Whether you want to win big or just sound smart at your watch party, here are five things to know about Saturday’s 143rd running of the Kentucky Derby

The late, great horse racing writer Jay Cronley liked to say that you could be walking around lucky and not even know it. On no day of the year could that luck mean more for you than on the first Saturday in May, when the Kentucky Derby is run every year.

The 143rd edition of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday will be your next chance to make a life-changing score in a mere two minutes. Whether you will be looking to Let It Ride – the iconic 1989 horse racing movie was based on Cronley’s book Good Vibes – or just want to sound smart at your Derby party, here’s five key things to know about the race going into the gate:

A wide-open field

The past few years have presented us with clear favorites emerging from the prep season, and that form has held true as favorites have won the past four Kentucky Derbys.

But this season the prep races have been dominated by high-priced longshots, leaving the division in chaos. The Derby favorite heading into 2017 was the two-year-old champion, Classic Empire, but he lost his first race of the season and then missed training time to injury. He came back to win the Arkansas Derby last month, leading many to jump back on the bandwagon; he’s been installed as the 4-1 morning line favorite. This could be the best year to look at longshots since I’ll Have Another won at 15-1 odds in 2012.

Speed kills

If there’s one thing horseplayers are good at, it’s outsmarting themselves. This can be especially true in a race as complex as the Derby, which features a field of 20 horses with very little experience overall and none going the demanding classic distance of 10 furlongs (1¼ miles). So let’s keep it simple with a statement we can all agree on: Fast horses beat slow horses.

“Duh!”

The trick is in knowing how to measure the speed of the horses. The industry standard method is with Beyer Speed Figures, pioneered by Andy Beyer and published exclusively in the Daily Racing Form for all North American horse races. Among the 20 horses running Saturday, these three are the only ones to have surpassed the 100 mark on the Beyer scale:

Classic Empire, 102

J Boys Echo, 102

Irish War Cry, 101 (twice)

Pace makes race

Being fast in the early stages of a race can be a huge advantage, but sometimes it’s better to have a late closing kick instead. Horses with early speed have had an advantage in recent years, ending a string of victories by late-running closers. In addition to the Beyer figures, the DRF also publishes TimeformUS pace figures. The horse’s with the best chance to be out front early according to TimeFormUS are Irish War Cry, State of Honor and Battle of Midway. Take note: Irish War Cry has shown up on both lists so far.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jockey Mario Gutierrez, who won the Kentucky Derby on Nyquist last year, can join the three-win club on Saturday. Photograph: Eclipse Sportswire/Getty Images

Jockey talk

There are two jockeys in this field looking to win the Derby for a fourth time: Kent Desormeaux aboard Sonneteer and Victor Espinoza on Gormley. As the rider of recent winners California Chrome and American Pharoah, look for Espinoza to garner a good deal of support at the windows. Two-time winner Mario Gutierrez will be looking to join them in the three-win club aboard Irap. Javier Castellano has won the Eclipse Award for nation’s best jockey the past four years running but has never finished first, second or third in the Derby. He’ll try to end that drought with Gunnevera.

Get rich

If there is one betting pool that demands your attention on Derby Day it’s the superfecta. Hitting the superfecta is no small feat, requiring you to pick the first four horses to cross the finish line in order. But it’s probably the one wager that horseplayers look forward to the most every year in the Derby. Just look at the payouts the past seven years for $1:

$542

$634

$7,691

$28,542

$48,046

$24,063

$101,284

The superfecta wager carries a $1 minimum for the Derby as opposed to the 10-cent superfectas on regular days. So it won’t be cheap. Just make sure to include Irish War Cry in there somewhere.