No committee picks the Kentucky Derby field, and no ranking by speed figure does either. Twenty horses get in by earning points across a season-long series of prep races called the Road to the Kentucky Derby, and the horse with the most points by late April gets post position 1. The system runs from September through the week before the Derby, in two tiers that award very different amounts of points for the same kind of win.

How the points work

The series runs in two seasons. The prep season, roughly September through February, pays the top 5 finishers of each race 10-5-3-2-1 points, with a couple of races at 20-10-6-4-2 and the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the richest 2-year-old race of the fall, at 30-15-9-6-3. The championship series, roughly late January through early April, pays most races 50-25-15-10-5, and doubles that to 100-50-25-15-10 at the final, largest preps: the Blue Grass, the Wood Memorial, the Santa Anita Derby and the Arkansas Derby. A single win at one of those late races can out-point an entire prep season.

Prep season versus championship series

Typical points (1st-5th) When
Prep season 10-5-3-2-1 (some races 20-10-6-4-2) September to February
Championship series 50-25-15-10-5 Late January to early April
Final major preps (Blue Grass, Wood Memorial, Santa Anita Derby, Arkansas Derby) 100-50-25-15-10 Early April

The top 18 point earners make the field automatically. The last two spots go to the leading horse on two separate international series run in parallel: the Japan Road and the European-Middle East Road, each guaranteeing its own winner a Derby invitation rather than competing for points against the US series. Ties for the final qualifying spot are broken first by earnings in non-restricted stakes races, then by lifetime earnings, then, if it's still tied, by a random draw.

The 2026-27 prep races

Road to the Kentucky Derby, 2026-27 season

17 rows
DateRaceTrackPoints (1st-5th)
Sep 12, 2026Iroquois StakesChurchill Downs10-5-3-2-1
Oct 3, 2026American Pharoah StakesSanta Anita Park10-5-3-2-1
Oct 3, 2026Champagne StakesBelmont Park10-5-3-2-1
Oct 3, 2026Claiborne Breeders' FuturityKeeneland10-5-3-2-1
Nov 28, 2026Kentucky Jockey Club StakesChurchill Downs10-5-3-2-1
Dec 5, 2026Remsen StakesBelmont Park10-5-3-2-1
Dec 12, 2026Los Alamitos FuturityLos Alamitos10-5-3-2-1
Dec 19, 2026Gun Runner StakesFair Grounds10-5-3-2-1
Dec 19, 2026Remington Springboard MileRemington Park10-5-3-2-1
Jan 30, 2027Holy Bull StakesGulfstream Park20-10-6-4-2
Jan 30, 2027Robert B. Lewis StakesSanta Anita Park20-10-6-4-2
Feb 6, 2027Sam F. Davis StakesTampa Bay Downs20-10-6-4-2
Feb 13, 2027Risen Star StakesFair Grounds50-25-15-10-5
Apr 3, 2027Blue Grass StakesKeeneland100-50-25-15-10
Apr 3, 2027Wood Memorial StakesBelmont Park100-50-25-15-10
Apr 3, 2027Santa Anita DerbySanta Anita Park100-50-25-15-10
Apr 10, 2027Arkansas DerbyOaklawn Park100-50-25-15-10

Not every prep race on the calendar is listed; this is the Churchill Downs-published series as of October 2026. Gotham Stakes (Belmont Park, Feb 27, 2027) runs in the championship series but its exact points allocation was not confirmed on kentuckyderby.com at the time of writing and is left out rather than guessed.

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The series opened for the 2026-27 season with the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs on September 12, 2026, where a pace collapse, not a slow horse, decided the finish.