Derby Eligibility

The field for the Kentucky Derby is currently decided by graded stakes earnings. I think most people are in agreement that its a pretty poor way to decide the field. At Kennedy's Corridor we believe very strongly in point systems, most notably the TCR system which is a main feature of this site. I decided to run the numbers and see what the Derby picture would look like if eligibility was decided based on the TCR instead of graded stakes earnings. You can view the results in the spreadsheet linked below

TCR Derby Fields

The horses in red are those who did not end up running in the Derby. Some of them did not compete because of injury and some of them were shut out because of a lack of graded earnings. The only Derby winner to be ranked lower than 11th was Giacomo who was technically 21st but there were 5 horses above him who were injured or voluntarily opted out. 14 horses fit in the main gate which would remove the need for the auxiliary gate. That seems like a logical place to put the cutoff if you felt the need to make the Derby less of a rodeo. Sadly Giacomo would not have run in any Derby with less than 20 starters.