Sovereignty wins 2025 Kentucky Derby

Sovereignty won the Kentucky Derby, finishing the race in 2 minutes and 2 seconds on a rain-soaked track in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday. 

Out of the 19 horses that competed this year in the 151st edition of the iconic race, the colt, Journalism, was favored to win. Journalism took second place. The last time a favored horse won the race was in 2018 when Justify crossed the finish line.

The victory hands Venezuelan jockey Junior Alvarado his first career win in the Kentucky Derby. Sovereignty’s trainer, Bill Mott, has won the Kentucky Derby once before — the result of a disqualification in 2019.

A day of races culminated in the Kentucky Derby — a 1 1/4 mile race lasting about two minutes. Although the horses that compete in the race complete a series of qualifying races, America’s oldest, most famous horse race is like no other because many of the 3-year-old horses competing have not raced that long of a distance before. Many of them also have not raced with that many other horses on the track with them, or with such a large crowd watching.

Rain at the Louisville course, Churchill Downs, left a muddy track for the horses to traverse. The weather added another unknown variable to how the race would unfold, as horses react differently to wet tracks and some have never raced in such conditions.

Decorated but controversial trainer Bob Baffert returned to the race this year — for the first time since his ban from the Kentucky Derby — with his horse, Citizen Bull. Previously, his horse, Medina Spirit, tested positive for drugs after winning the 2021 Kentucky Derby. The horse later collapsed and died while training in 2022. As a result, Churchill Downs suspended Baffert from competing at the track for three years.