Below are the starting positions and morning line odds for the 141st Kentucky Derby. My thoughts are that Dortmund got the better draw than Bob Baffert’s other top contender American Pharoah. American Pharoah will have a longer trip starting on the outside. So I would lean towards Dortmund as the race winner. Dortmund stumbled out of the gate in the Santa Anita Derby and he won’t be able to do that in this field. I will probably place a 8-18 Boxed Exacta to be safe.

Some potential sleeper picks are Firing Line, Materiality and the Irish horse Mubtaahij. Mubtaahij won the UAE Derby at 1 3/16 ths mile handily with a time of 1:58.35. You can see this race by clicking HERE. So he was raced at a longer distance than any of the other entrants. I would consider him for your Superfecta but foreign horses usually don’t fare well in the Kentucky Derby.

The Kentucky Derby is an extremely difficult race to handicap with such a large field. There are always surprises. So I would probably place a combination of small trifecta and superfecta straight bets. If you want a big payout, throw some longshots in your superfectas that have great jockeys. Hitting a superfecta with this large of field is pure luck. War Story at 30/1 with Mike Smith as his jockey looks to be a good horse to throw into a Superfecta.

Firing Line starts in Gate 10, the winningest post position for the Kentucky Derby so I would him consider for your Superfecta. I may place a win bet of him too since he is 12/1 odds. I also kind of like a 8-18-10 Boxed Trifecta.

Gate 1: Ocho Ocho Ocho – 50/1
Gate 2: Carpe Diem – 8/1
Gate 3: Materiality – 12/1
Gate 4: Tencendur – 30/1
Gate 5: Danzig Moon – 30/1
Gate 6: Mubtaahij – 20/1
Gate 7: El Kabeir – 30/1
Gate 8: Dortmund – 3/1
Gate 9: Bolo – 30/1
Gate 10: Firing Line – 12/1
Gate 11: Stanford – 30/1
Gate 12: International Star – 20/1
Gate 13: Itsaknockout – 30/1
Gate 14: Keen Ice – 50/1
Gate 15: Frosted – 15/1
Gate 16: War Story – 50/1
Gate 17: Mr. Z – 50/1
Gate 18: American Pharoah – 5/2
Gate 19: Upstart – 15/1
Gate 20: Far Right – 30/1

–Michael