It’s just a little more than two months until the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby — or, if you prefer to be official, the first running of The Kentucky Derby Presented By Yum! Brands — and there’s no such thing as a favorite, even a lukewarm one.

It didn’t used to be that way. Back in the 1940s, ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, the sport regularly produced a standout 2-year-old champion who was the cynosure of all eyes as he made his way to Churchill Downs the following spring. The Triple Crown winners of the ’70s — Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed — all established their greatness as 2-year-olds.

But now, difficult as it is to believe, it has been 17 years since the sport had an exciting 2-year-old champion who came into the next year’s Derby with his charisma intact. That was Easy Goer, who was being touted as the next great one when he came to Churchill Downs in the spring of 1989. But he was no match that dreary afternoon for Sunday Silence, who bloomed late under the crafty tutelage of Charlie Whittingham.

Of the juvenile champions since then, most either didn’t make it to the Derby or were staggering under the weight of great expectations by the time they arrived at Churchill Downs. The two most ballyhooed juvenile champions of the ’90s, Arazi and Favorite Trick, had fallen so far off their 2-year-old form by the first Saturday in May that serious handicappers threw them out — rightly so, as it turned out.

This year Steviewonderboy, who vaulted to the juvenile championship off his victory in the Breeders Cup Juvenile, already has been declared out of the Derby due to a leg fracture. That guarantees the continuation of a jinx far more formidable than the Sports Illustrated cover. Since the Breeders Cup began in 1984, no winner of the Juvenile has won the following year’s Kentucky Derby.

There’s no reason for it, except that God simply isn’t making race horses like He used to. One theory has it that generations of permissive medication has weakened the breed to the point that horses break down a lot easier than they did a couple of generations ago. Most trainers apparently buy into it, judging by the way they coddle their prized 2-year-olds.

This Saturday the Derby elimination process will begin with stakes races in Florida, California, Maryland and Kentucky.

The race that’ll be watched the closest is the $300,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, where First Samurai could reclaim the star quality he lost last  fall by finishing third in the Breeders Cup Juvenile.

If he runs a big race for owner Bruce Lunsford and trainer Frankie Brothers, he could vault to the head of the Derby rankings. The only question about the big, good-looking son of Giant’s Causeway is whether he can carry his class over the Derby’s mile and a quarter. The Fountain of Youth, run at a mile and an eighth, should be a revealing test of his stamina.

Also expected to run in the Fountain of Youth are Great Point, trained by Nick Zito; My Golden Song, who could join with Bluegrass Cat to give trainer Todd Pletcher a formidable Derby entry; and Flashy Bull, the top hope from the Kiaran McLaughlin stable.

Also on the Gulfstream card is the $150,000 seven-furlong Swale Stakes, traditionally a race for Derby prospects who aren’t quite ready for the Fountain of Youth’s nine furlongs.

At Santa Anita, the highly regarded Brother Derek should be an easy winner in the $200,000 Santa Catalina Stakes. In his last start, Brother Derek won the San Rafael over the same track. The multiple stakes winner is trained by Dan Hendrickson, who has never saddled a horse in the Kentucky Derby.

The other Derby preps that will be held on Saturday are the Baldwin at Santa Anita, the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park in northern Kentucky, and the Horatius at Laurel in Maryland. The best of these should be the Battaglia, the final prep for the $250,000, mile-and-an-eighth Lane’s End Stakes on March 25 at Turfway.

The Reed Ratings:

1. First Samurai — Looking for a big win in the Fountain of Youth.

2. Cause To Believe — Longtime Northern California training wizard Jerry Hollendorfer is due for some good luck on the road to the Derby.

3. Lawyer Ron — Trainer Bob Holthus has been a Churchill Downs mainstay for decades, and this might be the one for which he’s been waiting.

4. Bluegrass Cat — A son of the great sire Storm Cat, he was an easy winner in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

5. Private Vow — There’s a Derby out there somewhere with Trainer Steve Asmussen’s name on it.

6. Brother Derek — Best of the West, so far.

7. Barbaro — Defeated Great Point and My Golden Song in the Holy Bull Stakes.

8. Bob and John — Bob Baffert’s best hope up to now.

9. Keyed Entry — Defeated First Samurai in the Hutcheson Stakes on Feb. 4.

10. Doc Cheney — His namesake is a friend, and, at this particular moment, that’s as good a reason as any.