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The field for the most exciting two minutes in sports is about to be set.

The post position draw for the 2026 Kentucky Derby, which kicks off this year’s Triple Crown series, will be held Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. in advance of the 152nd Run for the Roses, which will be contested on May 2.

The Kentucky Derby, run at 1 ¼ miles on the Churchill Downs dirt track for 3-year-old thoroughbreds, kicks off the most prestigious series in American horse racing. It’s also the only one of the three Triple Crown races that will be held at its traditional venue this year.

The 2026 Preakness Stakes, set for May 16, will be held at Laurel Park in Maryland due to ongoing construction at Pimlico in Baltimore. The 2026 Belmont Stakes, scheduled for June 6, will be held at Saratoga Race Course for the third and final time as Belmont Park nears the end of its massive overhaul.

The 2026 Kentucky Derby draw will be streamed live and for free at KentuckyDerby.com and on the Kentucky Derby YouTube channel.

The stream, which will include the draw for both the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies, will start at 2 p.m.

The draw for the 2026 Kentucky Derby will take place shortly after 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 25 between the third and fourth races on the opening day at Churchill Downs.

The event will start with the draw for post positions for the Kentucky Oaks for 3-year-old fillies — which will be run the day before the Derby — and will be followed by the post positions being drawn for the Derby itself.

The Kentucky Derby draw uses a “pill pull” format to assign each horse their spot in the starting gate.

When the draw begins, paper entry sheets for all 20 horses in the field will be shuffled. The official conducting the draw will then pull a sheet and read the name of the selected horse. The official then shakes a small bottle and removes a numbered pill, with the horse assigned to the corresponding starting post.

That process will continue until the starting gate is filled.

The 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby will be held Saturday, May 2 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

The event will be televised by NBC and USA Network, and can be streamed on Peacock. The Kentucky Derby Day broadcast runs from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and the approximate post time for the Kentucky Derby itself is shortly before 7 p.m.

Final entries will be taken Saturday prior to the post position draw, but admission into the 20-horse field is earned via points attained in specific Kentucky Derby races in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Japan.

Arkansas Derby winner Renegade, trained by Todd Pletcher, is expected to be the morning-line favorite. Other top contenders include the Brad Cox-trained duo of Further Ado and Commandment.

Here are the top 24 horses on this year’s Derby leaderboard, according to KentuckyDerby.com. Trainers are listed in parentheses.

• Commandment (Brad Cox)
• Further Ado (Brad Cox)
• Renegade (Todd Pletcher)
• So Happy (Mark Glatt)
• Fulleffort (Brad Cox)
• The Puma (Gustavo Delgado)
• Silent Tactic (Mark Casse)
• Emerging Market (Chad Brown)
• Albus (Riley Mott)
• Potente (Bob Baffert)
• Pavlovian (Doug O’Neill)
• Right To Party (Kenneth McPeek)
• Incredible (Riley Mott)
• Golden Tempo (Cherie DeVaux)
• Chief Wallabee (Bill Mott)
• Chip Honcho (Steve Asmussen)
• Intrepido (Jeff Mullins)
• Danon Bourbon (Manabu Ikezoe)
• Wonder Dean (Daisuke Takayanagi)
• Six Speed (Bhupat Seemar)
• Litmus Test (Bob Baffert)
• Great White (John Ennis)
• Ocelli (D. Whitworth Beckman)
• Robusta (Doug O’Neill)

The first race to award Kentucky Derby qualification points was the Iroquois Stakes, held this past September, though the only race before mid-January to award more than 10 points to the winner was the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. That race was won by Ted Noffey, who was forced off the Derby trail in late January with bone bruising.

Here are the prep races to award at least 20 points to the winner, along with the winning horse.

• Lecomte (Fair Grounds): Golden Tempo
• UAE 2000 Guineas (Meydan): Six Speed
• Holy Bull (Gulfstream): Nearly
• Southwest (Oaklawn): Silent Tactic
• Withers (Aqueduct): Talk to Me Jimmy
• Robert B. Lewis (Santa Anita): Plutarch
• Sam F. Davis (Tampa Bay Downs): Renegade
• Risen Star (Fair Grounds): Paladin
• Saudi Derby (King Abdulaziz): Al Haram
• Sunland Derby (Sunland): Pavlovian
• Dubai Road to the Kentucky Derby (Meydan): Brotherly Love
• John Battaglia Memorial (Turfway): Great White
• Hyacinth (Tokyo): Lucky Kid
• Road to the Kentucky Derby (Kempton): Hidden Force
• The Patton (Dundalk): Blanc De Blanc
• Fountain of Youth (Gulfstream): Commandment
• Gotham (Aqueduct): Iron Honor
• Rebel (Oaklawn): Class President
• Tampa Bay Derby (Tampa Bay Downs): The Puma
• San Felipe (Santa Anita): Potente
• Virginia Derby (Colonial Downs): Incredible
• Jeff Ruby Steaks (Turfway): Fulleffort
• Louisiana Derby (Fair Grounds): Emerging Market
• Arkansas Derby (Oaklawn): Renegade
• Florida Derby (Gulfstream): Commandment
• Fukuryu (Nakayama): Danon Bourbon
• UAE Derby (Meydan): Wonder Dean
• Blue Grass (Keeneland): Further Ado
• Santa Anita Derby (Santa Anita): So Happy
• Lexington (Keeneland): Trendsetter

Sovereignty, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, outdueled Journalism to win the 2025 Kentucky Derby.

Sovereignty skipped the Preakness, with his connections foregoing the chance of a Triple Crown, but came back to win the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga Race Course before adding two more victories at Saratoga during the summer of 2025 with wins in the Jim Dandy and Travers.