Today is Cinco de Mayo, and that means we're officially two days away from the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby. While fancy hat season got off to an early start in 2011 thanks to the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, there will still be plenty of intrigue and suspense at this year's race.
Dialed In is one of the top contenders to win the Derby this weekend. Put to the test by famous horse trainer Nick Zito, Dialed In has won three of the last four races he has entered, including the Florida Derby on April 3rd of this year.
The Kentucky Derby is a fairly long race, being 1.25 miles (known as 1 1/4 miles around the horse track). This horse has yet to race such a distance, so we don't know exactly how he'll react on that final eighth.
Dialed In will post in the eighth position, and while that is hardly ideal, he should be able to make up ground quickly. As a 4/1 favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, there will likely be a lot of money put on Dialed In before the gates open on Saturday afternoon.
The 2011 Kentucky Derby post time is at 6:24 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, May 7th and SB Nation has everything you need to prepare for it - current Derby odds, contender profiles, field updates and more. You can find all of that and more at the SB Nation 2011 Kentucky Derby StoryStream. Also, our horse racing blog And Down The Stretch They Come has two must-read resources for Derby fans: A Beginner's Guide To Following Horse Racing and a glossary of horse racing terms.