First look: HRN's 2019 Kentucky Derby Top 50 rankings

Game Winner, the unbeaten Breeders' Cup Juvenile hero and soon-to-be champion, leads Horse Racing Nation's current 2019 Kentucky Derby contender rankings. But the advantage as of Saturday is narrow over Bob Baffert stablemate Improbable, who raced more recently -- and looked quite impressive -- in winning the Los Alamitos Futurity (G1).

A first look at the rankings, which are assembled based on ratings assigned to horses by HRN readers, shows nine Baffert runners in all in the Top 50. That leads all trainers, with Chad Brown's five the next closest to the Hall of Famer, who won his fifth Derby this year with Justify and on May 4 at Churchill Downs will look to match Ben Jones' all-time record at six.

Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes winner Signalman (G2), lightly raced Instagrand and Coliseum, a Baffert maiden winner pointing to the Jan. 5 Sham Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita, are others in the Top 5.

Along with the recent Derby prep winners, horses that haven't raced in the last month -- Vekoma (No. 6), Gunmetal Gray (No. 7). Cairo Cat (No. 10), Standard Deviation (No. 12), So Alive (No. 13) and Code of Honor (No. 14) -- maintain lofty rankings. Perhaps it's not about what these horses have done lately, but rather leaving alone the ones who have given no reason yet to be dismissed.

This time last year, the Derby contender rankings included seven horses in the Top 20 that went on to run the first Saturday in May. So, no, it isn't too early.

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