The 2024 Kentucky Derby on Saturday will be the 150th running of the high-profile race. Known as the Run for the Roses, the race is the first leg of horse racing's Triple Crown, famously celebrated with mint juleps, seersucker suits and stylish hats.
Here's what you need to know about the 2024 Kentucky Derby:
The Kentucky Derby is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Racetrack officials boast that the Run for the Roses is the oldest continuously held major sporting event in the U.S. The Derby dates back to 1875, when the track was called the Louisville Jockey Club.
Post time for the Kentucky Derby is 6:57 p.m. EDT. The race is traditionally held on the first Saturday of May and had been on that day for 73 years — from 1946 to 2019 — before the coronavirus pandemic's disruption to everyday life in 2020 moved the Derby to September. It returned to May in 2021 and has since stayed on the first Saturday of the month.
The Derby has been held on every day of the week except for Sunday, but it's been on the first Saturday in May a total of 92 times.
The Kentucky Derby has been 1 1/4 miles long since 1896. While the dirt track at Churchill Downs is only a mile long, the starting gate and the finish line are in different places, allowing the race to go that extra quarter mile.
The Kentucky Oaks is the all-filly race held a day before the Kentucky Derby. Thorpedo Anna won the so-called Run for the Lilies followed by Just F Y I and Regulatory Risk respectively on a sloppy track in front of a crowd of more than 107,000 on Friday.
The field for the Kentucky Derby has been kept to a maximum of 20 horses since 1975. If a horse pulls out, or scratches, from the race in the days leading up to the Derby, additional horses can fill out the field until the scratch deadline. Last year's Derby field featured 18 horses after five scratched from the race.
Fierceness, the winner of March's Florida Derby, was named the morning line favorite by Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia with 5-2 odds. The bay colt was followed in the morning line odds by Sierra Leone at 3-1 and Catching Freedom at 8-1.
Here's the complete list of the horses running in the Kentucky Derby in order from post closest to the inside of the track out with their morning line odds:
The Kentucky Derby purse was raised to $5 million for the 150th running after being $3 million since 2019. The additional prize money means the winner will collect $3.1 million with $1 million for second place, $500,000 for third, $250,000 for fourth and $150,000 for fifth.
Tickets were still available in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby, starting at $130 and going up to five figures. The big race is the 12th of the day at Churchill Downs — post time for the first race is 10:30 a.m. EDT — with two more races scheduled for Saturday night after the Derby.
The $130 tickets are for general admission to the racetrack's infield. While the area is surrounded by the track, tickets are sold on Ticketmaster with a disclaimer that they don't come with a seat, view of the track or access to the frontside of Churchill Downs and its newly renovated paddock area. The Derby's website says fans can "watch the races from the world's largest 4K video board."
For $275, tickets were available for the part of the infield near the final turn, when the horses make the closing sprint down the homestretch to the finish line. Those tickets also don't have seats or a view of the track, and they have a $52 service fee added on Ticketmaster.
Tickets for reserved seats throughout Churchill Downs were recently being sold for Derby day, ranging from a $750 ticket — plus a $127 fee — to a $3,500 ticket with a $595 fee.
Mage won the 2023 Kentucky Derby with 15-1 odds. The chestnut colt crossed the finish line first with a winning time of 2:01.57 ahead of Two Phil's and Angel of Empire, who came in second and third respectively.
Secretariat holds the record for the fastest Kentucky Derby time, finishing the 1 1/4 miles in 1:59.40 in 1973. Before then, the record was 2 minutes flat, set by Northern Dancer in 1964. In 2001, Monarchos recorded a winning time of 1:59.97 for the second-fastest Derby time.
The Kentucky Derby will be televised on NBC and streamed on Peacock.
Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest.
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