142nd Kentucky Derby Post Positions Announced
The post positions for the 2016 Kentucky Derby were announced tonight, and the biggest name in the field—Nyquist—drew post 13. The 142nd Kentucky Derby has a strong field, but thanks to a decent post position, Nyquist is the big early favorite with 3-1 odds according to the morning line. He’s the only horse with posted odds below 10-1, although this is likely to change on race day as the crowd settles on a second favorite.
Other notable names include Mohaymen at post 14, Gun Runner at post 5, Creator at post 3, and Shagaf at post 16. There are 20 post positions listed for the race, and two horses are considered also eligible: Laoban (21) and Cherry Wine (22).
Typically, the further out the post position is for the horse, the less their odds of winning the race become since they have a slightly longer distance to cover to get to the first turn. And because they’re likely to be on the outside for the first turn, drawing a far post can be a big problem for a horse. 13 is a decent post, and Nyquist’s speed should allow him to get into a good position for the turn. Horses like Brody’s Cause (19) and Danzing Candy (20) will have a very rough go of it. It will be interesting to see what their jockeys do on Saturday. The two main strategies for these post positions are falling back and running on the rail to save space and hoping that the longer race allows for opportunities to pick off stragglers on the final turn and straightaway, or to sprint hard to get close to the front. Both can be successful, but it’s tough to tell what will work because no horses here have raced this long of a distance before.
