What is the Kentucky Derby Championship Series?

Feb 13, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

The Road to the Kentucky Derby that began last September is heating up with the approach of spring, culminating in the 151st “Run for the Roses” on May 3.

This intensification is reflected in the shift from the “Kentucky Derby Prep Season” to the “Kentucky Derby Championship Series.” The “Prep Season” is the initial round of races, over the fall and early winter, where horses can score points toward qualifying for the Derby.

The “Championship Series,” beginning with Saturday’s Risen Star (G2) at Fair Grounds, is a set of 16 races that includes the final major Derby qualifiers.

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You might think of the Championship Series as something akin to the playoffs in football, baseball, or basketball. The increased competition helps to separate the contenders from the pretenders, and only the horses with sufficient points can make it into the Kentucky Derby field.

But this analogy only goes so far because there are important differences. Any horse can suddenly emerge in the “playoffs,” without having competed in the earlier scoring races. And horses that lose in the most important qualifiers can still run well enough to earn points to secure a spot in the Derby.

That’s because the horses auditioning for the Derby are still youngsters, maturing from two-year-olds in the fall to three-year-olds in the spring. Just as humans develop at different rates, so do individual horses vary. Some can be precocious and come to hand early, while others take longer to reach their potential. As the late bloomers flourish, they often overtake those who peaked earlier.

Another factor is the distance of the races leading up to the 1 1/4-mile Derby. Most of the Prep Season events are in the range of a mile to 1 1/16 miles, leaving some unresolved questions about a horse’s stamina.

The biggest races in the Championship Series, however, are contested at 1 1/8 miles (or beyond), helping to identify those with an aptitude for classic distances. Talented three-year-olds who don’t want to run quite that far might drop off the Derby trail at this point and thrive back at shorter trips.

For this reason, the Championship Series races in the spring give stronger pointers to Derby potential than the earlier Prep Season races. Accordingly, most of the Championship Series races are worth many more points than the events during the Prep Season. This structure is designed to reward the Derby contenders who are on the upswing as three-year-olds.

While Saturday’s Risen Star offers points on the 50-25-15-10-5 format to the top five finishers, the seven most significant events in the Championship Series carry the maximum number of points – 200 in all, allocated on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis to the top five.

Those seven are the Louisiana Derby (G2) at Fair Grounds and the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park, both on March 22; the March 29 Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park and Arkansas Derby (G1) at Oaklawn Park; and the April 5 Blue Grass (G1) at Keeneland, Santa Anita Derby (G1), and Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct.

The vast majority of Derby contenders will compete in the Championship Series stateside, but horses can also qualify via two international routes, the Euro/Mideast Road to the Derby and the Japan Road to the Derby. Each has its own separate leaderboard.

One Derby berth is reserved for a Japan Road invitee, and two horses can book Derby spots on the Euro/Mideast Road, which concludes with the April 5 UAE Derby (G2). Held on Dubai World Cup night at Meydan, it is the lone foreign race worth points on the 100-50-25-15-10 basis to the top five.

The Kentucky Derby field is limited to 20 starters. A total of 24 can enter, including up to four also-eligibles who would need defections to draw into the main body of the field.

Now let the Championship Series begin!