The 2021 Kentucky Derby will be run today, Saturday, May 1, shortly after 6 p.m. ET, where the 147th horse to win the storied event will soon be crowned in the oldest professional sports event in the United States.
The race has been run at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, every year since 1875.
As has become a recurring segment prior to big sports events, Jimmy Fallon has puppies predict the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby Friday night on The Tonight Show – they successfully predicted that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would win Super Bowl 55 in February.
The 2021 Kentucky Derby horses are as follows, with odds as of about 4:45 p.m. ET.
- 1 – Known Agenda 11/1
- 2 – Like the King 46/1
- 3 – Brooklyn Strong 39/1
- 4 – Keepmeinmind 44/1
- 5 – Sainthood 38/1
- 6 – O Besos 38/1
- 7 – Mandaloun 28/1
- 8 – Medina Spirit 12/1
- 9 – Hot Rod Charlie 6/1
- 10 – Midnight Bourbon 12/1
- 11 – Dynamic One 39/1
- 12 – Helium 36/1
- 13 – Hidden Stash 33/1
- 14 – Essential Quality 5/2
- 15 – Rock Your World 5/1
- 16 – King Fury SCRATCHED
- 17 – Highly Motivated 11/1
- 18 – Super Stock 32/1
- 19 – Soup and Sandwich 24/1
- 20 – Bourbonic 24/1
The 2021 Kentucky Derby winner was predicted by Jimmy Fallon puppies on Friday night.
Ten puppies from the North Shore Animal League America, representing the top ten favorite starters in the big race, raced towards a food trough. These starters were Tigger (Essential Quality), Maddie (Rock Your World), Reese (Known Agenda), Addie (Hot Rod Charlie), Dorothy (Highly Motivated), Duncan (Mandaloun), Kira (Medina Spirit), Delilah (Midnight Bourbon) Sissy (King Fury) and Tiger (Dynamic One).
Ironically for her representative’s name, Dorothy was content to lay down on the cool floor and observe the proceedings, much to the delight of the audience in the studio.
No butt-sniffing or other forms of cheating were allowed, but plenty of wandering took place after the Roots delivered a brief fanfare via keyboard (on bugle setting) and drums before Tigger took a fairly straight line to the kibble trough, followed by Reese and Addie.
This means that, according to the Jimmy Fallon puppies, the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby will be Essential Quality, with Known Agenda and Hot Rod Charlie also taking podium positions.
The winner of the previously Kentucky Derby was Authentic, trained by Bob Baffert and ridden by John R Velasquez. That was held in September without fans due to the pandemic, and the 2019 version was won by Country House, trained by William Mont and ridden by Flavien Prat, about a half hour after the race ended due to a lengthy review of cheating by apparent winner Maximum Security’s jockey.
For more on fun Derby snacks, see our FanSided sister site FoodSided and watch the 2021 Kentucky Derby on NBC.