Maxfield tops early Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard

The first four prep races on the 2019-2020 Road to the Kentucky Derby have been contested, so the qualification leaderboard is slowly taking shape.

Maxfield, the impressive winner of the Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1), has assumed the top spot with 10 qualification points plus $300,000 in non-restricted stakes earnings, the tie-breaking criterion. Champagne Stakes (G1) winner Tiz the Law, American Pharoah Stakes (G1) victor Eight Rings and Iroquois Stakes (G3) winner Dennis’ Moment have likewise secured 10 qualification points, but have earned less money.

Rank	Horse	Points	Non-restricted stakes earnings
1	Maxfield	10	$300,000
2	Tiz the Law	10	$275,000
3	Eight Rings	10	$180,351
4	Dennis’ Moment	10	$117,800
5	Green Light Go	4	$210,000
6	Gouverneur Morris	4	$100,000
7	Scabbard	4	$78,000
8	American Theorem	4	$60,000
9	Big City Bob	2	$120,000
10	Enforceable	2	$50,000
11	Storm the Court	2	$36,351
12	Lebda	2	$19,000
13	Gozilla	1	$72,000
14	Letmeno	1	$29,200
15	Ajaaweed	1	$25,000
16	Express Train	1	$18,000

 

The next stop on the Road to the Kentucky Derby is the November 2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at Santa Anita, which will award 20 qualification points to the winner. Whoever prevails will almost surely head into the winter at the top of the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

While the connections of Tiz the Law have indicated their colt will skip the Breeders’ Cup, Maxfield, Eight Rings and Dennis’ Moment are all expected to vie for victory at Santa Anita. Should one emerge on top, that horse would already have 30 qualification points, sufficient to make the Derby field in five of the seven years since the point system was introduced in 2013.

Tiz the Law is expected to contest the November 30 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs. A victory in the 1 1/16-mile test would give the son of Constitution an additional 10 qualification points, which would bring his total to 20.

New names will surely join the Kentucky Derby leaderboard in the December 7 Remsen Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct, the December 7 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) at Los Alamitos and the December 15 Remington Springboard Mile at Remington Park, the final three qualifying races of 2019.

The complete schedule of qualifying races can be viewed on the Kentucky Derby website.