2018 Kentucky Derby: Everything you need to know

Here is everything you need to know about the 144th Kentucky Derby.

When: Post time is scheduled for 6:46 p.m. Eastern.

How to watch: Race coverage begins at noon on NBC Sports Network, and at 2:30 on NBC. Bob Costas and Mike Tirico will host NBC’s coverage. The coverage will also be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

Length: The race is 1 1/4 miles long.

Weather: Steady rain started coming down at Churchill Downs around noon. The National Weather Service is forecasting between a tenth- and a quarter-inch of precipitation, with a high temperature near 69. The Derby has been run over a sloppy or muddy track 15 times, including last year.

Odds: As of 12:40 p.m. Saturday, the favorites included Justify (7-2), My Boy Jack (5-1), Audible (6-1), Mendelssohn (6-1), Bolt d’Oro (8-1), and Good Magic (9-1).

The favorite: Justify, a son of Scat Daddy trained by Bob Baffert, opened as the favorite after winning the Santa Anita Derby by three lengths over highly rated Bolt d’Oro. Justify also was the No. 1 horse in the final Kentucky Derby Media Poll released Monday by HorseRacingNation.com, receiving seven of the 17 first-place votes.

But Justify was unraced as a 2-year old, which could be significant. According to Churchill Downs, 61 horses who were unraced as 2-year-olds have entered the Kentucky Derby since 1937, when such records were first kept. Only one horse — Apollo in 1882 — is known to have won the Derby after being unraced as a 2-year-old.

A look at the Derby field and opening odds

Picks and handicapping: There are plenty of alluring candidates. Baffert, a four-time Derby winner who won the Triple Crown in 2015 with American Pharoah, is back with two horses, Solomini and the favorite, Justify. Todd Pletcher will saddle Florida Derby winner Audible, Arkansas Derby winner Magnum Moon, Wood Memorial winner Vino Rosso and Louisiana Derby winner Noble Indy. Chad Brown’s colt Good Magic, who won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is coming off a win in the Blue Grass. Plus, there’s Mendelssohn, who destroyed the competition in Dubai by 18 1/2 lengths. The UAE Derby winner is a freak, with victories in four countries over three surfaces in seven lifetime starts.

Since Andrew Beyer debuted his speed figures 26 years ago, 24 Derby winners earned a Beyer figure of at least 95 or better before the first leg of the Triple Crown. Horses that haven’t shown enough giddy-up include Hofburg (94), Combatant (94), Flameaway (93), Solomini (93), Bravazo (93), Instilled Regard (92), My Boy Jack (90), Free Drop Billy (90) and Firenze Fire (90).

Audible has the speed to contend, while Bolt d’Oro has an attractive blend of speed and stamina and is the pick of The Post’s Neil Greenberg.

Kentucky Derby handicapping guide

Which Derby post positions have produced the most winners?

Want to place a bet? Here’s what you need to know.

Long shots: Five straight favorites have won the race, but there was a time when long shots reigned supreme — and some of those offered big pay days. There are reasons to be optimistic about each of the 50-1 shots in the field.

A case for each of the 50-1 long shots

Exotics: Hitting a trifecta or superfecta cold in a 20-horse field with all entrants trying a longer distance for the first time can be tough, so here’s how you could create trifecta and superfecta tickets using the contenders while also keeping ticket costs down.

Best bets for the 2018 Kentucky Derby include Bolt d’Oro and other long shots

Justify trains during morning workouts in preparation for the Kentucky Derby. (Michael Reaves/Getty)

Experts: With a couple favorites who would need to buck some long-standing trends (Justify, Mendelssohn) plus a number of other contenders who all seem worthy (Audible, Bolt D’Oro, Good Magic), expert picks are all over the map.

Expert picks for the 2018 Kentucky Derby

Rain: Bolt d’Oro remains a solid pick to win in bad weather, according to Greenberg, but he isn’t the only horse who could have success on Saturday if it does indeed rain.

Horses with real-life experience over a wet track include the favorite, Justify, who won by 6 1/2 lengths in an allowance race at Santa Anita in March 11 over a muddy track. Firenze Fire won the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct in January over a muddy track by a half-length, setting his second-best career Beyer Speed Figure (86) in that race. Flameaway won both the Skidmore Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade III Bourbon at Keeneland in the slop, and several other contenders also have history in mud.

If there is rain at the 2018 Kentucky Derby, Bolt d’Oro is still the horse to beat

Previews and history

For the first time in 95 years, one sire has produced four entrants at one Derby, including the top two favorites. But that horse, Scat Daddy, died unexpectedly at 11 just as his line was being established.

The Kentucky Derby field is dominated by a horse who died in 2015

For a sport alleged to have spent a lifetime languishing, horse racing has yielded a Derby chockablock with contenders and stardom. There’s a Bill Mott element, a Bob Baffert favorite, a Todd Pletcher mass and then the second favorite, the mysterious and globe-trotting Mendelssohn.

The 2018 Kentucky Derby has a slew of star power and a slew of favorites

Twenty of the world’s best 3-year-old thoroughbreds will line up for a race that loves its history and usually celebrates its past. But don’t expect any remembrances of Dancer’s Image. Fifty years later, he’s the Derby’s forgotten, fallen champion.

Dancer’s Image, drugs and MLK: The enduring mystery of the 1968 Kentucky Derby

Two of the top three favorites, Justify and Magnum Moon, both 3 years old as the Derby forever insists, did not race while 2, a detail that clearly has caused them such ostracism among peers that they’ve had to run away from those peers. (Both are undefeated.) That, in turn, has unearthed Apollo, a horse departed for 131 years, yet whose name has turned up in Churchill Downs chitchat more than many a winner in any century. Apollo won the 1882 Kentucky Derby after not having raced at 2, something unachieved since. He did not trend on Twitter.

In the 1882 Kentucky Derby, Apollo pulled off a feat that’s still unmatched

“In the world of sports,” promises the official website for the Kentucky Derby, “there is not a more moving moment than when the horses step onto the track for the Kentucky Derby post parade and the band strikes up ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ and 160,000+ people sing along.”

But the Derby’s beloved sing-along has a fraught history

Fun stuff

How do thoroughbreds get their names? The rules are surprisingly complex, and the results surprisingly amusing.

Justify? Solomini? How the Kentucky Derby horses get their names.

How to make the best mint julep for the Kentucky Derby? We’ve got the recipe, plus four variations.

The Kentucky Derby means mint juleps. Here are four variations.

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