Fairgrounds‘ Road to the Kentucky Derby reaches its terminus on Saturday with the running of the 1 million dollar, Grade 2 Louisiana Derby.

It is the signature race of the winter-spring meet at Fairgrounds on their final weekend.

The 1 3/16-mile contest is an important prep for the May 4th Kentucky Derby, offering a total of 200 qualifying points, distributed to the top five finishers on a 100-50-25-15-10 basis.

The field of twelve will travel 1 3/16 miles, which makes the Louisiana Derby the longest United States Kentucky Derby prep race.

The Louisiana Derby is one of the oldest Derby prep races, first held back in 1894.

The race has not been held consecutively during that stretch; it was not contested from 1895-’97, 1909-’19, 1921-’22, and 1940-’42.

It was also not held in 1945, when the United States government suspended racing because of World War II, and again in 2006, when Hurricane Katrina caused the cancellation of the Fair Grounds meet.

Since 1973, the race has been run as a Grade 2, with the exceptions of the years between 1985 and 1998 when it was a Grade 3 race.

It has been held at 1 ⅛ miles for a majority of its history, having been extended to 1 3/16 miles for the first time in 2020.

In the past five years a pair of Louisiana Derby runners went on to Win The Run For The Roses: COUNTRY HOUSE (2019) and MANDALOUN (2021).