2025 Kentucky Derby Betting Guide

The famed Kentucky Derby takes place annually in early May at Churchill Downs. Twenty of the nation’s top three-year-old thoroughbreds compete in the event dubbed as the “Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” and also known as “The Run for the Roses.”

First run in 1875, this event is the signature horse race of the season, captivating the public and elevating the stature of the sport. It is the first jewel of racing’s Triple Crown, followed by the Preakness Stakes two weeks later and the Belmont Stakes three weeks beyond that.

Here’s a Kentucky Derby primer and guide for racing and betting fans in New Jersey. Learn more about the race, Derby betting odds, changing history, some memorable moments, and key handicapping variables.

Best Kentucky Derby betting app in NJ

Get a No Sweat First Bet up to $500 for Breeders' Cup

Get a No Sweat First Bet up to $500 for Breeders' Cup

$500 Bonus

No Sweat First Bet

FanDuel Racing Review

• Up to $500 Back if Your First Bet Doesn't Win
• Get Boosted Odds & the Best Promotions
• Easy Deposits, Fast Withdrawals
• To Claim: Click Play Now

Play Now

How to bet on the Derby in NJ

If you are one of the 100,000+ fans who like to watch the race live, head to Churchill Downs in Kentucky to place your bet on Derby Day. But if that is not your first choice, New Jersey offers a slate of horse betting options.

• New Jersey racetracks: There are three active racetracks in NJ that have betting on horses and are simulcast facilities. The Meadowlands, Monmouth Park and Freehold Raceway are simulcast facilities. All three will take bets on the Derby.
• Off-track betting facilities: New Jersey has a host of off-track betting facilities in and around the state, all of which offer Derby betting.
• Atlantic City casinos: Borgata is the only casino in NJ with a racebook. Simulcast is also available.
• Bet online: In New Jersey, betting online is easy and legal. Visit FanDuel Racing to open an account and bet on horses.

2025 Kentucky Derby odds

The 2025 Kentucky Derby runs on Saturday, May 3. Here are the most current odds as of Friday, May 2:

Leading up to the 2024 race, advance deposit wagering opened up and when bettors began placing their wagers those odds changed. Some of them bet on eventual winner Mystik Dan, pushing his odds down to about 18-to-1 by post time. That still meant a nice payout for those who did pick the winner, as a $2 bet on Mystik Dan to win paid out $39.22.

Common bet types for Kentucky Derby

• Win: Selecting the top horse. Odds are reasonable for any winner in this race, given the top competition. The minimum bet is usually $2.
• Place: A horse to finish second or higher.
• Show: A horse to finish third or higher.
• Exactas: Selecting the order of the top two finishers. It’s always good to box them. You’d hate to have the right two horses in the wrong order.
• Trifectas: Picking the top three finishers. Wagered via straight bet, a box of three or more horses, or a partial wheel.
• The latter option involves taking one’s favorite horse in the first position, with several additional selections in the second and third slot. It can also be wagered by placing one’s favorite horse in the second or third position with the other selections. The key is the horse must finish in the exact spot where he is played and the others must finish in the top 3.
• Superfecta: Picking the top four horses. Same combinations for trifectas can be uses. The superfecta is often lucrative, but extremely hard to hit.

Costs for many common bets

A $1 trifecta box with three horses cost $6. A $1 trifecta box with four horses cost $24. The $1 superfecta box with four horses is $24.

Thinking razzle-dazzle? A $1 key, putting your favorite horse in the first position and three others in the second and third slots, is $6. For $12, you can place four horses in the second and third slots. The “key” for this bet is that your favorite horse must win the race.

The same principle applies in putting your horse in the second position.

Derby betting strategy

If you love a particular horse to win, invest strongly on the win line. The worst feeling for many players is to pick the winner of a race and not cash because the horses in second and third place were not the ones you played.

If you believe the favorites will run in the top two spots, consider playing a hefty exacta box.

Another option is to play one’s two favorite horses in the first and second slots, place a few others in the third and fourth positions, and have pretty good coverage on a potentially lucrative superfecta for reasonable money.

