YES! —the latest chapter in “The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports” is upon us again.

This year’s Derby, the 151st, is this coming Saturday (May 3). It will once again be telecast (on NBC, Fanduel TV, Fox Sports, Racetrack TV Network, USA Network, and Peacock). Post time is supposed to be 6:57 p.m., but you can count on it being a little later than that.

Last year’s winner at lengthy odds of 20-1 was Mystik Dan, and the 2023 winner was 15-1 longshot Mage, only the third horse in a century and a half to win the Derby without having run as a 2-year-old. The colt had only three previous career starts, all in the first quarter of 2023. Mage qualified for the Derby at the last minute because five other horses scratched, including the pre-race favorite, Forte.

The 2022 winner was an even bigger shocker — a onetime maiden claimer named Rich Strike, a last-minute entry from the also-eligible list when two other horses withdrew. Rich Strike roared from behind to win at near-record longshot odds of 80-1.

The four years before that constituted the WORST collective debacle in the long history of the Derby. Let us count the ways:

1) In the 2021 Derby, a 15-1 longshot, Medina Spirit, apparently won by half a length but then was disqualified for failing a post-race drug test (betamethasone). Another longshot, Mandaloun, was declared the winner and won the $1.86 million purse (but bettors were allowed to cash in immediately after the race based on what Churchill Downs then believed were the final on-track results). Furthermore, Medina Spirit’s trainer, the silver-haired Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, who had already won six Derbys in his fabled career, was suspended by racing authorities for three years. If that wasn’t enough, Medina Spirit dropped dead after a workout on Dec. 6, 2021. Maybe from a broken heart?

2) The 2020 Derby was unlike any other in history. Because of the Coronavirus, the race featured empty stands and infield, with no fans sipping mint juleps and wearing outlandish hats. And instead of the Derby being the first leg in the Triple Crown sequence on the first Saturday in May, it was postponed four months until September, after the Belmont Stakes, which was held at its regular time in June. The Preakness, usually the second of the jewels, was postponed to Oct. 3. It was the first time since 1931 the Derby wasn’t the first race in the Triple Crown and the first since 1945 it wasn’t held in May. Other than that, this was the only recent Derby that produced a result without controversy — Authentic won it in an upset, holding off the favorite, Tiz the Law, who had already won the Belmont. Oh, by the way, who trained Authentic? Bob Baffert.

3) In 2019, the apparent winner, Maximum Security, became the first horse ever disqualified by the stewards on a foul claim, and a controversial one at that. The runner-up in the actual race, 65-1 longshot Country House, was declared the winner. The huge payout to those who bet on the winner was the second largest in Derby history.

4) In 2018, it was Bob Baffert again. He trained Justify, who won the Derby and went on to win the Preakness and Belmont, making the colt the second Triple Crown winner in a four-year span. American Pharoah also pulled off the hat trick in 2o15. Who was that horse trained by? Bob Baffert. However, months after the race, The New York Times dropped a bombshell story that Justify had also failed a drug test, but long BEFORE the Derby. That raised the question of whether Justify should have been allowed to compete in the Derby at all, forever tainting his victory although his official on-track achievements can’t be taken away from him.

This year? The only thing worse than the above would be a seven-horse pile-up on Churchill Downs’s far turn, with deaths and injuries, human and equine. It’s always a possibility in racing, plus all the barn fires and mysterious diseases that have killed countless race horses in the past few years, especially in California.

Let’s pray that doesn’t happen. If not, let’s hope last year’s Derby proves the classic is back on track, on schedule and with a full crowd, always one of the largest in sports.  In Michigan — where live horse racing has been virtually destroyed by greedy lobbyists, mercenary flacks, and bungling Lansing politicians — legally you could bet on it in 2023, for the 30th straight year, at Northville Downs — but NOT ANYMORE now that the track has closed. Maybe Hastings is the only hope.

Where to bet on the Kentucky Derby TODAY in Michigan

So, when it’s time to get your bets in on the Kentucky Derby, you have only one option to consider. Here’s the scoop:

1. Mobile or online: Kentucky Derby betting online or via your mobile device are hands-down the most convenient options. TVG Racing, an industry leader in horse racing betting, is the place to go on both fronts. Setting up an account is a piece of cake, and you can place your bets whenever you’re ready in quick and painless fashion.

