From Chad Brown to D. Wayne Lukas to Todd Pletcher, meet Kentucky Derby 2024 trainers
Seventeen trainers will have horses step into the starting gate at Churchill Downs on May 4, all with the same goal in mind: to win the 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby.
The Run for the Roses features eight trainers in their Derby debuts — Victor Barboza Jr. (Grand Mo the First), Whit Beckman (Honor Marie), Phil D'Amato (Stronghold), Larry Demeritte (West Saratoga), John Ennis (Epic Ride), Michael McCarthy (Endlessly), Daisuke Takayanagi (T O Password) and Yoshito Yahagi (Forever Young) — alongside some of the most well-known, successful names in the sport: Steve Asmussen, Chad Brown, Brad Cox, D. Wayne Lukas, Kenny McPeek, Saffie Joseph Jr., Bill Mott and Todd Pletcher.
One recognizable trainer who won't be in attendance? Bob Baffert, the six-time winner of the Derby whose suspension from Churchill Downs runs through the end of the year.
Here's a look at this year's trainer lineup:
Steve Asmussen
Kentucky Derby horse: Track Phantom
Asmussen resumes his quest to (finally) add a Derby win to his sparkling résumé. He's winless in 25 tries, a Derby record. Asmussen has a trio of second-place finishes in the race, via Nehro (2011), Lookin At Lee (2017) and Epicenter (2022). He's the winningest North American trainer of all time in terms of victories (more than 10,000) and is second on the earnings list (nearly $440 million, trailing only Pletcher). Whether Track Phantom is the horse to help Asmussen snap the streak is a mystery. Prior to finishing fourth in the Louisiana Derby, Track Phantom had never ended out of the money in his first six starts (3-2-1). He had the pole position in the Louisiana Derby going into the final furlong before falling behind Catching Freedom, Honor Marie and Tuscan Gold.
Victor Barboza Jr.
Kentucky Derby horse: Grand Mo the First
In his 10th year as a trainer, Barboza is set to make his first Derby appearance thanks to Grand Mo the First, whose sire is Uncle Mo, the 2-year-old champion in 2010. Barboza is coming off his best year as a trainer, earning more than $2 million in 2023. Though Barboza's winning percentage is down by 7% this year — his horses won 23% of the races they competed in during the 2023 calendar, compared with 16% (year to date) in 2024 — he's getting more bang for his buck. Barboza is making more than $5,600 per start, which would set a single-season personal record. (He averaged $5,400 per start in 2018.) He owns a win-place-show rate of 41% (16-10-15) in 2024. A victory in the Derby would be monumental for Barboza, who has never won a Grade 1 stakes race; his signature triumph to this point is the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes in 2017, when Distinta took him to the winner's circle at Gulfstream Park in Florida.
Whit Beckman
Kentucky Derby horse: Honor Marie
A Louisville native, Beckman is the trainer of record for a Derby horse for the first time. But he has plenty of experience in the sport, working as an assistant for Pletcher, Chad Brown and Eoin Harty before striking out on his own in 2021. The St. Xavier graduate has gotten better with each passing year, going from one win in 2021 to eight victories in 2022 to 13 last year. He has four wins so far in 2024, with a winning percentage of 10 (4 for 41) and a win-place-show rate of 24 (4-5-1). Beckman has one graded-stakes victory to his name — Honor Marie gave Beckman that honor at the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November, as the colt went from last to first to win by 2 lengths at Churchill Downs.
Chad Brown
Kentucky Derby horses: Domestic Product, Sierra Leone
Is this the year Brown notches his first victory in the Run for the Roses? He's 0 for 7 entering the 2024 Derby, with his best result a runner-up by Good Magic in 2018, losing to eventual Triple Crown winner Justify. Brown has one of the favorites to win this year's race, as Sierra Leone ranks first on the Derby leaderboard with 155 points. Brown also has another horse in the field in Domestic Product. A four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer — from 2016 through 2019 — Brown has a pair of Triple Crown victories, both in the Preakness; Cloud Computing won in 2017, followed by Early Voting in 2022. And he thinks he might have a diamond in Sierra Leone. "He's been a star since he was born," Brown said. "He's just an unbelievable physical specimen. You can't fault him anywhere."
