Leader board for qualifying points to the 2013 Kentucky Derby, which will be run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, May 4, 2013. Churchill Downs has moved to a points system to determine the field for the Derby, scrapping the previous system of graded stakes earnings. Points are earned by the top four finishers in designated Kentucky Derby prep races. Earnings in non-restricted stakes races serve as a tie-breaker.

Steeler gamely won the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday by one length over Artigiano. Steeler, by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass, gained a fees-paid berth into the BC Juvenile Turf, the Royal Lodge being a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race, but trainer Mark Johnston said the Racing Post Trophy would be Steeler’s primary fall objective. Steeler, ridden by Kieren Fallon, has won three of his five starts.

PRIMM, Nev. – Doug O’Neill has been the face of horse racing for the better part of two months.

There is an old proverb that “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” So is the new “Road to the Kentucky Derby” system of qualifying horses for America’s most famous race.

Churchill Downs on Thursday announced a new points system to determine eligibility for the Kentucky Derby starting in 2013, replacing the system of graded stakes earnings that had been in place since 1986.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The newly revised parameters that will guide eligibility into the Kentucky Derby were met with mixed reaction and some doses of skepticism Thursday by trainers who have been perennial major players on the Derby scene in recent years.

Churchill Downs has abandoned the system that awarded the 20 starting berths in the Kentucky Derby to horses with the most graded-stakes earnings in favor of a system that will award points to the top four finishers in 36 stakes leading up to the May race, the company said on Thursday.

Peter Fuller, the only owner of a Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified after finishing first, died on Monday at the age of 89, according to multiple reports.

Fuller, a New England car dealer whose father was a United States Senator and governor of Massachusetts, was the owner of Dancer’s Image, who won the 1968 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified from the race after postrace drug tests revealed the presence of phenylbutazone, the popular painkiller, which, at the time, was illegal to appear in postrace tests.

From 1987 to 2011, the average winning Kentucky Derby Beyer was 109. Until 2009, it was really a given that the winner had to get into that range. No more.

Once is an aberration. Four times is a pattern.

Mine That Bird got a 105 when he won in 2009 by 6 3/4 lengths. Which means the rest of them ran way below expectations.

Super Saver got a 104 in 2010 when Calvin Borel carved out a third perfect trip in four years.

Animal Kingdom got a 103 in 2011 when the rest of the field seemed to be going backward in the stretch.

The race portion of the Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday posted a 9.0 national rating and a 20 share, according to data released by NBC on Tuesday, a slight increase over viewership data from last year’s race.

Compared to other major sporting events, the Derby rating stacks up favorably. This year’s two Final Four games of the NCAA tournament, for example, received ratings of 9.0 and 9.6, with each game also posting a 17 share. Games in the ongoing Stanley Cup playoffs are currently averaging a rating of approximately 1.5.