five years. Racing's Triple Crown is becoming irrelevant.
link to original post

I have to wonder if this would have been the decision had the race been at Pimlico instead of Laurel.

If time is the problem, then the solution is simple: change the Triple Crown to the Derby, the Belmont, and the Travers.

I have also heard of a number of "solutions" to this problem, but will any of them result in all future Triple Crowns having an asterisk because of the three-week break after the Derby? Let's make this retroactive to 1972 - does Riva Ridge win the Preakness, and presumably the Triple Crown as a result, taking away some of Secretariat's thunder in 1973?
"Have the Preakness and the Belmont on the first Saturdays in June and July" - what happens when the first Saturday in July is July 4?

Horses today are bred for speed, not for endurance.
I imagine the folks in Maryland would object to losing the Preakness, although, without the Derby winner, it is just another race.
As for making it retroactive, racing has already done so. The first couple of TC winners won it before it was created and were retroactively given the title. It's a modern creation that there is a trophy and a cash reward for achieving it. Any winner prior to 1950 didn't even know they had won the TC as it didn't exist. In the 1950s, a group decided to award a trophy to the winner of those races, and then retroactively gave trophies to horses that qualified. The cash bonus came about in the 1980s when a Derby Winner skipped the Preakness to chase a bonus from a Jersey track.

Quote: billryan

Horses today are bred for speed, not for endurance.
I imagine the folks in Maryland would object to losing the Preakness, although, without the Derby winner, it is just another race.
As for making it retroactive, racing has already done so. The first couple of TC winners won it before it was created and were retroactively given the title. It's a modern creation that there is a trophy and a cash reward for achieving it. Any winner prior to 1950 didn't even know they had won the TC as it didn't exist. In the 1950s, a group decided to award a trophy to the winner of those races, and then retroactively gave trophies to horses that qualified. The cash bonus came about in the 1980s when a Derby Winner skipped the Preakness to chase a bonus from a Jersey track.
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They stopped the cash award in 2005. You're right about its origin: Spend A Buck skipped the Preakness to enter the Jersey Derby because of a $1 million bonus offered to it if it won (and it did). When it started in 1995, it, it was $5 million (with $1 million paid to the top horse that ran all three races, based on a point system that needed to be tweaked after its first year when first-first-fourth Alysheba lost to second-second-first Bet Twice, and stopped not long after they couldn't give it to a horse that had an insurmountable points lead going into the Belmont but broke down during that race as the rules specified that the horse had to finish all three races), then lowered to "the difference between the total of the three winning purses and $5 million." There is still a Triple Crown Trophy, but I don't think there's any cash bonus that goes with it, although considering the winners' purses of the three races, the owners probably don't need one.

Quote: billryan

I have $5 across the board on Golden Tempo, based on nothing.
link to original post

Somewhere just south of a $200 win! Congratulations.

More food for the homeless? Or an upgraded tequila bottle? Or letting it ride on the Sabres to win the Stanley Cup?

I think the last-minute scratch cost me a few dollars. On Sunday morning, I bought eight $4 breakfast from McDonald's for the kids who hang around there panhandling. I threw $10 into my 'Won't outlive my money" fund and bought a few comic books. I bet $10 on both the Spurs and Knicks to win this round and have $30 saved to bet Golden Tempo in the Belmont, which seems like his type of race. The rest I will waste.

For the vast majority of people there are 3 races they sort of pay attention to. The horse racing powers that be are doing their best to lower that number to one, and possibly zero. What do you think the TV ratings for the Preakness will be?

Did the trainer ask the horse if he’d be ready to run another two minutes FOURTEEN days from today? And the horse said …. But I ran two minutes today? Who does the horse think he is? An NBA player?

The Preakness is 1/16th of a mile shorter than the Derby. Golden Tempo seems to prefer saving itself for a stretch run.
Sadly, the economics of horse racing no longer include the casual fan. Golden Tempo's future breeding fees are more important to the owners than the Triple Crown. Horses these days are pumped full of drugs and blood thinners that were banned or heavily restricted a generation ago, and need a longer recovery period. When Dancer's Image was disqualified in 1968, the world was stunned. Now, many horses are given that same drug from infancy.
The three races in five weeks only started in 1969. Before that, there were years with more time between races and years with less. There were two years (1917, 1922) when the Derby and Preakness ran on the same day.

I'm going $15 Win, $15 Place on him in the Derby unless someone runs a monster race in the Preakness.