LOUISVILLE, USA – Jamaican jockeys Rajiv Maragh and Shaun Bridgmohan especially the former are entering the prestigious Kentucky Derby with good chances of winning when the race is run tomorrow at Churchill Downs.

Following yesterday’s draw for post positions featuring a full field of 20, Maragh who will be riding Wicked Strong was drawn on the wide outside in post position 20.

Wicked Choice, winner earlier this year of the major Kentucky Derby prep race is the 8-1 third choice. Wicked Choice is trained by Jimmy Jerkens and was named to honour the people of Boston after last year’s Boston Marathon bombing, he recorded his first stakes win with the Wood. He presents the talented Maragh, who mainly plies his trade in New York, with his best shot of achieving true glory as a Bridgmohan partners Commanding Curve, who many pundits believe will be a factor in the Derby. Trained by Dallas Stewart, Commanding Curve did not have the requisite number of points to enter the Derby, but after defections, is getting a shot. Stewart believes that he has a big, strong horse with stamina, and having raced only two times this year will enter the race fit, ready and well trained.

California Chrome drew the fifth post for the US$2-m event and was installed as the 5-2 favourite for the first leg of US flat racing’s Triple Crown run over 10 furlongs.

Owned by Steven Coburn and Perry Martin, California Chrome will be ridden by Victor Espinoza, who piloted the son of Lucky Pulpit to a 5 1/4 length victory in the Santa Anita Derby on April 5, as well as victories in his three prior starts.

“These last four races he has been a world beater in Grade One company since Victor Espinoza got on him,” trainer Art Sherman said. “He just developed into a runner, and I’m kind of just sitting back and each time he goes out there it kind of takes my breath away, because how many lengths that he won, the last four races he’s won by over 25 lengths, and I’ve never had a horse that did that before.”

California Chrome has won six of 10 career starts, but he’ll be trying to become the first California-bred horse to win the Kentucky Derby since Decidedly in 1962.

Espinoza will be seeking a second Kentucky Derby victory. He rode War Emblem to victory in 2002 – when he also started from the fifth post.

Santa Anita Derby runner-up Hoppertunity, trained by Bob Baffert and with Mike Smith in the irons, will break from the 11th post and was priced at 6-1.

“He looks good. He’s going to run his race,” Baffert said.

Tomorrow marks the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby, which is followed in the Triple Crown series by the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on May 17 and the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.

The last horse to achieve the coveted treble was Affirmed in 1978.