LEXINGTON, Ky. — The prep race season ahead of the 150th Kentucky Derby is in full swing.

Less than 40 days remain until the Run for the Roses — which now carries a $5 million purse — gets underway on May 4 at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

Keeneland’s annual Spring Meet starts next week, with horse racing soon to take center stage again in the Central Kentucky sports landscape.

But before that, several key Kentucky Derby prep races that will have a significant impact on the Derby starting gate will be run Saturday.

The Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, Grade 1 Florida Derby and the Grade 2 UAE Derby will all be run Saturday as part of the American road to the Kentucky Derby qualifying pathway. All three of these races are win-and-in Derby qualifiers that award qualifying points on a 100-50-25-15-10 scale to the top five finishers in the race.

Saturday will also feature the Cardinal Condition Stakes, which is the final race on the European road to the Derby. That race will award qualifying points on a 30-15-9-6-3 scale to the top five finishers in the race.

Currently, the American leaderboard is headlined by the Brad Cox-trained Catching Freedom (125 qualifying points) and the Michael McCarthy-trained Endlessly (100 points). Catching Freedom has won a pair of Derby qualifying races — the Smarty Jones Stakes in January for 10 points and last Saturday’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby for 100 points — while Endlessly earned all of his qualifying points from winning last Saturday’s Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park in Florence.

Catching Freedom also ran third in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes in February.

The European leaderboard is led by a pair of horses with 20 points: Notable Speech (who won the Road to the Kentucky Derby Condition Stakes at England’s Kempton Park) and Bergamasco (who this month won the Patton Race at Dundalk in Ireland).

Ireland-bred Navy Seal with eight points is tops on the European qualifying leaderboard among horses nominated to the Triple Crown.

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