The historic 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby will be the fifth to use a custom-made, 65-foot starting gate to house the Derby field prior to the start of the race.

Specifically designed for the Kentucky Derby, the special starting gate made its debut in 2020, with the goal of eliminating any disadvantages that came with the previous two-gate system.

That system dated back to 1942, and featured a main gate that held the first 14 horses and an auxiliary gate that held the remaining horses in the field, if needed.

This 20-horse starting gate — designed by Australian company Steriline Racing — features stalls that have wide interiors and narrow dividers.

The past issues with the two-gate system were well known: A post-position draw too close to the rail forced a horse to veer to the right to avoid the rail after leaving the gate. A post-position draw on the outside of the main gate or the interior of the auxiliary gate brought the wide gap that separated the gates into play.

The 20-horse gate is used in the name of fairness, with the idea of removing disadvantages for horses that were dealt a difficult post-position draw.

Max Player (2020), Epicenter (2022), Mo Donegal (2022) and Two Phil’s (2023) have all posted top-five finishes from post positions 1-3 in the last four editions of the Kentucky Derby.

This year will be a good test case for the 20-horse starting gate with regard to the performance of horses drawn near the rail.

Dornoch (post No. 1 with morning-line odds of 20-1), Sierra Leone (No. 2, 3-1) and Mystik Dan (No. 3, 20-1) represent three horses of quality that have been drawn on the extreme inside to begin the Derby.

Dornoch has a pair of graded stakes wins to his name in the Remsen and Fountain of Youth. Sierra Leone is fresh off an impressive, late-charging win in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Mystik Dan won the Grade 3 Southwest Stakes and ran third in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park during the prep season, and has previously won at Churchill Downs.

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