Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes

Road to the Kentucky Derby > Kentucky Jockey Club

Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Race Facts

• Location: Churchill Downs - Louisville, KY
• Inaugural Race: 1920
• Distance: 1 1/16 miles (8.5 furlongs)
• Track Type: Left-handed, Dirt
• Age Qualifications: Two-year-olds
• 2023 Purse: $400,000
• 2023 Race Date: Saturday, November 25th

The Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes is a fall 2-year-old Thorougbred horse race that rewards points for Kentucky Derby hopefuls. The Road to the Kentucky Derby prep-race provides a chance to earn 10-5-3-2-1 to first, second, third, fourth and fifth position finishers.

2023 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Results

Exotic Payoffs:

• $2 Exacta (2-3) Paid: $100.08
• $0.50 Trifecta (2-3-6) Paid: $103.34
• $0.10 Superfecta (2-3-6-7) Paid: $71.35

Watch the 2023 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes

Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Race History

The Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes is one of the most important targets for 2-year-olds in the aftermath of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. It is an important event on the Road to the Kentucky Derby series, with the winner getting 10 points, the runner-up five, the third-place finisher three, and the fourth-place finisher two, and finally the fifth place finisher one.

Run at night, the race also gives possible Kentucky Derby contenders a chance to experience Churchill Downs – which can prove useful, even if the atmosphere isn’t quite that of the First Saturday in May.

In its early years, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes was a very good indicator of Derby success. Three of the first 11 winners of the race – Reigh Count (1927), Clyde Van Dusen (1928), and Twenty Grand (1930) – found their way back to the winner’s enclosure for the Kentucky Derby.

The strike rate hasn’t been fantastic since then. However, there is one recent Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes victor – 2009 winner Super Saver – that went on to take the Derby the next year. The only other horse to complete the double was Cannonade in the mid-1970s.

However, there are numerous good horses that win the race, and some of them are major Derby prospects, among them the 2016 winner McCraken.

One other Derby event which the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes has a big impact on is Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager. There are only four chances to bet on the Kentucky Derby prior to the week of the race, and one of those – Pool 1 – is held over a four-day period that includes the running of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Victory, or failure, in this event for any horses named as individual options in Future Wager Pool 1 will see their price shorten considerably prior to the end of the pool the day after the race.

Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes Past Winners Since 1989