2023 Road to the Kentucky Derby

The 2023 Road to the Kentucky Derby is a series of races through which horses qualified for the 2023 Kentucky Derby, which was held on May 6. The field for the Derby was limited to 20 horses, with up to four 'also eligibles' in case of a late withdrawal from the field. There were three separate paths for horses to take to qualify for the Derby: the main Road consisting of races in North America (plus one in Dubai), the Japan Road consisting of four races in Japan, and the European road consisting of seven races in England, Ireland and France. The top five finishers in the specified races received points, with higher points awarded in the major prep races in March and April. Earnings in non-restricted stakes races acted as a tie breaker.

For 2023, the main Road to the Kentucky Derby resembled the 2022 Road to the Kentucky Derby, consisting of 37 races, one more event than in 2021, with 21 races for the Kentucky Derby Prep Season and 16 races for the Kentucky Derby Championship Season with the following changes:[a]

  • Points were now awarded to the top-five finishing positions in qualifying races, and the significance of the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and select races traditionally run in late January have been increased. Prep season races now awarded points on a sliding scale of 10-4-3-2-1.
  • Points awarded in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile were increased from 20-8-4-2 to 30-12-9-6-3 in order to differentiate what has historically been a high-quality grade 1 race from others during the prep season.
  • Select prep season races that traditionally serve as steppingstones to the Kentucky Derby Championship Series have been elevated from 10-4-2-1 to 20-8-6-4-2. These include G3 Lecomte Stakes, G3 Southwest Stakes, G3 Withers Stakes, G3 Holy Bull Stakes, G3 Robert B. Lewis Stakes, G3 Sam F. Davis Stakes and the Listed John Battaglia Memorial Stakes.[2]
  1. ^ "2022/23 Kentucky Derby Prep Races" (PDF). Churchill Downs Inc. September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  2. ^ "Churchill Downs Adjusts Derby-Qualifying Points System Horses trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert remain ineligible this year for points". Churchill Downs Inc. 16 September 2022. Retrieved 16 September 2022.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).