BREAKING NEWS: Rodriguez, one of Bob Baffert’s two remaining entries in the Run for the Roses, has been scratched.
Baeza who finished second in the Santa Anita Derby and who was in Churchill Downs hoping for a late scratch has been added to the field. Baeza will start from the outside in post position 20 as all horses beginning with American Promise will shift one spot closer to the rail.
Here are the updated odds following the swap of Rodriguez for Baeza with video analysis of each horse in the field.
Journalism remains the favorite to claim the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. Spoiler alert: the favorite has won the Kentucky Derby just under 35% of the time since 1908 (40 times) and not once in the last five years.
NBC Sports’ horse racing and betting analyst Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper) is live at Churchill Downs all week and has filed reports on each thoroughbred in the race.
2025 Kentucky Derby Full Field and Post Positions
The following is a snapshot of each horse in the field including their lineage, jockey, trainer, and top career highlight that qualified them for the 151st Kentucky Derby.
(Horses listed by Post Position)
- Sire: Into Mischief
- Jockey: Martin Garcia | Trainer: Bob Baffert
- Career Highlight: Citizen Bull won the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
- Fun Fact: This will be Garcia’s 5th Derby. His best
finish was third in 2015 aboard Dortmund.
- Sire: Neolithic
- Jockey: Flavien Pratt | Trainer: Saffie Joseph Jr.
- Career Highlight: Finished third in the Fountain of Youth Stakes
- Fun Fact: Bred in Florida, Neoequos is attempting to become the seventh horse bred in Florida to win the Kentucky Derby. The last to do so was Silver Charm in 1997.
- Sire: Not This Time
- Jockey: Luan Machado | Trainer: Brad H. Cox
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Jeff Ruby Steaks
- Fun Fact: The Kentucky Derby will be Final Gambit’s
first race on dirt.
- Sire: Authentic
- Jockey: Mike E. Smith | Trainer: Bob Baffert
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Wood Memorial
- Fun Fact: Both of Rodriguez’ victories have come in
wire-to-wire fashion, and he figures to be at or near
the front early in the Kentucky Derby.
- Sire: Justify
- Jockey: Nik Juarez | Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Virginia Derby
- Fun Fact: The phrase “American Promise” is also
- associated with a handful of moments leading
to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
- associated with a handful of moments leading
- Sire: Drefong
- Jockey: Christophe Lemaire | Trainer: Yukihiro Kato
- Career Highlight: Won the UAE Derby
- Fun Fact: Win in the UAE Derby marked Japan’s fourth
consecutive win in the race
- Sire: American Pharaoh
- Jockey: Joao Moreira | Trainer: Noriyuki Hori
- Race Highlight: Won the 2025 Fukuryu Stakes
- Fun Fact: Luxor Cafe won three stakes races in Japan
to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Trainer and horse
making their first starts outside of Japan.
- Sire: Curlin
- Jockey: Umberto Rispoli | Trainer: Mike McCarthy
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Santa Anita Derby
- Fun Fact: Curlin has sired winners of the Preakness,
Belmont Stakes, and Breeders’ Cup Classic but not
the Kentucky Derby
- Sire: Liam’s Map
- Jockey: Brian T. Hernandez, Jr. | Trainer: Ian R. Wilkes
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Blue Grass Stakes
- Fun Fact: Burnham Square’s grandfather is 1990 Derby
winner Unbridled
- Sire: Curlin
- Jockey: John Velazquez | Trainer: Todd A. Pletcher
- Career Highlight: Rallied from seventh for a second-place
finish in the Wood Memorial to qualify for the Derby - Fun Fact: Pletcher and Velazquez teamed up to win the
Derby with Super Saver in 2010 and Always Dreaming in 2017.
- Sire: Karakontie
- Jockey: Joseph D. Ramos | Trainer: D. Whitworth Beckman
- Career Highlight: Second in the 2025 Jeff Ruby Steaks
- Fun Fact: The Kentucky Derby will be Flying Mohawk’s first
race on dirt.
- Sire: Medaglia d’Oro
- Jockey: Manuel Franco | Trainer: Brendan P. Walsh
- Career Highlight: Second in the 2025 Blue Grass Stakes
- Fun Fact: Medaglia d’Oro, East Avenue’s sire, raced in
all three Triple Crown races in 2002, finishing fourth in
the Kentucky Derby, eighth in the Preakness and
second in the Belmont.
