Kentucky Derby Horses

It has been 37 years since Affirmed won the 11th and last Triple Crown in American thoroughbred racing, sweeping the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes. Is 2015 when another horse joins the sport’s most exclusive club?

Kentucky Derby Horse Profiles

The Bob Baffert duo of American Pharoah and Dortmund are the leading contenders for the Kentucky Derby, the 141st edition of the Run for the Roses coming up on Saturday, May 2 at Churchill Downs.

With one round of final Derby preps still on tap, the Baffert duo appear the most likely to land in Louisville on the first Saturday of May as the betting favorite.

Derby Profiles – American Pharoah | Dortmund | Carpe Diem | El Kabeir | Upstart

American Pharoah returned off a 5 ½ month layoff with a strong effort winning the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park on March 14, taking the field gate to wire and edging clear to win by 6 ¼ widening lengths as the betting favorite.

His early Kentucky Derby odds are sure to shrink even more if he runs as well in his final prep, the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 11.

His stablemate Dortmund has been perfect in his five-race career, most recently winning the San Felipe at Santa Anita on March 7 to keep his perfect record intact in five career starts.

The son of 2008 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown won his first two career starts by a combined 12 lengths, and then reeled off victories in the Los Alamitos Futurity and Robert B. Lewis before taking the San Felipe.

The colt has one more task before heading to Churchill Downs. His final prep will come in the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park on April 11.

Each spring seven-time Eclipse Award winning trainer Todd Pletcher has a barn full of promising Derby hopefuls, and this year is no exception. Pletcher may have as many as six or seven in the starting gate.

Among the best is Carpe Diem, who came back off a four-month break to win the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7. The victory moved his odds from 20-1 down to 12-1 in early Kentucky Derby betting.

The colt won the Breeders’ Futurity last year and was the beaten favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, no match for Texas Red, the upset winner. He makes his final Derby prep in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, which is back on conventional dirt after the Lexington, Kentucky racetrack pulled up their synthetic surface and replaced it with dirt last year.

Pletcher has a dismal record in the Run for the Roses, starting 40 horses but winning just once, with Super Saver in 2010, but has a major player with Carpe Diem. His other top runners include Daredevil, Far From Over, Itsaknockout, Materiality and Royal Son.

El Kabeir sat atop the Road to the Derby points standings after his victory in the Gotham on March 7. A winner of four of his eight career starts, the John Terranova trainee will make his final Derby prep in the Wood Memorial on April 4 at Aqueduct.

Upstart will be a force in the upcoming Florida Derby on March 28. The colt won the Holy Bull in his three-year-old debut and crossed the wire first in the Fountain of Youth Stakes in his most recent start, but was disqualified for interference, drifting out in the stretch and impeding Itsaknockout, who was placed first.

Kentucky Derby Race Records

The race record for the Kentucky Derby was set by Secretariat when “Big Red” won the 1973 Derby in a time of 1:59 2/5, beating out second-place Sham by 2 1/2 lengths. Perhaps the key for this year’s winner at Churchill Downs is to take the race by exactly eight lengths. That’s the record margin of victory in the Kentucky Derby, set four times. Two of those winners, Whirlaway in 1941 and Assault in 1946, went on to win the Triple Crown.

Notable Kentucky Derby Jockeys

One record that won’t be broken at this year’s Kentucky Derby or likely any time soon is the five Derby victories by Hall of Fame jockeys Eddie Arcaro and Bill Hartack. Arcaro’s first was on Larwin in 1938 and last on Hill Gail in 1952. Hartack saddled his first winner in 1957 on Iron Liege. His last came in 1969 on Majestic Prince.

The most dominant run by a jockey had to be by Calvin Borel. He won in 2007 on Street Sense, 2009 on Mine That Bird and 2010 on Super Saver, giving Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher his first Kentucky Derby victory. Mine That Bird went off at 50-1 online horse odds to become the second-biggest upset winner of the Derby behind 91-1 Donerail in 1913.

Latin American jockeys have taken control of Churchill Downs. It started in 2011 when John Velazquez, born in Puerto Rico, won on Animal Kingdom. Mexico’s Mario Gutierrez won in 2012 on Super Saver. In 2013 Joel Rosario, from the Dominican Republic, won on Orb, and Victor Espinoza, from Mexico, won on California Chrome in 2014.

Hall of Famer Gary Stevens is a three-time Derby winner – Winning Colors (1988), Thunder Gulch (1995), Silver Charm (1997) – who retired in 2005 but returned in 2013 in surprising Kentucky Derby betting news and was sixth in the Derby on Oxbow. Stevens is 51 and thus would have to stay active for a few years to set a record: the oldest Derby-winning jockey was Bill Shoemaker, who was 54 when he rode Ferdinand in 1986.

The first female jockey in the race was Diane Crump, who finished 15th in 1970 aboard Fathom. Only a handful of women have raced in the Derby since then and none have won. The best finish for a female jockey was New Jersey native Rosie Napravnik taking fifth in the 2013 Derby on Mylute.

Meanwhile, African-American jockeys used to be very commonplace at Churchill Downs. A whopping 13 of the 15 riders in the first Derby in 1875 were African-American and black jockeys won 15 of the first 28 runnings of the Derby. However, no African-American has won it since Jimmy Winkfield went back-to-back in 1901-02.

The only jockey to ride a Kentucky Derby winner and train one was John Longden, who rode the Triple Crown winner Count Fleet in 1943 and trained Hartack’s Majestic Prince in 1969.