Kentucky Derby 2025: The Annual Run For The Roses, Who’s In & Out In The Race
Where the annual run for the Roses is here. The 151st Kentucky Derby gets underway this evening from the beautiful Churchill Downs, which you’re taking a look at now. The 2025 Kentucky Derby will feature a 19-horse field. Let’s start with one of the biggest storylines for this race. It’s the return of Bob Baffert following his three-year suspension.
How big of a deal is this? And is he showing no stranger to winning? So your thoughts on his horse. So it’s a big deal. He is tied for the most wins by a trainer in Kentucky Derby history all time with six. He actually had seven. His horse had crossed the finish line first seven times, but you remember, in 2021, Medina Spirit, who won the kentucky Derby, failed a post-race exam after that result he was disqualified and baffert was suspended three years.
So he has missed the kentucky derby the last three years. Now, this year, he is kind of an outsider. He only has citizen Bull, and citizen bull was the juvenile champion last year. But this year, Citizen Bull hasn’t progressed as a three-year-old. He also is buried on the rail with the number one post. No horse since 1986 has won the Kentucky Derby from the number one post.
Now, Baffert had another horse, Rodriguez, the Wood Memorial winner, entered earlier this week. But Rodriguez suffered a minor foot bruise and he was taken out of contention for the Kentucky Derby. And he will point to the Preakness. So trainer bob baffert really is kind of a fringe player uh in his return to kentucky derby 151.
All right yeah and we’ll see if history is made uh after that note about post one. Let’s get to some concerns that there is surrounding betting favorite right now. Number eight journalism, about the size of the field. Do you have any insight on that? So journalism is a horse who runs mid-pack, not on the pace and not a closer.
And whenever you’re not necessarily on the pace, you’re kind of at the mercy of trip. You have to make your way around, through, or inside horses. And that’s what Journal does. Now, listen, he’s 4’5 in his career. He’s managed fields, managed to do that all the time. He’s won four in a row.
The problem is, is that He has faced five horse fields in his last few races. I think he’s only, in his four-win winning streak, he’s only faced 23 horses total. And he’ll face 18 on Saturday in the Kentucky Derby alone. Good for him that this Kentucky Derby shapes up with a lot of extremes.
So you’ll have a lot of speed horses and a lot of closers. He should be in that cat-bird seat right in between. I think if he loses on Saturday, it won’t be because that he wasn’t good enough. This is a horse who’s lightly raced. He’s only raced four times. He’s been fast, though.
The 2025 Kentucky Derby will feature a 19-horse field
He’s improving. He also finished second to journalism in the Santa Anita Derby, and you might wonder, Well, why wouldn’t she take journalism over Baeza in the Kentucky Derby when he already beat Baeza a month ago? And the reason is this. If you watch the Santa Anita Derby from a month ago, Baeza had to confront the leader, Citizen Bull, because he was afraid that Citizen Bull, whose reputation at that point was very strong, would get away from the field.
So Baeza had to move early. That allowed journalism. to pass them on the outside on saturday in the kentucky Derby. I actually don’t think that baeza will have to make that early move from the outside. He’s going to be leaving from post number 19. I think he’ll be out in the clear. He’ll be able to see what’s happening on the inside.
I expect him to move up on the turn and i expect him to get the jump on journalism down the stretch and be right there at the wire. Gene, you’re kind of selling me on that. I might have to place that ticket there uh great insight lastly here do you have an uh i hear you have an exacta for us.
Explain kind of what that bet is and who you’re picking. So yes, the exacta is picking the top two horses in the exact order, one and two now uh again i mentioned All right. It looks like we’re having some technical difficulties with Gene. So we will get that answer hopefully a little bit later on as we all await the annual running for the Roses. The 151st Kentucky Derby will get underway this evening as you take a look at the 19-horse field.
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