LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The unbeaten and lightly raced Justify landed post 7 and was installed as the favorite for the 144th Kentucky Derby on Saturday when posts were drawn on Tuesday at Churchill Downs.

A total of 21 horses were entered in the race. A maximum of 20 can run. Blended Citizen, who had the fewest points among the 21 entrants, was placed on the also-eligible list and can only get in if there is a scratch by 9 a.m. Eastern on Friday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. –  Over a 15-year career than has encompassed over 17,000 rides, jockey James Graham has experienced most everything on horseback – except riding in the Kentucky Derby. That gap in his resume will come to the end Saturday when he pilots longshot Lone Sailor.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unbeaten Justify's quest to win the Kentucky Derby and defy more than a century of racing history will begin from post 7 as he faces what is considered a highly competitive field for the Run for the Roses.

Justify, who has won his three starts by a combined 19 lengths, was installed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite by Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia when the field was set on Tuesday for Saturday's Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby.

The New York Racing Association on Monday received approval from a state oversight board to construct a permanent building at the head of the clubhouse at Saratoga Race Course to replace what has been a temporary, tent-like structure.

The four-story building, including a basement for a kitchen, will be constructed between the 2018 and 2019 meets, NYRA said. It will replace the At The Rail tent, which has been erected for several years on a temporary basis just past the finish line of the clubhouse side of the grandstand, featuring good views of the stretch and the first turn.

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky – The 4-year-old debut of Abel Tasman, an appearance by star 3-year-old turf filly Rushing Fall, and a return to Churchill Downs by 2017 Kentucky Derby-winner Always Dreaming form the very, very sturdy backbone of the Kentucky Oaks undercard on Friday at Churchill Downs.

When John Velazquez guided Always Dreaming to victory in last year’s Kentucky Derby at 45 years old, he became the second-oldest rider to win the world’s most famous horse race. Velazquez doesn’t have designs on chasing the record set by Bill Shoemaker, who won the Derby at age 54 aboard Ferdinand in 1986.

“I’m definitely not going to be 54 and riding, that’s for sure,” Velazquez said in a recent interview.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mick Ruis has spent his life beating the odds by betting on himself.

A high-school dropout raised near San Diego in the blue-collar town of El Cajon, Ruis is a serial entrepreneur who has built and sold a pair of scaffolding companies, the proceeds of which allowed him to expand his horizons and develop property in his adopted home state of Montana, and pursue a decades-long fascination with horse racing, owning and training his own expanding stable of runners.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Separately, trainer Bill Mott and Prince Khalid’s Juddmonte Farms have won many of the world’s most important races.

Each has won the Dubai World Cup, a Breeders’ Cup Classic, and a Belmont Stakes.

Together, Mott and Juddmonte have teamed to win 13 Grade 1 races with horses such as Close Hatches, Proviso, and Emollient.

There is one race – the race – that has eluded them: The Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – This being 2018, Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux can celebrate several Kentucky Derby anniversaries.

It was 30 years ago (1988) that Desormeaux, then a teenaged phenom from Louisiana by way of Maryland, rode in his first Derby and finished 16th on longshot Purdue King.

It was 20 years ago (1998), aboard Real Quiet, Desormeaux notched his first of three Derby victories.

And it was 10 years ago (2008) that Desormeaux got his third and most recent Derby triumph when Big Brown wore the roses.

Trivia question: Who owned the winner of the 2017 Kentucky Derby, Always Dreaming?

If you guessed Anthony Bonomo and Vincent Viola, the two Brooklyn-born friends who were usually in front of the television cameras in the lead-up to the race last year, you are only partially right.

Here’s the actual list: MeB Racing Stables, Brooklyn Boyz Stables, Teresa Viola Racing Stables, St. Elias Stables, Siena Farm, and West Point Thoroughbreds.