A highly select field of 5 has entered Saturday’s $500,000 Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, including a trio of runners rated on many lists among the top-5 Kentucky Derby prospects. It’s all part of a 12-race program that gets underway at noon pacific and features the Santa Anita Oaks, Monrovia Stakes, Evening Jewel Stakes and Echo Eddie Stakes in the preliminaries.

The Santa Anita Derby includes a $10 money-back special from 1/ST BET and Xpressbet. Get up to $10 back if your win bet finishes second or third.

Let’s meet the contenders for the Santa Anita Derby (Race 10):

#1-JOURNALISM: Rallying winner of 3 straight races since stretching out around 2 turns, most recently the Grade 2 San Felipe over Santa Anita Derby rival Barnes. Fast victory in that one was lauded by various speed and performance figure scales and vaulted him to the top of many Kentucky Derby contender leaderboards. Son of 2007 Preakness winner Curlin and local 2017 La Canada heroine Mopotism. Trainer Michael McCarthy eyes his first Santa Anita Derby victory, while Umberto Rispoli piloted 2021 winner Rock Your World.

#2-CITIZEN BULL: The 2024 Champion 2-Year-Old has rattled a trio of consecutive graded stakes wins, including American Pharoah and Lewis Memorial at Santa Anita as well as the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar in-between. Trainer Bob Baffert is a record-setting 9-time winner of the Santa Anita Derby. Garcia and Baffert successfully teamed here in 2015 with Dortmund. Front-runner has led every call of his 3 route stakes wins and likely dictates the tempo again.

#3-WESTWOOD: Son of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner and Santa Anita Derby runner-up Authentic has yet to win in 3 starts. A maiden (Publisher) finished second in last Saturday’s Arkansas Derby to punch his Kentucky Derby ticket. John Shirreffs has saddled 3 Santa Anita Derby winners – Tiago (2007), Gormley (2017) and Honor A.P. (2020). Tiaga Pereira has the return call in the saddle.

#4-BARNES: Kentucky Derby Future Wager favorite in several early season pools until suffering his first defeat when runner-up in the Grade 2 San Felipe to Journalism on March 1. The $3.2 million colt by Into Mischief won his first 2 starts in sprints, including the Grade 2 San Vicente over the Santa Anita oval. Bob Baffert’s second chance Saturday at a record-padding 10th Santa Anita Derby victory, while jockey Juan Hernandez looks for his first. Baffert said an experiment with blinkers in morning workouts did not show positive results and will race without them, as per usual, on Saturday.

#5-BAEZA: Clear-cut maiden winner in his third start on February 14 now takes his first voyage into the stakes ranks. This is a $1.2 million son of bluehen mare Puca, who produced 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage and last year’s Belmont Stakes winner Dornoch. Sire McKinzie was winner of Santa Anita’s Grade 1 Malibu sprinting and Saratoga’s Grade 1 Whitney routing. Trainer John Shirreffs aims for a fourth Santa Anita Derby win, joining Tiago (2007), Gormley (2017) and Honor A.P. (2020). Hector Berrios rides.

Note: Because of Churchill Downs’ race rules based on prep field size, Kentucky Derby qualifying points are reduced to a 75-37.5-18.75-11.25-7.5 basis.