At noon today, the betting windows open for the second pool of the 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, enabling the hopeful, the strategic, and the confident to place $2 win and exacta bets with an eye on cashing big on the first Saturday in May. The pool closes at 6 pm on Sunday evening.

At the end of the first pool, held the last weekend in November, “all others” or “the field” was the unsurprising favorite at odds of 3-5, with Dortmund topping the individual betting interests at 9-1.  $185,492 was bet into the win pool, $49,082 into the exacta pool, which requires bettors to pick the top two finishers in the race.

The pool consists of 24 betting interests:  23 individual horses and “all others,” which includes all 3-year-old Thoroughbreds not named as individual betting interests.  The individual wagering interests are chosen by a Churchill Downs committee that includes racing secretary Ben Huffman, senior director of communications Darren Rogers, senior racing analyst Jill Byrne, pari-mutuel marketing manager Gary Palmisano, and vice president, racing communications John Asher.

Churchill Downs handicapper Mike Battaglia has tabbed “all others” as the even-money morning line favorite as Pool 2 opens. Among individual betting interests, last year’s 2-year-old champion American Pharaoh was made the favorite at 10-1, with Dortmund and Upstart, the latter an impressive winner of the Grade 2 Lambholm South Holy Bull Stakes at Florida’s Gulfstream Park on January 24, co-second choices at 12-1.

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