Road to the Kentucky Derby: Prep Race Schedule & Points

The 153rd Kentucky Derby is Saturday, May 1, 2027 at Churchill Downs. The top five finishers in each prep race below earn qualifying points, and the 20 horses with the most points get a spot in the starting gate. The points on offer grow as the season goes on, from 10 for a fall win to 100 for the big April preps.

See our Kentucky Derby picks, every past winner in our Kentucky Derby history, and last year's 2026 prep races and standings.

Point Standings (as of 10/30/26)

Rank	Horse	Trainer	Points	Earnings
1	Hughes	Bob Baffert	40	$1,490,000
2	American History	Todd Pletcher	25	$737,963
3	Salahudin	Bob Baffert	19	$512,660
4	Coach Pope	Kenny McPeek	11	$228,375
5	U. S. S. Valor	Shug McGaughey	10	$275,000
6	Jas	Steve Asmussen	10	$263,265
7	He Is No Lie	Doug O'Neill	5	$152,050
8	Gaudreau	Chad Brown	5	$100,000
9	Net Par	Antonio Garcia	5	$60,000
10	Staunch	Brendan Walsh	5	$39,400
11	Q B Rocket	Brad Cox	3	$64,188
12	Damavand	Todd Pletcher	3	$60,000
13	Club Reign	Whit Beckman	3	$60,000
14	Imperial Honor	Bob Baffert	3	$36,000
15	Caribbean Life	William Walden	3	$29,550
16	Mystik Bayou	Kenny McPeek	3	$14,700
17	Real Goodbar	Kenny McPeek	2	$195,650
18	Blessed Flyer	Michael Tomlinson	2	$145,095
19	Domus	Bob Baffert	2	$36,000
20	Title Worthy	Dallas Stewart	2	$32,093
Field cutoff
21	Earth Song	Jorge Delgado	2	$30,000
22	Johnny Hockey	Antonio Arriaga	1	$28,000
23	Jaded	Mark Casse	1	$19,256
24	Real Gone	Patrick Biancone	1	$8,865
25	Emancipate	Bob Baffert	1	$6,000
26	Card Man	Chad Brown	1	$5,910