Brad Cox
Kentucky Derby horses: Catching Freedom, Just a Touch
For the second straight year, the Louisville native will have multiple entrants in the Derby. In 2023, Cox trotted out four colts: Angel of Empire, Hit Show, Jace's Road and Verifying. Angel of Empire took third and Hit Show placed fifth; Verifying (16th) and Jace's Road (17th) barely avoided finishing last in the 18-horse field. This year, Catching Freedom appears primed for a stellar showing in the Run for the Roses, entering the Derby third on the leaderboard with 125 points and a win-place-show rate of 80% (3-0-1 in five starts). Just a Touch provides another opportunity for Cox to notch his second Derby win — but what he hopes is the first in which one of his horses actually leads at the finish. His Derby win in 2021, with Mandaloun, was awarded after the fact, as Medina Spirit was disqualified. He is the No. 2 trainer in North America in winnings in 2024 ($7,953,294), putting him behind Asmussen at $8.61 million. Cox has 70 victories, and a 62% win-place-show rate, in 255 starts this year.
Phil D'Amato
Kentucky Derby horse: Stronghold
In his Kentucky Derby debut, D'Amato has a strong hand in Stronghold. The bay colt, which was bred in the Bluegrass State before being shipped to California, has excelled. In six races, Stronghold never has finished outside the top two, with three wins and three runners-up. Stronghold has won both races since turning 3, including his most recent: the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 6. D'Amato's horses have 28 victories in 178 starts this year, an 16% winning clip. His horses have ended in the money 40% of the time (28-26-18) in 2024. A victory in the Run for the Roses would be D'Amato's first in a Triple Crown race.
Larry Demeritte
Kentucky Derby horse: West Saratoga
Demeritte is set to be only the second Black trainer to have a horse in the Derby since 1951. (The last was Hank Allen with Northern Wolf in 1989.) Demeritte has one victory in 13 starts this season, as Eyes of Gold won a maiden special weight race in Tampa Bay, Florida, in February. Demeritte's win-place-show percentage in 2024 is 38 (1-2-2). His most notable triumphs as a trainer are a pair of Grade 3 stakes races: the 2010 Stars and Stripes Turf Stakes at the now-defunct Arlington International Racecourse in Illinois (won by Memorial Maniac) and last year's Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs (won by West Saratoga). Speaking of West Saratoga, it would be an underdog win for the ages if he gallops into Churchill Down's Winner's Circle. That's because he was sold for just $11,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. "If he’d have gone for $12,000," Demeritte said of West Saratoga, "I wouldn’t have him."
John Ennis
Kentucky Derby horse: Epic Ride
A native of Ireland, Ennis once was an exercise rider — one of his most notable mounts was Hall of Famer Wise Dan — before he became a trainer in 2012. After a slow start to his training career — he recorded single-digit victories in each of his first nine years — his win rate has picked up considerably beginning in 2021. That year, his horses won 24 races. He added 20 more victories in 2022 and a career-high 33 last year. But he's on a record pace in every category to this point in 2024: Ennis owns a winning percentage of 21 (13 for 62) and a win-place-show clip of 55% (13-14-7). He's also averaging a personal-best for winnings per start at more than $13,000. His horse in the Run for the Roses, Epic Ride, was a late entrant to the 2024 Derby field, earning his spot after Encino scratched four days before the race. It's exactly the opportunity Ennis was hoping for. "I think he’s entitled to have a shot. … He’s a lovely horse," Ennis said, "and he’s going to be a nice horse later in the year.”
Danny Gargan
Kentucky Derby horses: Dornoch, Society Man
Another Louisville native, Gargan is the son of the jockey with the same name; the elder Gargan won the 1973 Kentucky Oaks aboard Bag of Tunes. The younger Gargan once was a jockey agent and a former assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito before he decided to become a trainer himself. In Dornoch and Society Man, Gargan has two chances to win this year's Derby. This will be Gargan's second appearance in the race. The Gargan-trained horse Tax finished 14th in the 2019 Derby. Winning May 4 would give Gargan his maiden Grade 1 stakes victory; he has 10 graded stakes wins overall (six Grade 2, four Grade 3). He's on pace to shatter his single-season personal mark for earnings per start, as he's making more than $21,000 per race in 2024. Prior to this year, Gargan never cleared $14,000 per start. He's winning at a 16% clip (6 for 38) in 2024, with a win-place-show rate of 53% (6-9-5).