- Sire: American Pharoah
- Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr. | Trainer: Steven M. Asmussen
- Career Highlight: Finished second in the Arkansas Derby
- Fun Fact: Asmussen is the winningest trainer of all-time
amassing over 10,000 victories as a trainer
- Sire: Tiz the Law
- Jockey: Joel Rosario | Trainer: Steven M. Asmussen
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Louisiana Derby
- Fun Fact: Asmussen’s father was a jockey, and his
two sons are currently jockeys.
- Sire: Blame
- Jockey: Julien Leparoux | Trainer: Kenneth G. McPeek
- Career Highlight: Finished fifth in the Blue Grass Stakes
- Fun Fact: The Kentucky Derby will be Leparoux’s first ride on Render Judgement
- Sire: Coal Front
- Jockey: Juan P. Vargas | Trainer: Lonnie Briley
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Rebel Stakes
- Fun Fact: Both of Coal Battle’s parents, Coal Front
and Wolfblade, are descendants of Seattle Slew.
- Sire: Tapit
- Jockey: Jose L. Ortiz | Trainer: Mark Casse
- Career Highlight: won the 2025 Arkansas Derby
- Fun Fact: Tapit is the No. 1 active sire by lifetime
Grade 1 winners, and the All-Time leading sire by
earnings.
- Sire: Into Mischief
- Jockey: Junior Alvarado | Trainer: William I. Mott
- Career Highlight: Won the 2025 Fountain of Youth
- Fun Fact: Mott was the trainer of Resilience who
finished sixth in the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
- Sire: Preservationist
- Jockey: Jareth Loveberry | Trainer: Ethan W. West
- Career Highlight: Placed second at the 2025 Louisiana Derby
- Fun Fact: This is Loveberry’s second Derby ride. He rode
Two Phil’s to a second-place finish in 2023.
- Sire: Speightstown
- Jockey: Javier Castellano | Trainer: Brian Lynch
- Career Highlight: Won the Tampa Bay Derby with
the 2nd fastest time in the history of the race - Fun Fact: Irad Ortiz, Jr. rode Owen Almighty at
Tampa but the ride shifts to Castellano for the Derby.
- Sire: McKinzie
- Jockey: Flavien Pratt | Trainer: John A. Shirreffs
- Career Highlight: Placed second in the Santa Anita Derby
- Fun Fact: Baeza was purchased for $1.2 million at the
2023 Keeneland September Yearling Sale
Which Post Position has housed the most winners in the Kentucky Derby?
Here’s a quick look at the success or lack thereof for starting positions 1-20 since 1930 with the last year the winner emerged from said starting spot in parentheses.
Post Position 1: 8 wins, 5 seconds, 5 thirds (1986)
Post Position 2: 7 wins, 5 seconds, 13 thirds (1978)
Post Position 3: 5 wins, 8 seconds, 8 thirds (1998)
Post Position 4: 5 wins, 6 seconds, 4 thirds (2010)
Post Position 5: 10 wins, 8 seconds, 4 thirds (2017)
Post Position 6: 2 wins, 8 seconds, 3 thirds (1993)
Post Position 7: 8 wins, 6 seconds, 6 thirds (2021)
Post Position 8: 9 wins, 5 seconds, 5 thirds (2023)
Post Position 9: 4 wins, 6 seconds, 8 thirds (1972)
Post Position 10: 9 wins, 6 seconds, 10 thirds (2005)
Post Position 11: 2 wins, 6 seconds, 4 thirds (1988)
Post Position 12: 3 wins, 3 seconds, 4 thirds (1971)
Post Position 13: 5 wins, 5 seconds, 7 thirds (2016)
Post Position 14: 2 wins, 6 seconds, 6 thirds (1961)
Post Position 15: 6 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third (2020)
Post Position 16: 4 wins, 3 seconds, 3 thirds (2011)
Post Position 17: 0 wins, 1 second, 2 thirds
Post Position 18: 2 wins, 4 seconds, 0 thirds (2019)
Post Position 19: 1 win, 1 second, 0 thirds (2012)
Post Position 20: 2 wins, 0 seconds, 1 third (2022)
While post position 5 has produced the most winners Post Position 20 has yielded the highest percentage of winners. The starting position has been utilized in only 18 Derbies but has housed two winners (11.1%).
Stay tuned to NBCSports.com for all the latest news and notes from Churchill Downs as we approach the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 3.