The Road to the Kentucky Derby

While there have been some impressive long shot winners (Donerail 91-1, 1913; Giacomo, 50-1, 2005; Mine That Bird, 50-1, 2009; Rich Strike, 80-1, 2022), the race has typically been dominated by favorites.

That happened by design with a rule change that alters the makeup of the race. For bettors, it’s good to know the race is now tilted toward favorites.

Before 2012, horses qualified for the Derby-based on earnings of stakes races.

That changed with the Road to the Kentucky Derby system implemented for qualifying races. It completely disregards sprint races and places heavy weight on recent results. Sprinters don’t have a place in this Derby. A horse must be effective at a long distance to have a chance at entering the field.

How it works

The points system has changed the way horses are prepared for the Derby, the composition of the field, and how the race itself is run given the absence of pure sprinters that normally ensure a fast early pace.

This means there are now fewer “speed duels,” which compromise distance horses by locking them into a sizzling early pace with sprinters.

In earlier years, that had set the stage for the front runners to tire and be overtaken in the stretch. Mine That Bird and Giacomo, for instance, rallied from nearly last to first.

The pace change means the early leaders run the first half-mile in roughly 47 seconds, rather than the 45-ish area they had been pushed into with previous speed duels. Horses now get into position around the first turn and their jockeys then try to relax them so they can fire on all cylinders during the home stretch.

There have been far fewer lead changes in recent Kentucky Derbys. Horses that have been starting in the back of the pack have been staying there.

In recent years, the “chalk” (industry jargon for favorites) has been able to “talk the talk and walk the walk.”

Previous Kentucky Derby winners (under the new format)

Has there ever been a disqualification in the Kentucky Derby?

Yes. The first one happened in 2019 when Maximum Security was denied the Derby crown. Maximum Security triumphed and was taken down 22 minutes later because of alleged interference with other horses on the final turn.

Racing purists cried foul over the disqualification because rugged traffic conditions and jostling on the turn happen in each Derby and come with the logistics of a 20-horse field. More glaring collisions over the years have been ignored.

The controversy called attention to the large 20-horse field and the presence of spectators along the backstretch rail who are not there for most races throughout the year. Spectators can startle a horse into making a sudden move in the wrong direction.

Country House, a 65-1 choice, was placed first. About $9 million was lost by Maximum Security bettors because of the disqualification.

In 2021, Medina Spirit was the original winner on race day, but a lengthy investigation followed due to suspected illegal drugging of the horse. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission officially named Mandaloun the winner of the race in 2022.

Betting tips for the Kentucky Derby

Before betting on the Derby in New Jersey, it’s important to note a few things about the track and check in on the details via the Daily Racing Form. For instance, the listing of track conditions is important.

They are:

1. Fast: Normal, and ideal
2. Good: A heavy, often muddy and tiring track, which usually occurs a day after heavy rain. Speed horses can do poorly in these conditions. Horses from the back of the pack can make big rallies.
3. Sloppy: Wet. Horses can’t easily get footing, early front-runners do well because they are flinging wet mud into the face of horses behind them.

Information on how horses run on different surfaces will be available in the Daily Racing Form, too. More on that below.

The surface of the track is paramount.

If there is heavy rain, as there was for the 2019 Derby, it will be difficult to assess the merit of each horse. Running in the “slop” will adversely affect many horses. Some can run well on slop. Some hate it.

If you can get an angle on a horse you like, in the slop, be partial to early speed. Maximum Security went from 10-1 one night beforehand to 9-2 by race time last year because the skies opened up just before the race and he was a good speed horse.

That foresight proved to be right. He led most of the way and rallied at the finish.

How to read a Daily Racing Form

Pick up the Daily Racing Form. Local stores or a simulcast facility will have them.

The form shows the running pattern of every horse in each of his races. If you see a listing like 1-1-1-3-3-4, it means the horse broke quickly but could not sustain the pace and faded. You would think this horse unlikely to win if another horse also broke quickly, but would be dangerous if no other horse showed early speed.

If you see something like 4-4-4-3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1 it means the horse can rally and that his running style is “off the pace.” You would want to see an indication that the front speed could tire before playing this horse.

The indicator would be multiple horses showing they like to run near the front early.

The tricky part of this is that there is often more than one horse fitting each type of running style.

