Who wins the Kentucky Derby? And what colossal long shot hits the board? Visit SportsLine to get Jody Demling's Kentucky Derby winner, see which huge long shot contends, and get the finish positions for every single horse, all from the man who's picked 9 straight Derby-Oaks doubles!
Churchill Downs has been drenched by a record amount of rainfall, but the 2018 Kentucky Derby is still on. And no one's quite sure just who's going to come out on top as Justify looks to overcome a 135-year-old curse, My Boy Jack looks to capitalize on the sloppy conditions and a handful of other inexperienced Thoroughbreds eye the $2 million at stake from Louisville at the 144th "Run for the Roses."
The annual Grade I stakes competition has long been the biggest showcase of American horse racing. It's the first leg of the Triple Crown of thoroughbred events, and it has built a reputation not only as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" but as a stomping ground of celebrity guests.
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But when, exactly, is this year's Kentucky Derby? And how can you watch it? Don't worry, we've got you covered with everything you need to know.
When is the Kentucky Derby?
Every year, the "Run for the Roses" is held on the first Saturday of May. And that day this year is Saturday, May 5. On Friday, the annual running of the Kentucky Oaks, a race for 3-year-old fillies (female horses), took place.
What's the prize?
There will be 20 horses in this year's race, with $2 million as the prize.
What time does the race start?
The post time for this year's race is scheduled for 6:34 p.m. ET, but the race isn't set to start until 12 minutes later at 6:46 p.m. Again, better to tune in early, than late, since the race only lasts two minutes. You don't want to miss it.
How can I watch, stream the race?
When: Saturday at 11:30 a.m. ET
TV: NBC
Stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
Kentucky Derby post draw, updated odds
Odds via TwinSpires.com
Post Horse Odds 1 Firenze Fire 59-1 2 Free Drop Billy 43-1 3 Promises Fulfilled 47-1 4 Flameaway 43-1 5 Audible 6-1 6 Good Magic 9-1 7 Justify 3-1 8 Lone Sailor 23-1 9 Hofburg 27-1 10 My Boy Jack 5-1 11 Bolt d'Oro 8-1 12 Enticed 54-1 13 Bravazo 69-1 14 Mendelssohn 7-1 15 Instilled Regard 94-1 16 Magnum Moon 13-1 17 Solomini 66-1 18 Vino Rosso 14-1 19 Noble Indy 59-1 20 Combatant 75-1
How should I bet?
SportsLine's Jody Demling had the 2017 Kentucky Derby winner, Always Dreaming, early last year, and has nailed nine straight Derby-Oaks doubles. You can get his latest predictions here.
The Apollo Curse is no more after pre-race favorite Justify justified its hype to win Saturday's 144th Kentucky Derby, bursting past the competition on the far turn to make history. Running on a sloppy track after record rainfall struck Churchill Downs, the undefeated speedster pulled away from the field at the 3/4-mile mark and extended to win the first leg of the American Triple Crown and end the Apollo Curse in the process. Until his victory, not a single horse without a race as a 2-year-old had won the annual Run for the Roses since Apollo did it back in 1882.
"When he got away clean, I thought we had a chance," Justify trainer Bob Baffert said on the NBC broadcast. "He was doing it easy. Him and (2015 winner) American Pharoah, they're just cut from a different (cloth). I rank him up there with my top ones. This track really had me worried."
Justify ran side by side with Promises Fulfilled, a 49-1 long shot, through the first half of the race but pulled into the lead and then extended down the back stretch to give Baffert, a Hall of Famer, his fifth win in the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs.
Good Magic finished second and Audible, the Florida Derby champion who held the enviable Post 5, took third.
Now it's onto the second leg of the Triple Crown in two weeks where Baffert and his winning horse will look to win the Preakness.Three years ago, Baffert trained American Pharoah to the first sweep of the Derby, Preakness and Belmont in 37 years and just the 12th ever.
The Kentucky Derby record for most wins by a trainer is within Baffert's grasp, too, after the 65-year-old snapped a tie for second. He now trails only Ben Jones with six.
While Justify was up against history, the favorite won the Run for the Roses for the sixth year in a row, the longest such run since the 1970s. It was also the second Derby win for jockey Mike Smith, who at 52 is the second-oldest winning jockey. An announced crowd of 157,813 took in the rainiest Derby on record to see Justify win.
