What's the difference of a Derby race, and a Futurity race?

Question

I live in Tulsa, OK. We have a track here, called Fair Meadows. I was looking at results of races from last Saturday. The 10th race was a Grade 2 Futurity and the 11th was a Grade 3 Derby. Is a Grade 2 typically for better horses than a Grade 3? And, does a Derby or Futurity typically have faster horses? I was surprised at the total purse for the both races, because they seemed high for races we usually have in Tulsa. Thanks. http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbSummaryResultsDisplay.cfm?TRK=FMT&CY=USA&DATE=06/07/2008&STYLE=EQB

Answer 1

Futurities are 2YO contests.

Derbies are 3YO contests.

Graded designations are made by a consensus of the American Graded Stakes Committee.

Answer 2

Both of those races were graded stakes... that's why the purse was so much higher... those were big races for really good horses.  There's 3 types of graded stakes... Grade 1 is the best, Grade 2 is next, and Grade 3 is the lowest type of graded stakes.

A Futurity is a race for 2 year olds.  A Derby is a race for 3 year olds.  So the horses in the futurity race were a year younger than those in the Derby race... you might see those futurity horses next year in the Derby race!

Answer 3

Futurity races are for 2 year olds, Derby races are normally 3 & up. But a G2 is better than a G3.

Also, graded stakes runners are usually better horses than allowance or claimers.