Kentucky Derby 2020 Post Positions: Horse Odds, Prize-Money Predictions and More

The Kentucky Derby will take place for the first time without fans in the Triple Crown race's history, which dates back to 1875.

There won't be mint juleps and fancy hats en masse this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but horses will enter the gates and take off for the next running of the sport's most prestigious event.

Here are the post positions, odds and prize-money breakdowns, plus predictions and a look at the top six horses on the odds ledger.

Post Positions and Odds

1. Finnick the Fierce (scratched)

2. Max Player: 15-1

3. Enforceable: 21-1

4. Storm the Court: 21-1

5. Major Fed: 29-1

6. King Guillermo (scratched)

7. Money Moves: 14-1

8. South Bend: 32-1

9. Mr. Big News: 40-1

10. Thousand Words: 9-1

11. Necker Island: 39-1

12. Sole Volante: 25-1

13. Attachment Rate: 38-1

14. Winning Impression: 38-1

15. Ny Traffic: 16-1

16. Honor A.P.: 8-1

17. Tiz the Law: 6-5

18. Authentic: 9-1    

Source: Kentucky Derby website as of 1 a.m. ET Saturday.

Prize-Money Predictions

1. Tiz the Law ($1,860,000)

2. Honor A.P. ($600,000)

3. Authentic ($400,000)

4. Money Moves ($150,000)

5. Max Player ($90,000)

Purse: $3 million

Top-6 Breakdown

It's near-impossible to choose any horse to win the Kentucky Derby outside Tiz the Law, the Belmont Stakes winner who cruised to victory on his home-state track in Elmont, New York.

All Tiz the Law has done is win in 2020, taking down the Travers Stakes in August in addition to victories at the Florida Derby and Holy Bull Stakes. He's won six of his seven lifetime races, with the lone defeat a third-place finish in Nov. 2019.

Honor A. P. has finished second or first in all of his races, most recently a second-place nod at the Shared Belief Stakes in August. That was preceded by an impressive showing at the Santa Anita Derby, where he beat 9-1 Authentic for the win.

After that victory, jockey Mike Smith gave his thoughts on what Honor A. P. could do at the Derby.

"He gives every indication that he can go a mile and a quarter," he said, per Bob Ehalt of BloodHorse. "Just the way he galloped out today. I mean, I had to pull him up."

Authentic has only lost once, and that was to Honor A. P. at the Santa Anita Derby. On the flip side, Authentic beat Honor A. P. at the San Felipe Stakes, so they're neck and neck in terms of determining the top contender to challenge Tiz the Law. Ultimately, they're the clear favorites to round out the top three, in some order.

We'll give the slight edge to Honor A. P. since his win over Authentic occurred more recently in June, three months after Authentic's win.

As for the rest of the top five, look for Money Moves and Max Player to perform better than 9-1 Thousand Words.

Money Moves, a late entry to the field, has two wins in three career races. Max Player is 2-of-4 for his career, and the two losses on his ledger resulted in Tiz the Law wins. There's no shame in losing to the clear top three-year-old racehorse this year.

As for Thousand Words, it's been an up-and-down 2020 that has featured a win over Honor A. P. at the Shared Belief Stakes but an 11th-place result at the Oaklawn Stakes and fourth at the San Felipe Stakes.

Thousand Words has won two of his five races and could surprise here, but the guess is that he falls somewhere in the middle of the pack Saturday.

In the end, though, expect Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby and move one step closer to the Triple Crown.