How To Bet On The 2025 Kentucky Derby

You’ve probably heard about the Kentucky Derby, but what exactly is it and how can you bet on it? The story below will get you prepared for the “Run for the Roses” this Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

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2025 Kentucky Derby Field

Kentucky Derby morning line odds

Journalism is the morning line favorite for the Kentucky Derby. He will line up against 18 other horses on Saturday, May 3.

What are the basics of horse racing? 

Let’s start at the beginning. All around the world, horses race at different tracks for prize money, called the purse. Each horse is ridden by a jockey and “coached” by a trainer. In 2024, there were 16,600 Thoroughbred horses born in the United States. Wagering has been a part of the sport since its inception. 

In the United States, wagering on horse racing is parimutuel, meaning bettors are placing wagers against other bettors instead of betting against the house, like they would when playing casino games or betting with a sportsbook. As money is bet into the parimutuel pools, the current odds are reflected on the tote board. The odds will continue to change until the gates open for the race and betting is halted.  

A wager’s payout is determined by the amount of money bet. The total pool (minus the bet’s takeout, which provides revenue for the track, purses, taxes, etc.) is divided equally among the number of winning wagers to determine the payouts. In horse racing, odds are presented as fractions. If a horse goes off and wins at 5-1, its backers will win back five times the amount of money wagered plus the initial stake ($12 for a $2 wager). A 7-2 shot would pay off 3.5 times the amount you wagered ($9 for $2 wager). 

How does betting the Kentucky Derby differ? 

The Kentucky Derby is the longest continuously held sporting event in the United States and is run at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May each year. The race is open to only 3-year-old horses who have earned enough qualifying points (top 20). Horse owners must pay nomination fees to be eligible to run in the Kentucky Derby or the other Triple Crown races, the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Horses born outside of the United States can compete in the Kentucky Derby if they are nominated and earn qualifying points. 

Most of the qualifying races are held in the United States, but in recent years there have been more international qualifying races to allow horses from outside the United States a chance to get into the gate for the Kentucky Derby. Points are allotted to the top five finishers in qualifying races, which start in the fall. The total points for each qualifying (or prep) race increase throughout the winter and spring.  

Big crowds, big pools, and bigger payouts 

Derby Day is the only day each year with a crowd of 150,000 or more at the track, which means lots of money is bet into the pools. In 2024, more than $200 million was bet on the Kentucky Derby itself, and more than $300 million was bet on Kentucky Derby Day races.  

It doesn’t cost much to bet on the Kentucky Derby. You can make wagers for as little as $1. There are even multi-race wagers with minimums as low as 50 cents. The large amount wagered creates big pools and big opportunities to win a lot of money. In 2022, a $2 win bet on Rich Strike paid $160. In that same race, if you selected the top four finishers in correct order, you could have won $321,000 for $1 wagered. 

Big field means faster pace, traffic issues 

The Kentucky Derby also is the only race in the United States where 20 horses compete in one race. Most U.S. races have between six and 12 starters, sometimes 14 at the most.  

More horses in a race makes it harder to win, and a bigger field usually means they run fast early in the race. With so many horses trying to secure position, horses have traffic problems or bump into each other Some horses get forced wide or are blocked behind other runners in the race.  

Jockeys and trainers with previous experience in the Derby and at Churchill Downs generally perform well. They understand the unique circumstances of trying to keep a horse calm and comfortable in a race with 20 horses on a day with 150,000 screaming fans.  

Think about the playoffs in most sports. It’s generally the same cast of characters that you find in the big games. They understand what it takes to win at the highest levels. It is the same in the Kentucky Derby. Just getting to the race, then navigating a 20-horse field is not easy.  

Where can you wager on the Kentucky Derby?

Online horse betting is currently available in dozens of states. Some markets are served by multiple racebooks, while others have just a single online option. Among the states where you can’t bet online, Texas allows in-person betting, while others do not allow any betting on horse races.

If you’re heading to Churchill Downs or any racetrack in the United States, you can wager on the Kentucky Derby. You also can wager online using advance deposit wagering websites, apps, or sportsbooks.  Here’s the complete list of states where you can legally bet on the Kentucky Derby online:

• Alabama 
• Arizona 
• Arkansas 
• California 
• Colorado 
• Connecticut 
• Delaware 
• Florida 
• Idaho 
• Illinois 
• Indiana 
• Iowa 
• Kansas 
• Kentucky 
• Louisiana 
• Maine 
• Maryland 
• Massachusetts 
• Michigan 
• Minnesota 
• Montana 
• Nebraska 
• New Hampshire 
• New Jersey 
• New Mexico 
• New York 
• North Dakota 
• Ohio 
• Oklahoma 
• Oregon 
• Pennsylvania 
• Rhode Island 
• South Dakota 
• Tennessee 
• Vermont 
• Virginia 
• Washington 
• West Virginia 
• Wisconsin 
• Wyoming

If you want to find more information about horse racing, you’ll want to go to DRF.com. That website will provide all of the data you need for each horse in each race. You’ll also find horse racing news, race previews and recaps, race entries, race results, a stats database, information on how horses are training in their morning workouts, and pedigree information. The Daily Racing Form YouTube channel provides previews of big races, with DRF analysts sharing insight and helping to teach you about their methods and wagering strategies.  

If you would like some help for the 2025 Kentucky Derby, DRF Kentucky Derby Packages offer past performances and analysis, including suggested wagers known as Betting Strategies. You can see how some of DRF’s experts make their bets and follow along with those same wagers. As part of the package, you’ll also get Clocker Reports from DRF analysts who watch the horses train in the mornings. 

