BloodHorse news editor Byron King presents his Derby Dozen with a look at his leading contenders for the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on May 4.

The final qualifying points prep race for the 150^th Derby was held on April 13, and now several contenders are already at Churchill Downs and training for the big race, while the rest are due to arrive before the morning deadline on Saturday, April 27.

Check out America’s Best Racing’s Triple Crown page to keep up to date with stories and statistics on the Road to the Kentucky Derby.

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1. Fierceness

In his penultimate work April 19 at Palm Beach Downs in Florida before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Fierceness zipped around the track – he’s a top-level work horse – covering five furlongs in 1:00.50 under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. He always had workmate Agate Road at his mercy, as well he should, given the latter, a graded stakes winner on turf, is not as speedy and likely a bit better on grass than dirt. He left his stablemate in the dust on the gallop out. Now he is at Churchill, where his final work is anticipated April 26.

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2. Sierra Leone

The Risen Star Stakes and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner left a positive impression in his most recent breeze, a :48.80 half-mile move at Keeneland April 20. Though he finished on even terms with his workmate, maiden special weight winner White Palomino, take note that a heads-apart finish is the norm for in-company moves for trainer Chad Brown. More important is to gauge how his workers finish and whether they are in hand for their riders. That was the case for Sierra Leone. “As you can see, he’s barely blowing,” Brown told reporters shortly after the breeze. He will likely be among many breezing horses April 27 at Churchill.

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3. Forever Young

The Japanese star leaves his company behind during the afternoons – he’s unbeaten in five starts – but he likes to have a training partner nearby during routine training. So his connections have appreciated American trainer Dale Romans lending a training partner for Forever Young during his gallops around the track. Jockey Ryusei Sakai, aboard Forever Young throughout his racing career, is expected to breeze the Real Steel colt April 24 at Churchill Downs before returning to Japan and then traveling back to Louisville, Ky., shortly before the Kentucky Derby.

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4. Catching Freedom

After working the Smarty Jones Stakes and Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby winner by himself earlier this month, trainer Brad Cox gave him a stiffer move in company this past Saturday at Churchill with stablemate and Oaklawn Park maiden winner Castlewarden. Perhaps just a bit behind at the finish with five furlongs in 1:00.80, he crept ahead on the gallop out, timed in 1:13.20  for six furlongs and 1:26.20  for seven-eighths. This colt gives every appearance of being a type who will relish 1 ¼ miles in the Derby. He and Forever Young come off victories in the longest Derby preps over 1 3/16 miles.

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5. Just a Touch 

The Blue Grass runner-up will attempt to win the Derby after being unraced at age 2 and with just three starts, though as Justify and Mage proved in the run for the roses in recent years, it can be done. Brad Cox gave him a solo work Saturday with an effortless half-mile in :48.20 under Florent Geroux. Geroux and Cox teamed to win the Kentucky Derby in 2021 with Mandaloun, though as Cox has noted, the victory due to disqualification was not as satisfying as a first-across-the-wire finish. Their Derby win came absent that euphoric moment, later decided by stewards and judges in courtrooms.

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6. Mystik Dan

He and stablemate Northern Flame, the third-place finisher in the Rebel Stakes and sixth in the Jeff Ruby Steaks, threw down a joint five-furlong drill in :59.40 on Saturday, each earning a bullet for the co-fastest drill at the distance on the morning. His stablemate is not Derby material but gave him a stiff test. Trainer Kenny McPeek acknowledged they have changed the running style with this colt to help him to be an effective router in Derby preps, taking him from farther off the pace. He skipped over the track when riding the rail to a blowout victory in the mud in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn before regressing to be a wide third in the Arkansas Derby on a fast track.

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7. Honor Marie 

After breezing Honor Marie April 14, trainer Whit Beckman chose to give the colt more than the standard week between works. His next breeze is set for April 25 under jockey Ben Curtis, who will have the mount in the Kentucky Derby, his first ride in the American classic. Curtis, the fourth-leading rider at Fair Grounds this winter, Curtis rode Honor Marie to a runner-up finish in the Louisiana Derby, beaten a length by Catching Freedom. With two wins and a second in three starts at Churchill Downs, Honor Marie is proven beneath the Twin Spires, having won the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at the track last fall in his top achievement.

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8. Dornoch 

Trainer Danny Gargan breezed his two Kentucky Derby qualifiers together Saturday at Churchill Downs – the other being Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino runner-up Society Man – and they finished level with a half-mile in :48.20. Dornoch  did switch leads promptly at the head of the stretch, which he does not always do in his races. Though he defeated Sierra Leone by a nose in the Remsen Stakes in December, it seems that rival has since progressed – while Dornoch has not, at least not yet. A full brother to Mage, Dornoch won a scratch-reduced Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes as the heavy favorite before a fourth-place finish in the Blue Grass.

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9. Just Steel 

Those who think highly of Muth, the Arkansas Derby winner, may be intrigued by this Derby longshot. He ran a wide second, beaten two lengths, to that rival in the Arkansas Derby, and with Muth ineligible to the Derby owing to Churchill Downs’ ban of trainer Bob Baffert (absent legal relief), that leaves Just Steel as the top performer exiting Oaklawn Park’s final Derby prep. Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas has given this colt some old-school Derby preparation, first by running him 11 times, compared to as few as three times for others, and then by giving him a lengthy mile workout April 20.

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10. Resilience

The Wood Memorial Stakes winner recorded one of the slower works from a Derby runner, a five-furlong breeze in 1:01.60 at Churchill Downs April 22, just days after covering a half-mile there in :50.20 April 18. Though he was dominant in the Wood, drawing off in early stretch and maintaining a clear advantage for a 2 ¼-length score over Society Man, that group appeared of lesser quality than those that competed in many other final Derby preps. “We took our time with his development and it’s seemed to have worked out well,” Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said Monday.

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11. Stronghold

The Santa Anita Derby winner recorded one of the quickest pre-Derby workouts when he blazed four furlongs in :46.60 at Santa Anita Park on Saturday under jockey Antonio Fresu. “He was in hand, and we gave him a little target to help stretch him out on the gallop out,” said trainer Phil D’Amato. The colt arrived on Tuesday at Churchill Downs, where he broke his maiden as a 2-year-old, and he will likely have a workout there over the weekend.

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12. Domestic Product

In contrast to his stablemate Sierra Leone, who worked this past Saturday at Keeneland, this colt’s workout the same morning came at Payson Park in South Florida, where he went a half-mile in :48.40. He has joined Sierra Leone at Churchill Downs for the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby. This horse is one of the most challenging to evaluate in the Derby field due to his exiting a slowly run Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, which he won despite a dawdling pace that worked against his late-running style.

Note: With Churchill Downs Inc.’s continued ban of trainer Bob Baffert from racing at its tracks, none of his top 3-year-olds, including Muth, are in the Derby Dozen. Barring a longshot appellate challenge by Zedan Racing Stables that would allow that colt and perhaps other Baffert runners to compete, look for Baffert in the Triple Crown starting with the May 18 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course.