The Five Fastest Kentucky Derby Contenders

Below is a list of the five fastest times posted in races 1 & 1/16th mile for horses on the 2015 Kentucky Derby Trail through January 6th 2015.

Note: The 1 1/16th mile distance was used since it is the longest common denominator race length for these horses.

1) Dortmund – 1:40.86 – Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos on December 20th 2014

2) Firing Line – 1:40.88 (calculated) – Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos on December 20th 2014

3) Mr.Z – 1:40.89 (calculated) – Los Alamitos Futurity at Los Alamitos on December 20th 2014

The top three times above were all posted in the Los Alamitos Futurity race. Below is a video of that race.


4) Texas Red – 1:41.91 – Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita Park on November 1st 2014

5) American Pharoah – 1:41.95 – FrontRunner Stakes at Santa Anita September 27th 2014

american pharoah dmr futurity

Conclusion:

Who do I think is the fastest of these five horses? I still give the edge to Texas Red. The Los Alamitos track (where Dortmund posted his fastest time) is considered a faster track than Santa Anita Park and they were setting all kinds of track records that weekend. Also note that Texas Red’s time was just 1.05 seconds off Dortmund’s winning time in the Los Alamitos Futurity and he was never pressed in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as you can see in the video below.


–Michael

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