The 2027 Kentucky Derby runs Saturday, May 1, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky: the 153rd running of the race. The Kentucky Oaks, the companion race for three-year-old fillies, runs the day before, Friday, April 30. Post time for the Derby is scheduled for approximately 6:57 p.m. ET, though the exact time, like every year, is confirmed closer to raceday.

Why the first Saturday in May, and the two years it wasn't

The Derby settled onto a fixed first-Saturday-in-May date in 1932, which let it anchor a coordinated calendar for all three Triple Crown races. Since then, it has slipped from that date exactly twice. In 1945, a wartime ban on horse racing, imposed that January, held the race off its usual date; it ran June 9 instead, after Germany's surrender freed tracks to reopen. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the race from its scheduled May 2 date to September 5, run without spectators. Both times, the race still ran that year; neither time has it skipped a year entirely since 1875.

1 1/4 miles
Distance
kentuckyderby.com
20
Maximum field size, since 1975
usracing.com
1875
First run
kentuckyderby.com/past-winners
1:59.40
Record time, Secretariat, 1973
kentuckyderby.com/past-winners

Derby week

The road from Derby week's opening to post time, 2027

  1. Sat, Apr 24
    Opening Day

    The first day of Churchill Downs' spring meet.

  2. Thu, Apr 29
    Thurby

    A full card the Thursday before the Oaks, traditionally lighter on tourists and heavier on locals.

  3. Fri, Apr 30
    Kentucky Oaks

    Grade 1, three-year-old fillies, 1 1/8 miles.

  4. Sat, May 1
    Kentucky Derby

    Grade 1, three-year-olds, 1 1/4 miles, post time about 6:57 p.m. ET.

Betting before the field is even set

"Early betting" on the Derby almost always means the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, a separate pool Churchill Downs runs in rounds from the fall before the race through Derby week, on named contenders and an all-others field, months before anyone knows the final 20-horse field. The horses themselves earn their way into that field through the Road to the Kentucky Derby points series, run all spring. Once the Derby field is set, how to bet the Kentucky Derby covers what to say at the window and what the bets actually cost.