Prep Races

Date	Race	Track	Gr.	Dist.	Purse	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Points
9/12/26	Iroquois	Churchill	III	1m	$300,000	Salahudin	He Is No Lie	Caribbean Life	Real Goodbar	10/5/3/2/1
9/26/26	Royal Lodge*	Newmarket (GB)	II	1m (T)	$176,000	Haffner	Burning Up	Quicken Away	First Law	10/5/3/2/1
9/26/26	Beresford*	Curragh (IRE)	II	1m (T)	$148,000	Noble Exhibit	City of Dubai	Drumbeat	Shakespeare	10/5/3/2/1
10/3/26	Breeders' Futurity	Keeneland	I	1 1/16m	$650,000	American History	Coach Pope	Q B Rocket	Title Worthy	10/5/3/2/1
10/3/26	Champagne	Belmont	I	1m	$500,000	U. S. S. Valor	Gaudreau	Club Reign	Earth Song	10/5/3/2/1
10/3/26	American Pharoah	Santa Anita	I	1 1/16m	$300,000	Hughes	Net Par	Imperial Honor	Domus	10/5/3/2/1
10/4/26	Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere*	Longchamp (FR)	I	about 7f (T)	$454,000	Amusingly	Folsom Blues	Man's Best Friend	Florida Bay	10/5/3/2/1
10/24/26	William Hill Futurity Trophy*	Doncaster (GB)	I	1m (T)	$361,000	Giant Sequoia	Gran Dia	Noble Exhibit	Burning Up	10/5/3/2/1
10/25/26	Street Sense	Churchill	III	1 1/16m	$200,000	Jas	Staunch	Mystik Bayou	Blessed Flyer	10/5/3/2/1
10/30/26	BC Juvenile	Keeneland	I	1 1/16m	$2,000,000	Hughes	American History	Salahudin	Coach Pope	30/15/9/6/3
11/28/26	Cattleya+	Tokyo (JPN)		about 1m	$199,591					10/5/3/2/1
11/28/26	KY Jockey Club	Churchill	II	1 1/16m	$400,000					10/5/3/2/1
12/5/26	Remsen	Belmont	II	1 1/8m	$250,000					10/5/3/2/1
12/12/26	Los Alamitos Futurity	Los Alamitos	II	1 1/16m	$200,000					10/5/3/2/1
12/16/26	Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun+	Kawasaki (JPN)		about 1m	$469,818					20/10/6/4/2
12/19/26	Springboard Mile	Remington		1m	$300,000					10/5/3/2/1
12/19/26	Gun Runner	Fair Grounds		1 1/16m	$100,000					10/5/3/2/1
1/2/27	Smarty Jones	Oaklawn		1 1/16m	$250,000					10/5/3/2/1
1/16/27	Leonatus	Turfway		1m (S)	$125,000					10/5/3/2/1
1/16/27	Withers	Belmont		1 1/16m (S)	$175,000					20/10/6/4/2
1/16/27	Lecomte	Fair Grounds	III	1 1/16m	$250,000					20/10/6/4/2
1/22/27	UAE 2000 Guineas	Meydan (UAE)	III	about 1m	$700,000					20/10/6/4/2
1/23/27	Holy Bull	Gulfstream	III	1 1/16m	$250,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/6/27	Southwest	Oaklawn	III	1 1/16m	$750,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/6/27	Robert B. Lewis	Santa Anita	III	1m	$100,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/6/27	Sam F. Davis	Tampa Bay		1 1/16m	$250,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/6/27	Saudi Derby	King Abdulaziz (SAU)	III	about 1m	$1,500,000					30/15/9/6/3
2/13/27	Risen Star	Fair Grounds	II	1 1/8m	$500,000					50/25/15/10/5
2/19/27	Dubai Road to KY Derby	Meydan (UAE)	II	about 1 3/16m	$217,840					20/10/6/4/2
2/20/27	Gotham	Belmont	III	1 1/8m (S)	$400,000					50/25/15/10/5
2/20/27	John Battaglia Memorial	Turfway		1 1/16m (S)	$175,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/21/27	Sunland Derby	Sunland		1 1/16m	$500,000					20/10/6/4/2
2/21/27	Hyacinth+	Tokyo (JPN)		about 1m	$244,767					30/15/9/6/3
2/24/27	Road to KY Derby Condition*	Kempton (GB)		1m (S)	$74,760					20/10/6/4/2
2/26/27	Patton*	Dundalk (IRE)		1m (S)	$40,122					20/10/6/4/2
2/27/27	Fountain of Youth	Gulfstream	II	1 1/16m	$400,000					50/25/15/10/5
3/6/27	San Felipe	Santa Anita	II	1 1/16m	$200,000					50/25/15/10/5
3/6/27	Tampa Bay Derby	Tampa Bay	III	1 1/16m	$500,000					50/25/15/10/5
3/13/27	Rebel	Oaklawn	II	1 1/8m	$1,250,000					50/25/15/10/5
3/13/27	Virginia Derby	Colonial Downs		1 1/8m	$500,000					50/25/15/10/5
3/20/27	Louisiana Derby	Fair Grounds	II	1 3/16m	$1,000,000					100/50/25/15/10
3/20/27	Jeff Ruby Steaks	Turfway	III	1 1/8m (S)	$700,000					100/50/25/15/10
3/27/27	Florida Derby	Gulfstream	I	1 1/8m	$1,000,000					100/50/25/15/10
3/27/27	UAE Derby	Meydan (UAE)	II	about 1 3/16m	$1,000,000					100/60/30/15/10
3/27/27	Fukuryu+	Nakayama (JPN)		about 1 1/8m	$230,697					40/20/12/8/4
4/3/27	Blue Grass	Keeneland	I	1 1/8m	$1,000,000					100/50/25/15/10
4/3/27	Santa Anita Derby	Santa Anita	I	1 1/8m	$750,000					100/50/25/15/10
4/3/27	Wood Memorial	Belmont	II	1 1/8m	$750,000					100/50/25/15/10
4/10/27	Arkansas Derby	Oaklawn	I	1 1/8m	$1,500,000					100/50/25/15/10
4/10/27	Lexington	Keeneland	III	1 1/16m	$400,000					20/10/6/4/2
5/1/27	Kentucky Derby	Churchill	I	1 1/4m	$5,000,000