LOUISVILLE – After the draw for starting positions for this Saturday’s horse race, three-year old fave Essential Quality was placed as the 2-1 favorite to win the 147th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Essential Quality will run out of the No. 14 post “on the first Saturday of May” in a 20-horse stampede at the traditional timing for the first race of North America’s Triple-Crown. A No. 14 start hasn’t been a successful starting point in the Kentucky Derby. Middle Ground (1950) and Carry Back (1961) are the lone two horses to emerge victorious from that position at famed Churchill Downs.
Essential Quality won the recent 2021 Southwest Stakes and claimed the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in 2020. The colt is trained by Brad Cox, who aims to become the first Louisville native to win the Derby.
Rock Your World, who won the Santa Anita Derby earlier this month, is listed at 5-1 odds and will start from the No. 15 post, the starting gate that served for Authentic, who won the 2020 Kentucky Derby last November when the race was postponed from May to the Fall because of the global pandemic.