Horse racing glory will be on the line when the country's best 3-year-olds leave the starting gate in the first leg of racing's Triple Crown, the 2024 Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 4 at Churchill Downs. Fierceness is the favorite in the 2024 Kentucky Derby odds at 5-2. Blue Grass Stakes champ Sierra Leone is not far behind at 3-1. Louisiana Derby winner Catching Freedom (8-1), Japanese invader Forever Young (10-1) and Just a Touch (10-1) round out the top five favorites in the 20-horse 2024 Kentucky Derby field. Encino scratched from the Kentucky Derby 2024 and will be replaced by Epic Ride. The latest 2024 Kentucky Derby forecast is calling for a 10% chance of rain and a high around 80. The 2024 Kentucky Derby post time is 6:57 p.m. ET.

With the Kentucky Derby annually featuring the largest field in North American racing, you'll want to see what Santa Anita-based racing reporter and analyst Michelle Yu has to say before making any 2024 Kentucky Derby picks, considering the success she's had handicapping this race. Join SportsLine here to see whom she's picking!

Few people in racing are as well-connected as Yu. An on-air host and reporter who has provided racing analysis for TVG, HRTV and the Breeders' Cup, Yu has spent a lifetime in racing. Prior to her television career, she worked for trainers Steve Asmussen and Ron Moquett. She also is married to Santa Anita-based trainer Ryan Hanson.

Yu also has tremendous handicapping chops. In a wide-open Kentucky Derby in 2021, she gave out Medina Spirit, who crossed the finish line first, as the winner at 12-1. In Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager two years ago, she suggested a play on All Other 3-Year-Olds, which cashed at a whopping 18-1 when Rich Strike won.

She enters this year's Kentucky Derby on a roll. She correctly called National Treasure to win the Pegasus World Cup. In the month leading up to the Derby, she predicted Stronghold's upset win in the Santa Anita Derby en route to a $219.50 payday and smashed the exacta in the Apple Blossom Handicap as part of a $410 score.

For the 2024 Kentucky Derby, Yu has made her picks and constructed her bets. Join SportsLine here to see them!

One surprise: Yu is fading Fierceness even though he is the 5-2 Kentucky Derby favorite and just won the Florida Derby by 13½ lengths! Another curveball: Yu is high on Just a Touch, even though he's a longshot at 10-1! He's a target for anyone looking for a HUGE payday. "This is the kind of year that a horse with one lifetime win can capture the blanket of roses with the right trip," Yu told SportsLine.

Yu's top pick is a horse who "will be happy to get the added ground" at Churchill Downs! She's also high on a MASSIVE double-digit longshot who "blew my doors off"! She is including these horses in her 2024 Kentucky Derby bets, and so should you. You ABSOLUTELY need to see her picks before locking in any of your own.

So who wins the 2024 Kentucky Derby? And which EPIC longshot is a MUST-BACK?... Join SportsLine right now to get Michelle Yu's 2024 Kentucky Derby picks and see which HUGE longshot hits the board, all from the insider who has a long history of Derby success!