While most of the attention will be focused on the later portion of Friday’s Kentucky Oaks card at Churchill Downs, the first pick four opportunity of the day presents itself in the second race and concludes with the fifth. What better way to start your Oaks/Derby weekend than by padding your bankroll? I’ll take a small stab at this four-race sequence.

RACE 2

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George’s Main Man (#2, ML 8-1) will return to action in Thursday’s seventh race at Santa Anita, 6 1/2-furlong claimer. It will be his first start since a first-place finish by one length in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race April 9 at Santa Anita. The second- and third-place finishers from that race came back to win their next starts.

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Derby Angles features DRF handicappers looking at individual handicapping factors and how they may play out in this year’s Kentucky Derby.

1. American Pharoah
2. Upstart
3. Dortmund
4. Materiality

Just like his sire, Big Brown, DORTMUND comes into the Kentucky Derby undefeated, and it is difficult to find any chinks in his armor. While it’s true that the big-framed horse needs to avoid getting stopped in traffic, he has gained valuable seasoning through a number of different situations and has proven capable of making his own luck.

1. Upstart
2. Dortmund
3. American Pharoah
4. Tencendur

1. Materiality
2. Dortmund
3. American Pharoah
4. International Star

More so than any other horse race, the Kentucky Derby is handicapped by many based on historical rules. And one of those chief rules, “The Curse of Apollo,” says that MATERIALITY is highly unlikely to win the Derby because no unraced 2-year-old has won the race since, guess who, Apollo in 1882. 

I’ve been on DORTMUND’s bandwagon since his win in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes in his first start this year, and I am not getting off now.

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the Kentucky Derby is unlike any other race in North America. Even the most casual of fans have their Derby horse, and it’s the one day of the year that can get even non-racing fans to watch horse racing.

This article will not tell you which horses to bet in the Kentucky Derby. If that’s the type of article you want, DRF.com will have many of those in the days leading up to the first Saturday in May. Instead, this article focuses on HOW to bet the Derby, particularly betting the superfecta in that race. On Kentucky Derby day, Churchill Downs limits the minimum superfecta bet to $1 – it’s a 10-cent minimum on most other days – so all payouts and wagering strategies discussed here will assume a $1 bet.

Why play the superfecta