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After his listless fourth place finish in the Santa Anita Derby, Intrepido was taken out of Kentucky Derby consideration. But just days later he was unexpectedly back in the field. Can you say Derby Fever? One of just two horses at 50-1 on the morning line, Intrepido will need to quickly summon past form if he hopes to be competitive on Saturday. Bet on the Kentucky Derby at TwinSpires, where new users who click through our links get a supersized $400 sign-up bonus:

3 Intrepido (50-1)

  • Trainer: Jeff Mullins
  • Jockey: Hector Berrios
  • Last race: Fourth in the Santa Anita Derby by 10 lengths
  • Career record: 6 starts: 2 wins, 1 second
  • Career earnings: $342,800
  • Best career Beyer Speed Figure: 89 (Robert B. Lewis Stakes)
  • Sire: Maximus Mischief

Below, we'll dig further into Intrepido as part of our series profiling all the horses competing in the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 2. We'll look back into his past performances, what questions need to be answered Saturday and analyze how the post draw affects his chances.

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What to know about Intrepido

For the record, the connections of Intrepido have every right to run the horse in the Kentucky Derby. Trained by Jeff Mullins, the colt won the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes in October and earned enough points to qualify for the 20-horse field. But there's very little that suggests that he can be remotely competitive on Saturday.

Intrepido simply hasn't gotten any faster at age 3. His victory in the American Pharoah earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 87, which is a solid starting point for a 2-year-old. But since that victory he has finished fifth, second and fourth, losing those three starts by more than 20 lengths combined. His best Beyer over his last three races is an 89, which hardly shows improvement over his 2-year-old form and is not within shouting distance of Further Ado's 106.

In his last race, the Santa Anita Derby, he seemed poised to move forward in his second start of the year, but instead he regressed, flattening out to be beaten by 10 lengths. After that non-effort, he didn't return to the track for a week, which would be odd if his connections had been targeting the Kentucky Derby all along.

And now Intrepido has a lot of improvement to make and not a lot of time to do it. On Saturday, he turned in a bullet four-furlong workout in a blazing 45 seconds. That would normally be a good sign but Mullins, who hasn't had a Kentucky Derby starter since 2005, is a notoriously conservative trainer who doesn't like his horses going that fast in the mornings. He was not happy with the workout.

Intrepido is listed at 50-1 at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET, but he's the 4-1 favorite to finish last. Get a $500 sign-up bonus with our jumbo-sized 1/ST BET offer here:

Post draw analysis

The No. 3 post position will not do Intrepido any favors. The good news for him is that he's a great gate horse who breaks well, so perhaps he can offset the post position with a quick jump from the gate. But even if he and jockey Hector Berrios are able to get away quickly, he'll have a lot more running to do to even have an impact on the race.