Different Kentucky Derby wagering options 

There are many different types of wagers in horse racing, and many options will all be available at FanDuel Racing. Some of the more basic wagers are straight bets, where you bet on one horse to win (finish first), place (finish first or second), or show (finish first, second, or third). These are best for newcomers and people who might not have much experience betting on horses.  

You can expand on that by betting exactas, which require selecting the first- and second-place finishers in a race in the correct order. Picking the top three finishers in a race in correct order is a trifecta, and selecting the top four finishers in correct order is a superfecta. About as deep as tracks go in one individual race is selecting the top five finishers, known as a Super Hi 5.  

Multi-race wagers, which are similar to parlays in sports betting, also are on the betting menu. These are typically for more advanced bettors, with higher difficulty of success but a chance for more lucrative payouts. You have to select the winners of multiple races consecutively. A double consists of picking two straight winners, and a pick three means you’re selecting the winners of three straight races.  

Some of the more difficult wagers to win are the pick four, pick five, and pick six, which ask you to select the winners of four, five, or six races in a row. It’s not an easy feat, but those bets can pay out some of the biggest money, especially on a day like Kentucky Derby Day. In order to win those bets, many times you must wager more (including multiple horses in each race) to improve your chances of winning. It is very much higher risk, higher reward.  

Handicapping: Comparing horses and finding winners 

As bettors, the goal is to try and pick the winner or top finishers in each race and make the most money possible based on the least amount of money wagered. How do we do that?  

After preparing and researching, you will find some reasons why you think the most likely winners – or the horses with the shortest odds – won’t win. The betting favorite in horse racing (the horse with the lowest odds in a race) wins about 33 percent of the time, so there is plenty of opportunity to beat favorites. Preparation in horse racing is known as handicapping. It is the process of looking at a race and determining your opinion. 

There are many different ways to handicap. You can start by looking at the horses’ previous races, known as past performances. If you’ve ever been to a racetrack, you’ve probably seen people reading a newspaper that is filled with pages of numbers and symbols. That’s the Daily Racing Form, the most commonly used tool among horse racing bettors. Daily Racing Form prints past performances for all horses entered in races each day, showing everything from the horse’s trainer, jockey, and owner to where each horse was positioned and finished in their most recent races.  

Daily Racing Form also assigns a Beyer Speed Figure for each start by a horse in North America. The numerical rating (the higher the better) allows a handicapper to easily compare the performances of horses from different races and tracks.  

How does pace effect betting? 

Projecting how a race is likely to be run is another common handicapping method. Here, bettors must determine how the race will unfold. What running style does each horse in a race have? If there are too many front-runners, look for a horse that comes from farther back or “off the pace.” If most of the horses are closers, you’ll want to try and find a horse that is fast early in a race. 

Pace Projectors are great tools that help show how each race could develop and where each horse might be placed throughout the race. Daily Racing Form has one of the best tools, with its TimeformUS Pace Projector a part of the All-Access Past Performances at shop.drf.com.  

Other factors to consider in your handicapping can include looking for horses who may have encountered trouble in their most recent starts, perhaps stumbling, being bumped, or racing in traffic. Situations like that are noted in the comments to the far right in the past performances. 

In addition, horse trainers also have their own individual skill sets, and by studying each trainer’s patterns, a handicapper can dig into trainer statistics and try to predict when horses might perform at their best. Another way to handicap the races is to look at a horse’s pedigree. How did a horse’s dam (mother), sire (father), or siblings perform? Many times, the same skills are passed down through the bloodlines.  

Kentucky Derby news and notes

• Saturday, May 4: Mystik Dan wins the Kentucky Derby at odds of 18-1, taking the race in a photo finish over Sierra Leone (3-1) and Forever Young (10-1). Fierceness, the post time favorite at 5-2, finishes in 15th place.
• Monday, April 22: Florida Derby winner and potential Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness arrives at Churchill Downs in Louisville early Monday morning. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Fierceness shipped in from Florida where he last worked out on Friday, covering five furlongs in 1:00.5 at Palm Beach Downs.
• Sunday, April 21: Grand Mo The First draws into the Kentucky Derby field of 20. Trainer Christophe Clement decided to skip the “Run for the Roses” with Deterministic. That opened a spot for Grand Mo The First, who most recently finished third at the Florida Derby on March 30.
• Saturday, April 20: Sierra Leone, one of the projected favorites in the Kentucky Derby, puts in a Saturday workout at Keeneland. He went four furlongs, half a mile, in 48.8 seconds.
• Saturday, April 20: Catching Freedom, Just A Touch, Dornoch, and Society Man are among the seven total Kentucky Derby contenders to work out at Churchill Downs on Saturday.

2025 Kentucky Derby race facts

There have been 150 runnings of the world’s most famous horse race. Here are some of the key points for the 2025 Kentucky Derby:

• 2025 location: Churchill Downs, Louisville, Kentucky
• Distance: 1 ¼ miles
• Age qualifications: 3-year-old colts, geldings, fillies
• 2024 purse: $5 million
• 2025 race date: Saturday, May 3
• Post time: 6:50 p.m. ET
• Where to watch: NBC, Peacock
• Fastest time: 1:59.4, Secretariat, 1973
• Most wins by a trainer: Bob Baffert and Ben Jones, six

How and where to watch the Kentucky Derby

NBC is the broadcast home for the Kentucky Derby. The network will be providing coverage on the main broadcast channel, as well as on Peacock, the NBC Sports app, and NBCSports.com. You can stream the Derby directly to your mobile device.