LEXINGTON, Ky. — With Saturday’s historic 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby fast approaching, the focus is on the top of the pre-race odds board.

Fierceness — owned by Mike Repole, trained by Todd Pletcher and to be ridden by John Velazquez — is the favorite to win this year’s Run for the Roses.

Despite initially being drawn into post position 17 — the only starting gate to have never produced a Kentucky Derby winner — Fierceness was installed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite for the Derby last Saturday following the post position draw.

(After Encino scratched from the race Tuesday, Fierceness moved inside one starting gate and will now leave from post position 16).

Fierceness is the pre-Derby favorite for a good reason: Last time out, he eviscerated the field in late March at the Florida Derby, winning that key Kentucky Derby prep race by more than 13 lengths.

For his career, Fierceness has three wins from five career starts. Two of these wins, the Florida Derby and last November’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, came in Grade 1 stakes races.

While odds can and will shift ahead of Saturday’s 6:57 p.m. post time, there’s a good chance Fierceness or Sierra Leone (3-1 morning-line odds) will be the race-time favorite.

Justify in 2018 was the last race-time favorite to win the Derby.

Here’s a look at how race-time favorites have historically performed in the Kentucky Derby.

Information used is from the pari-mutuel wager era (since 1908).

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