The 2025 Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday, May 3rd, and punters worldwide will be tuning in for the most exciting two minutes in sport at Churchill Downs.
The first leg of the coveted Triple Crown, the Derby, is known as the “The Run for the Roses,” a famous Grade 1 stakes race contested by the best three-year-old thoroughbreds.
Despite being preceded by the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival, this 1¼ mile, two-minute race dominates the column inches in the build-up to the event. Which runners are Kentucky Derby past winners, and which horses will likely contend in 2025?
The Kentucky Derby – A Brief History
The Kentucky Derby is often described as the “Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sport.” The first iteration was contested in May 1875.
This makes the Derby the youngest race in the Triple Crown, with the Belmont Stakes founded in 1867 and the Preakness Stakes six years later, in 1873.
In 1872, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. travelled to England, visiting Epsom in Surrey to see the classic Derby (which had been running annually since 1780). After a subsequent visit to Paris to see the recently formed French Jockey Club, Lewis Clark Jr. returned home to raise money for Kentucky’s racing facilities.
It was from these efforts that the iconic Churchill Downs course was constructed, with the Kentucky Derby quickly becoming the track’s showpiece event.
The race now has a $5 million prize fund, with the winner banking a $3.1 million share of this pot. This makes the Kentucky Derby the richest leg of the Triple Crown, with the races at Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes boasting a combined prize fund of just over $3 million.
Notable historic races include the 1973 iteration, in which Secretariat set the record for speed by recording a time of 1:59:40. In 1913, Donerail prevailed from a starting price of 91/1, setting an unbroken record for the highest starting odds ever carried by a winning horse.
The 2022 winner, Rich Strike, was a similarly unlikely victor when he secured a superb win despite starting the race priced at 80/1.
Big Kentucky Derby Names From the Past
As the Kentucky Derby is only open to three-year-old thoroughbreds, no runner has ever won more than one iteration of the race. This can prove challenging from a horse racing betting perspective, as there’s a new field of runners to consider every single year.
However, 27 jockeys have recorded multiple Kentucky Derby wins, with Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack (who both have five triumphs) topping this list. Bill Shoemaker recorded four wins between 1955 and 1986, while a further eight riders have three triumphs to their name.
This number includes John Velazquez, who has posted over 20 mounts at the Kentucky Derby and rode 2020 winner Authentic to success in a time of 2:00:61 (the fastest run since Monarchos in 2001).
He also won aboard Medina Spirit in 2021, but the horse was disqualified after testing positive for betamethasone, resulting in a three-year suspension for the Bob Baffert stable. 2025 will be Baffert’s first Kentucky Derby for three years, now that his suspension has ended.
Authentic was also a Bob Baffert runner and was one of the six Kentucky Derby winners trained by Baffert’s stable. Below is a list of the past ten winners of the Derby as we look ahead to the 2025 race:
| Year | Horse | Jockey | Trainer | Time |
| 2024 | Mystik Dan | Brian Hernandez Jr. | Kenneth G. McPeek | 2:03:34 |
| 2023 | Mage | Javier Castellano | Gustavo Delgado | 2:01:57 |
| 2022 | Rich Strike | Sonny Leon | Eric Reed | 2:02:61 |
| 2021 | Mandaloun | Florent Geroux | Brad Cox | 2:01:02 |
| 2020 | Authentic | John Velazquez | Bob Baffert | 2:00:61 |
| 2019 | Country House | Flavien Prat | Bill Mott | 2:03:93 |
| 2018 | Justify | Mike Smith | Bob Baffert | 2:04:20 |
| 2017 | Always Dreaming | John Velazquez | Todd Pletcher | 2:03:59 |
| 2016 | Nyquist | Mario Gutierrez | Doug O’Neill | 2:01:31 |
| 2015 | American Pharoah | Victor Espinoza | Bob Baffert | 2:03:02 |
| 2014 | California Chrome | Victor Espinoza | Art Sherman | 2:03:66 |
Who are the Key Contenders in 2025?
At talkSPORT BET, we’ve yet to publish the odds for the 2025 Kentucky Derby. However, the renowned 2025 Road to the Kentucky Derby is already well underway, featuring several races to help runners qualify for the event on May 3rd.
But which runners are leading this charge, and how likely are they to compete for the crown of 2025 Kentucky Derby winner?
- Journalism: A three-year-old trained by Michael W. McCarthy, Journalism is one of the favourites in the ante-post betting market ahead of the 2025 Kentucky Derby. He has already won at Del Mar, Los Alamitos Day, and Santa Anita, with over $630,000 in career earnings to date. His 2025 win at the Santa Anita Derby has shown everyone what he is capable of and has shortened his odds dramatically as the Kentucky Derby approaches. If Journalism wins in 2025, it will be McCarthy’s first-ever Derby triumph.
- Sovereignty: William Mott’s Sovereignty is another of the pre-race favourites for the 2025 Kentucky Derby. Born and bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Sovereignty has won the Fountain of Youth (G2) and 2024 Street Sense (G3) stakes already in 2025, and he finished second to Tappan Street in the Florida Derby at the end of March. Mott’s one and only Kentucky Derby triumph came in 2019 when Flavien Prat rode Country House to victory following Maximum Security’s disqualification.
- Tappan Street: Tappan Street may continue the tradition of Florida Derby winners performing well in the Kentucky Derby. Over the years, 21 Florida Derby winners have gone on to win one or more Triple Crown events, so it’s often a good gauge of what’s to come at Churchill Downs. Maximum Security would have been the last runner to achieve this feat, but his 2019 win in Kentucky didn’t stand. If Tappan Street wins the Derby in 2025, it will be Brad Cox’s first win since 2021 with Mandaloun, who won the race following Medina Spirit’s disqualification.
Regardless of who you choose to back once we’ve published our ante-post odds, it’s crucial that you make informed selections and wager responsibly. Most importantly, you should only bet a total amount that you can comfortably afford to lose, and you can use the tools available at our Safer Gambling Portal to help in this regard.
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