The Magazine

Digging Into Derby Day

What science has to say about America’s most popular horse race.

May 8, 2018 5:00 AMNov 15, 2019 2:57 PM

Some horses love to lead right out of the gate, and others trail first and surge ahead later on, but there’s a benefit to sticking with the pack. A study published in The Royal Society Biology Letters in 2012 analyzed roughly 3,300 races and found that horses that stay back just a bit and let other horses cut their wind resistance, or draft, can decrease their aerodynamic drag by 13 percent. Drafting for 75 percent of the race could conserve enough energy to help the horse finish three to four places higher than horses that don’t draft. | Jamie Rhodes/USA TODAY Sports/Reuters

The first Saturday in May might be an excuse to indulge in a few mint juleps, but the 1.25-mile Kentucky Derby is a major athletic event. For the 20 horse-and-rider teams, and everyone from owners to trainers, there’s a $2 million purse — and a lot of prestige — on the line. So naturally, experts have dissected nearly every aspect of the race to try to figure out a winning formula.

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