Led by 54 horses from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher and a record 47 Japanese-based horses, a total of 346 3-year-olds were nominated to this year’s Triple Crown, it was announced Tuesday. The figure is down from last year’s number of 369. The list was released Tuesday afternoon by Churchill Downs, which hosts the first leg of the Triple Crown, the $5 million Kentucky Derby, on May 4.  This will be the 150th running of the Derby. The other races in the series are the $1.5 million Preakness at Pimlico on May 18 and the $2 million Belmont Stakes, which this year, due ongoing construction at Belmont Park, will be held at Saratoga on June 8. With the race being held at Saratoga, the Belmont field will be limited to 14 starters, as opposed to 16 when the race is held at Belmont. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2024: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more The first deadline to nominate to the Triple Crown, for a fee of $600, passed on Jan. 29. There is a second nomination deadline, April 1, at which time it would cost an owner $6,000 to nominate and have their horse eligible for all three races. Following the April 1 deadline, a horse could be nominated to all three Triple Crown races for a fee of $200,000. Horses may also be supplemented to a single Triple Crown race by close of entries for that race. For the first time, a horse could be supplemented to only the Kentucky Derby for a $50,000 fee. The supplemental fees for the other races, as in years past, remain $150,000 for the Preakness and $50,000 for the Belmont, The 2024 list of Triple Crown nominees includes 18 horses from the barn of Bob Baffert. Since Baffert remains suspended by Churchill Downs for the post-race positive test of Medina Spirit, who crossed the wire first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified, those 18 nominees are not eligible to run in the Derby. They are eligible, however, to race in the Preakness or Belmont. Nysos, dominant winner of last weekend’s Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, and Muth, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up, head Baffert’s contingent. The Pletcher brigade is led by the duo of Fierceness, the 2-year-old champion of 2023, and Locked, a Grade 1 winner in 2023. Both, however, have suffered setbacks in their quest to make the Derby. Fierceness finished third as the odds-on favorite in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park, though he appears to have come out of the race fine. Locked, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity winner who finished third in the BC Juvenile, will be forced to miss this weekend’s Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs after suffering a fever last week. Pletcher has two of the four fillies nominated to the Triple Crown -- Candied, the Grade 1 Alcibiades winner, and Life Talk, the Grade 2 Demoiselle winner. Pletcher won the 2007 Belmont Stakes with the filly Rags to Riches and finished second in the 2022 Belmont with the filly Nest. :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. Thirty-three of Pletcher’s Triple Crown nominees were maidens as of Tuesday, including who are 16 unraced. Pletcher has won the Kentucky Derby twice and the Belmont Stakes four times. He has yet to win the Preakness. Brad Cox, who led all trainers last year with 38 nominees, has 18 this year led by Catching Freedom, the Smarty Jones winner, and Timberlake, last year’s Grade 1 Champagne winner. The 47 Japanese-based horses eclipses the previous record of 37 nominated in 2023. Horses from at least 24 different Japanese-based trainers are nominated. Forever Young, the leading Derby candidate from Japan based on his 3-for-3 record, is trained by Yoshito Yahagi, who last year scratched Continuar out of the Kentucky Derby. Forever Young currently is atop the points standings on the Japanese Road to the Derby. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.