Kentucky Derby 2024 rankings: Top 50 heading into big weekend

As expected, Timberlake was the big mover in Horse Racing Nation's Kentucky Derby 2024 rankings last week, shooting all the way up to no. 6 after his impressive victory in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

This week the big story is about what lies ahead. Three major Kentucky Derby preps on Saturday which are sure to shake up the top 50. And the Fountain of Youth might shake up the rankings more than the other two.

Here are the preps on tap this weekend and the HRN Derby top 50 contenders followed by their ranking.

Fountain of Youth (G2): Dornoch, 4; Locked, 6; Speak Easy, 14; Victory Avenue, 25, and Real Macho, 30.

San Felipe Stakes (G2): Amazingly, none. Scatify is ranked outside of the top 50, and several of the Bob Baffert-trained possible entries of course are not included in our Derby rankings.

Gotham Stakes (G3): Just A Touch, 22; Bergen, 34; Deterministic, 39, and El Grande O, 41.

Battaglia Memorial: Epic Ride, 36.

The other big mover from this past weekend was Japan's Forever Young, who debuted at no. 24 on our list after his gutsy victory in the Saudi Derby (G3) on Saturday.

As we move closer to Derby, Horse Racing Nation's Kentucky Derby 2024 contenders page is a great resource to track top 3-year-olds and up-and-coming ones. Keep in mind that these rankings are based on HRN reader votes, so they can change from time to time. If you want to vote on any of the horses, just login and go to a horse page and rate them between one and 10 stars.

Kentucky Derby 2024 Contenders