Every Horse Competing in the 2025 Kentucky Derby

Ryan Phillips | May 3, 2025

Mage, left, with Javier Castellano up, wins the 149th Running of the Kentucky Derby on May 6, 2023, at Churchill Downs. / Michael Clevenger and Christopher Granger/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

The 151st running of the Kentucky Derby will take place Saturday May 3, 2025 at Churchill Downs in Kentucky. The field is packed this year.

There are 19 horses entered in the Derby in 2025. Originally, there were 21 qualifying horses, with Baeza out of the field as an alternate, but Bob Baffert-trained Rodriguez was scratched on Thursday, and Todd Pletcher's Grande was scratched on Friday.

What follows is a list of the horses slated to run in the 151st Kentucky Derby.

Kentucky Derby Horses 2025

POST	HORSE	JOCKEY
1	Citizen Bull	Martin Garcia
2	Neoequos	Luis Saez
3	Final Gambit	Luan Machado
5	American Promise	Nik Juarez
6	Admire Daytona	Christophe Lemaire
7	Luxor Cafe	Joao Moreira
8	Journalism	Umberto Rispoli
9	Burnham Square	Brian Hernandez Jr.
11	Flying Mohawk	Joseph Ramos
12	East Avenue	Manuel Franco
13	Publisher	Irad Ortiz Jr.
14	Tiztastic	Joel Rosario
15	Render Judgment	Julien Leparoux
16	Coal Battle	Juan Vargas
17	Sandman	Jose Ortiz
18	Sovereignty	Junior Alvarado
19	Chunk Of Gold	Jareth Loveberry
20	Owen Almighty	Javier Castellano
21	Baeza*	Flavien Prat

*Baeza replaced Rodriguez after the horse was scratched on Thursday.

*Grande, scheduled for the 10th post, scratched on Friday.

Kentucky Derby Favorites and Odds

The favorite entering race week according to the morning-line odds is Journalism at 3-1 odds. Soverignty is second at 5-1 and Sandman follows that up at 6-1. After that the field gets crowded.

Burnham Square and Baeza are at 12-1.

Citizen Bull, East Avenue, Publisher, and Tiztastic all sit at 20-1.

Neoequos, Final Gambit, American Promise, Admire Daytona, Luxor Cafe, Flying Mohawk, Render Judgment, Coal Battle, Chunk Of Gold and Owen Almighty all come in at 30-1.

Who is the Favorite to Win the 2025 Kentucy Derby?

Journalism enters race week as the heavy favorite to win the race. The bay colt is coming off four consecutive wins, including a victory at the Santa Anita Derby in April. In his five race career, he has four wins and also finished third in his first race. Perhaps most importantly, he won as the favorite in each of his last two races.

Michael W. McCarthy is Journalism's trainer, and he has never produced a Kentucky Derby winner. In 2021, his horse Rombauer won the Preakness Stakes, which stands as McCarthy's only win in a Triple Crown race.

Umberto Rispoli will ride Journalism in the derby, and the Italian has similarly never won the Kentucky Derby and has zero wins in Triple Crown races. Rispoli rode Endlessly to a ninth-place finish during the 2024 race.

---

More on Sports Illustrated

feed