Therefore, with a little bit of planning and a credit/debit card, you can set up a pre-paid account with a number of internet betting sites and then watch the race in the comfort of your living room, office, field tent or jail cell. Also, Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) is now legal in Michigan, but now it’s available only online.

Does this year’s $5 million classic remind us of years before the last seven when favorites like Orb, California Chrome, American Pharoah, Nyquist and Justify all won? Or will it be more like that 2020 melee, when Authentic pulled off an upset at odds of 8-1, or 2012, when a 12-1 longshot named I’ll Have Another embarrassed the favorites? Or what about 2003, when Empire Maker was a prohibitive choice over all the other horses? No, he didn’t win.

In other words, Derbys are like snowflakes — they’re all the same, yet they’re all different, especially so this year. The race is always run at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs. It’s always a mile and a quarter, the horses are all 3-year-olds, and in recent years the field has always been huge— up to a maximum of 20 entries. But everything else is different and varied — trainers and owners and jockeys and especially the horses they’re handling, and track conditions, as well as the past performances of all the contenders.

One other complicating factor: Even with just six days remaining before the race, we can’t be absolutely sure what horses are going to start. Remember, past favorites like A.P. Indy in 1992 and Forte in 2023 have been scratched on the eve of the contest. In fact, multiple horses have been scratched the past three years, just hours before the race, and that’s how Rich Strike and Mage, taking their places, were allowed to enter.

So, which horse do we pick this year? Post positions were assigned yesterday evening (Sat., April 26), and that can be all-important. For example, the #5 post has won more than any other (10 times), and horses running from the #10 hole have finished in the money 25 times, more than any other (including Secretariat in 1973). No horse has ever won from the #17 post. So who drew #17 last year? The favorite, Fierceness (the #1 post is nearest the rail, the 20th farthest away). Needless to say, Fierceness didn’t win.

This year, Churchill Downs’s racing secretary has established Journalism, running from the #8 hole, as the pre-race favorite at odds of 3-1. That’s not as strong a betting choice as Tiz the Law was five years ago at 3-5, but that colt had already won the Belmont Stakes three months earlier, as noted above.

Who else is in the field? The second-betting favorite is Sovereignty at 5-1. Sandman, who won the Arkansas Derby three weeks ago, is the third betting choice at 6-1. Then there is Tappit’s Street at 10-1 and Burnham Square, who won the Blue Grass Stakes two weeks ago, at 12-1.

One factor all of these horses or their jockeys and trainers will have to worry about this year is the legendary trainer Bob Baffert — his three-year suspension in 2021 by Churchill Downs has ended and he’s back with two entries — Rodriguez and Citizen Bull. Baffert has won more Triple Crown races than anyone (16), and he’s tied for the lead with the late Ben Jones with six Derby triumphs. Rodriguez went wire-to-wire in winning the Wood Memorial at New York’s Aqueduct two weeks ago, and Citizen Bull was the 2-year-old Horse of the Year.

It’s important to remember — betting continues all the rest of this week up to post time, and the odds on all 20 horses in the field are certain to change by late Saturday afternoon. Remember, too, how “impossibilities” in racing have very recently turned into “It just happened!”

When all is said and done, let’s go with Rodriguez, at relatively long odds of 12-1, to win. Not only is he trained by Baffert, but he’ll be ridden by the great Mike Smith, one of the all-time great jockeys. If you want to hedge your bet, pick Rodriguez  and either Sandman or Sovereignty in a quinella, meaning they must finish 1-2 in either order. If you want to have a little fun, plunk for all three of the above-named horses in a TRIFECTA, but you have to pick ’em in exact order of finish for the jackpot.

Do you want to be really adventurous and plunk for a longshot like Mage in 2023 or Rich Strike in 2022? The Ballenger Report advised  bettors two years ago that Mage at 45-1 was one to watch, and he produced. There are plenty of entries in this year’s field with odds at least that long, so study up and pick one of them for a big pay-off.

Anyway you cut it, the biggest challenge for each of these colts (there will be no fillies this year) will be negotiating his way around and through up to 19 other horses, as opposed to the skimpy fields they’ve faced in the past few months.

***************************************