Owned by Sackatoga Stable and trained by veteran trainer Barclay Tagg, who has racked up over 1,500 wins in his illustrious career, “Tiz The Law” is a 3/5 favorite with most bookmakers.
If he is to win a second Triple Crown race in as many attempts, however, “Tiz The Law” will have to make history. The 3-year-old colt was drawn to start from post No. 17, a gate that has produced a grand total of zero winners since the Kentucky Derby first adopted starting gates nine decades ago.
With 9/2 second-favorite “Art Collector” withdrawing on Tuesday because of a “minor foot ailment”, “Honor A.P.” and “Authentic” are “Tiz The Law”’s closest challengers at 5/1 and 8/1 respectively. Incidentally, they’ll start either side of the Belmont Stakes winner, with “Honor A.P.” set to get out of gate No. 16 and “Authentic” starting from post No. 18, the same gate eventual winner “Country House” started from last year.
Beyond the trio, “Thousand Words” and “King Guillermo” are 15/1 and 20/1 outsiders respectively.
Trained by Bob Baffert, the former was impressive as he won the Shared Belief Stakes at the beginning of last month and will hope to continue the trend of Kentucky Derby winners starting from post No. 10. The gate has produced nine winners in the past, although the last was 15 years ago, and is the second-most successful gate in the history of the race after gate No. 5, which has served as the starting post for 10 previous winners.
With 50/1 long shot “Major Fed” starting from post No. 5, however, the gate may have to wait another 12 months to produce a first winner since “Always Dreaming” took the spoils in 2017.
Like “King Guillermo”, the wonderfully named “NY Traffic” is also a 20/1 shot, while “Max Player,” “Enforceable,” “Money Moves” and “Sole Volante” start off as 30/1 outsiders. Meanwhile, “Finnick The Fierce,” “Storm The Court,” “South Bend,” “Mr. Big News,” “Necker Island,” “Attachment Rate” and “Winning Impression” are all 50/1 long shots.
Kentucky Derby post positions and odds
Finnick The Fierce (50-1)Max Player (30-1)Enforceable (30-1)Storm The Court (50-1)Major Fed (50-1)King Guillermo (20-1)Money Moves (30-1)South Bend (50-1)Mr. Big News (50-1)Thousand Words (15-1)Necker Island (50-1)Sole Volante (30-1)Attachment Rate (50-1)Winning Impression (50-1)NY Traffic (20-1)Honor A. P. (5-1)Tiz The Law (3-5)Authentic (8-1)
Kentucky Derby purse and prize money
The purse for the 2020 edition of the Kentucky Derby amounts to $3 million, with the winner set to pocket $1.86 million.
The second- and third-placed horse will receive $600,000 and $300,000 respectively, with $150,000 and $90,000 going to the fourth and fifth-placed finisher.
While the purse for this year’s Kentucky Derby is unchanged from 2019, it remains three times bigger than the purse for the Belmont Stakes, which amounted to $1 million back in June.
