Saturday’s field was set through the Road to the Kentucky Derby, a collection of races that paid points toward qualifying. Neoequos and Render Judgment are in the field because horses ahead of them were injured, including Florida Derby winner Tappan Street, or passed on the opportunity.

Bob Baffert is back at the Kentucky Derby for the first time in four years, having served his punishment for Medina Spirit’s failed drug test and coming to the place where he’s won a record-tying six times. He’s settled in at his old Barn 33, the signs boasting of his Churchill Downs triumphs again hanging on the outside wall.

Render Judgment, co-owned by the late country legend's Dream Walkin' Farms, nicked a last-minute starting-gate spot after an injury to another horse