Kentucky Derby final results
Position Horse (odds) 1. Justify (5-2) 2. Good Magic (9-1) 3. Audible (7-1) 4. Instilled Regard (85-1) 5. My Boy Jack (6-1) 6. Bravazo (66-1) 7. Hofburg (27-1) 8. Lone Sailor (24-1) 9. Vino Rosso (14-1) 10. Solomini (62-1) 11. Firenze Fire (59-1) 12. Bolt D'oro (8-1) 13. Flameaway (37-1) 14. Enticed (50-1) 15. Promises Fulfilled (49-1) 16. Free Drop Billy (45-1) 17. Noble Indy (59-1) 18. Combatant (70-1) 19. Magnum Moon (13-1) 20. Mendelssohn (6-1)
If you missed any of the action from the Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports on Saturday at Churchill Downs, relive all the pageantry and drama with our live blog recap. If you can't see the blog, please click here.
It was an emphatic statement coming from a trainer who, in 2015, won the first Triple Crown in 37 years with American Pharoah and who also presided over the world’s richest racehorse, Arrogate.
Saturday’s result, which came in slop that made the race itself more unpredictable, marked the sixth year in a row that the favorite had won the Derby. It was also Baffert’s fifth Derby victory.
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He said it did not bother him that 136 years had gone by without a horse unraced at 2 winning the Derby. What did unnerve him a bit, he acknowledged, was that his wife, Jill, chose to wear a green dress on Saturday. In racing, he said, green is thought to be bad luck.
“She pulled it out,’’ he said. “I didn’t say anything. I thought, all right, we’re going to see how good this horse is.”
Justify was ridden by Mike Smith, the 52-year-old ironman who is in supreme shape and, in a career overflowing with success, not surprisingly goes by the nickname Big Money Mike. His other Derby triumph came in 2005 when he scored with the 50-1 shot Giacomo, and this time the challenge was to guide his supremely talented, but woefully inexperienced, mount to victory in a jammed 20-horse field.
Which he did, becoming the second-oldest jockey to win the Derby, behind Bill Shoemaker, who was 54 in 1986 when he won on Ferdinand. “Keep riding horses like this, and you don’t have to work that hard,’’ said a jubilant Smith. “They take care of all the work for you.’’
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Justify broke cleanly out of the starting gate — a necessity according to Baffert — and quickly headed to the front of the pack. Promises Fulfilled went to the lead, but Justify never let him get away. In the backstretch, Smith let him relax a bit, but once he asked for Justify’s best around the far turn, the horse responded like a freight train. “Supercharged,” is how Baffert described it.
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Chad Brown, trainer of Good Magic, said he was proud of his horse but was unlikely to take another shot at Justify when the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, is held two weeks from now.
Justify is co-owned by WinStar Farm, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing and the China Horse Club. WinStar, which won its first Derby when Super Saver romped in the slop in 2010, owns the majority of the horse, and its president and chief executive, Elliott Walden, decided to name him Justify at the suggestion of an assistant. There’s no story, he said, just a good name for a good horse.
The horse’s large ownership group reflects the rise of partnerships across the industry, even among the sport’s most powerful owners. In all, nine of the 20 Derby horses this year were owned by partnerships.
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As for the other owners, Head of Plains Partners is run by the hedge fund executive Sol Kumin, who earned his first Kentucky Oaks victory on Friday, when Monomoy Girl netted the first-place check for another of his successful partnerships, Monomoy Stables.
Starlight Racing, a small syndicate run by Jack Wolf and his wife, Laurie, usually invests in unproven yearlings, not 3-year-olds. But the trend to team up, Wolf said, is here to stay.
And then there’s the fourth owner, China Horse Club, the exclusive and secretive group that has become a major global player in the sport in just five years. It won the Oaks last year with Abel Tasman and then one-upped itself with Justify.
“The win today is equivalent to a gold medal in the Olympics,’’ said Teo Ah Khing, the Harvard-educated architect who runs the China Horse Club. Sitting beside him at the postrace news conference was the prime minister of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, where Teo is attempting to develop a horse racing resort in a place where there are no thoroughbreds.
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But truly standing out among all the owners was Kumin, who had scored a double, snaring both the Oaks and the Derby in one weekend, the first time any owner had done that in more than 60 years.
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When Kumin won the Oaks on Friday, he maintained that nothing could top it. “This feels about as good as it gets,’’ he insisted.
But then came Saturday, and Justify’s triumph. Surely, Kumin now felt differently. After all, his philosophy on teaming with others to buy horses is this: Why buy one when you can buy two? So why win one big race when you can win two?
And perhaps the same will also hold true for Baffert in 2018. Why settle for one Triple Crown when perhaps Justify can bring you another?