Guess that’s why they call it gambling.

In the Racing Form, you can find track conditions for fast (fst), good (gd), or slop (usually slp) next to a horse’s race. There is also a Wet number (normally 200-350) that can be measured against others, to indicate how a horse is likely to compete on the sloppy track.

What are Beyer figures?

Absolutely relevant.

Beyer figures will be in black, indicating the horse’s performance on a given day relative to track conditions. Potential Derby winners will have numbers in the 90s and above 100. You will want to respect any horse with a Beyer figure above 100.

Handicapping the Kentucky Derby

Although significant attention goes to fall and winter races, the Kentucky Derby picture gains full focus with a series of prep races in March and April.

The winner of the Kentucky Derby invariably wins one of these preps.

These events provide matchups between horses that will be helpful in your Kentucky Derby betting. They will also provide a sense of which of these races was run fastest, thus giving a glimpse of who might be the best horse on Sept. 5.

They can also deliver some insight about exacta and trifecta wagering. If two horses finish noses apart in a prep race, they might be a good Kentucky Derby exacta bet or both can be placed in a trifecta wager.

For many of these horses, this will be their final appearance before the Derby.

Kentucky Derby prep races

Below is a list of some of the key prep races to watch for early handicapping. These races take place in late March and early April. If you can’t watch or bet these races live, they are ultimately available on YouTube and can be used for assessing Derby hopefuls.

Prep races and Kentucky Derby winners

Here’s a look at how the last 20 Kentucky Derby winners performed in their final prep race:

Kentucky Derby race history

The Kentucky Derby may very well be the most popular sports event in the US. In fact, the Derby has become a multi-million-dollar spectacle.

More than 150,000 fans jam into Churchill Downs to watch it live. The Derby garners more attendance than other major sports events including the World Series, Super Bowl, and NCAA Final Four.

Its storied history began on May 17, 1875, when the Louisville Jockey Club sponsored the first Kentucky Derby. Fifteen three-year-old thoroughbred horses raced 1 1/2 miles. Aristides was the first winner of the Derby.

Over the course of decades, the Derby has seen its fair share of changes. In 1883, the track is named Churchill Downs for the first time. The length of the race was shortened to 1 1/4 miles starting in 1896. And the red rose became the official flower of the Derby in 1904.

By 1931, the Kentucky Derby is permanently scheduled for the first Saturday of May. This allowed the three key races of the Triple Crown — Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes — to have a consistent schedule.

There have been only 13 Triple Crown winners in horse racing history: Sir Barton (1919), Gallant Fox (1930), Omaha (1935), War Admiral (1937), Whirlaway (1941), Count Fleet (1943), Assault (1946), Citation (1948), Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), Affirmed (1978), American Pharoah (2015), and Justify (2018).

Which horse is the GOAT in Kentucky Derby history?

Secretariat did something in the 1973 Kentucky Derby that never occurred before, or since. He ran each quarter of a mile faster than the one before. That made him a logical choice to run even better in the 1973 Belmont Stakes which he did, smashing the runner-up by a record 31 lengths.

Secretariat’s 1:59.40 winning time remains the Kentucky Derby record. It was also the first Derby run in under two minutes. The second was from the horse who finished second in that race, Sham, who was two lengths back at roughly 1:59.80.

The third was Monarchos, who romped home with a time of 1:59.97 in 2001.

Secretariat is still considered the gold standard of Kentucky Derby racing. Because the distance of 1 1/4 miles never changes, horses can be compared from different eras. One second in horse racing is equivalent to about five lengths.

By that barometer, Secretariat would still be defeating modern-age winners handily. He would romp not only over other Kentucky Derby winners, but Triple Crown winners.

Want to compare and have some fun checking the myriad list of Derby winners?

Assess five lengths for every one-second difference between the winning time of Secretariat and the others and you can project how Secretariat would have done against previous Derby winners.

He would have beaten Justify, the last Triple Crown winner, by roughly 25 lengths in the Derby!

Kentucky Derby winners, 1875-2024

This is a list of every Kentucky Derby winner and shows not only the event’s rich history, but the unparalleled success of Secretariat.

* Denotes Triple Crown winners.