Betting the Derby for Beginners

Understanding the Kentucky Derby 🌹

Welcome to horse racing! You're here just in time for the main event. Pull up a chair and learn the basics of how to bet the Kentucky Derby!

First off, why is the Kentucky Derby so important anyway? For one, it's the oldest continuously held major sporting event in the US, and it's celebrating its 151st running this year! For another, it's the start to the American Triple Crown (made up of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes & Belmont Stakes), a race series won by such famous horses as Secretariat and Seattle Slew. It's known as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports", and is also famous for the possibility of winning life changing amounts of money by gambling on it. We love betting on our favorite horse, and we think you will too!

Navigating the NYRA Bets Platform

Now you've got a handle on what the bet types are, let's dive into the Wager Pad. Below we've got screenshots of the first three horses in the 2024 Kentucky Derby, on our desktop site, and on mobile.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT HERE:

• The colorful squares are the horse's 'post position', or the order that they will lined up in the starting gate on the first Saturday in May
• The green/bold text is the horse's name, followed by some info about him. Using the top horse as an example, we see that his name is Dornoch, and he is a three-year-old bay colt (3 B c), and that he carried 126 lbs on Derby Day (and that includes his lightweight jockey and all his gear!)
• In the center on desktop, there is more information about the horse and his 'connections'. First there is the father of the horse, then the mother. Next line is the horse trainer and jockey, followed by the owners. We can see that Dornoch's dad is a stallion named Good Magic, and his mother is a mare named Puca (fun fact to impress your friends - Mage, the 2023 Derby winner is a full brother to Dornoch!). Next we see that Danny Gargan is Dornoch's trainer, and Luis Saez will be his jockey in the Derby. Finally, he is owned by a group that included West Paces Racing, etc
• On the far right, there are two numbers. The bold number is the current odds (at the time of this screen shot), and the second number is the Morning Line Odds. Short version of ML odds is that those are the track's best guess at what the final odds will be. As you can see, the desktop version of Dornoch & Mystik Dan's odds is different, as the screenshots were taken at different times, and this is because odds in racing vary based on how much money is bet on each horse. The more money that is bet on a horse, the lower the odds become
• Finally, we see a TM 👍 beneath Dornoch's name, which means he is a TrackMaster selection. You can scroll to the bottom to learn more about why he was picked.