Saffie Joseph Jr.
Kentucky Derby horse: Catalytic
Joseph Jr., who is still in search of his maiden Triple Crown victory, enters this year's Derby with his sights set on redemption. That's because last year, he was forced out of the Derby and suspended indefinitely by Churchill Downs after two of his horses — Parents Pride and Chasing Artie — died at the track. At the time, Churchill Downs called the deaths "highly unusual." Saffie Jr. was reinstated in June following an investigation by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, which found no conclusive causes for the deaths. His suspension scratched one of the 2023 Derby's leading horses: Lord Miles was sixth on the leaderboard (with 105 points) heading into the race, highlighted by a victory in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Racetrack. By comparison, Catalytic doesn't enter with the same momentum. He finished second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on March 30 — 13 ½ lengths behind the winner, Fierceness. Still, Joseph Jr. remained upbeat. "Normally when you get beat 13 lengths, you won’t be too happy, but we were beaten, obviously, by a special horse. ... He was in a different race, and he beat the other horses," Joseph said after the Florida Derby. "(Fierceness) is in a different class when he’s on his 'A' game." For the year, Joseph has a 22% winning clip (69 victories in 316 starts) and a win-place-show rate of 49 (69-45-40). In two prior Derby appearances, his best showing is eighth (Ny Traffic in 2020).
D. Wayne Lukas
Kentucky Derby horse: Just Steel
Just Steel will be Lukas' 50th Derby starter all time. But this will be the Hall of Fame trainer's first appearance in the Run for the Roses since 2018, when Bravazo finished sixth. Lukas is a four-time Derby winner (Winning Colors in 1988, Thunder Gulch in 1995, Grindstone in 1996 and Charismatic in 1999). He has 14 wins in Triple Crown races — but none since Oxbow captured the 2013 Preakness. A fifth victory in the Derby for Lukas would break a third-place tie with Herbert J. Thompson (wins in 1921, 1926, 1932 and 1933). And it would pull Lukas within one of the shared record of six, held by Baffert and Ben Jones.
Michael McCarthy
Kentucky Derby horse: Endlessly
Though this year would mark McCarthy's Kentucky Derby debut — the same goes for Endlessly's owners, Jerry and Joan Amerman of Amerman Racing — the trainer has been on the fence about putting the talented thoroughbred in the starting gate for the Run for the Roses. McCarthy's hesitancy stems from Endlessly's background; the horse has never raced on dirt. In six career starts, which feature five wins, Endlessly has run on turf four times and on all-weather, synthetic surfaces twice. "If I thought he was a dirt horse, I may have tried him on it a while ago," McCarthy said before Endlessly won the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Stakes at Turfway Park on March 23. McCarthy's career win percentage is 16, while his win-place-show rate is 45%. He's remarkably consistent in those departments: McCarthy has had 16% win percentage each of the last three years — and it's the same percentage he has so far in 2024. In that same span (2021-present), he's had a win-place-show rate that's fluctuated between a high of 48% and a low of 42%. McCarthy has one Triple Crown triumph as a trainer: He worked with 2021 Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer.
Kenny McPeek
Kentucky Derby horse: Mystik Dan
McPeek will try to win the Run for the Roses for the first time, with 2024 marking his 10th attempt. Last year, McPeek trained Sun Thunder, which finished 11th in the 18-horse field. McPeek's best finish in the Derby is runner-up, as Tejano Run placed second (to Thunder Gulch) in 1995. A Derby win would complete a personal Triple Crown for McPeek, as he trained 2002 Belmont Stakes winner Sarava — the longest shot ever to win the race — and 2020 Preakness Stakes champion Swiss Skydiver. McPeek was born in Arkansas but raised in Lexington, graduating from Tates Creek High and later the University of Kentucky. He's on a historic pace this year: Earning more than $18,000 per start, it would set a single-season individual record for McPeek; his previous high-water mark was $17,762 in 2022. McPeek has 34 victories in 2024, with a win-place-show rate of 43% (34-29-39).
Bill Mott
Kentucky Derby horse: Resilience
Mott, a Hall of Famer, is no stranger to Derby glory: He won in 2019 with Country House. Of course, Country House didn't actually make it to the wire first; it won via disqualification of the initial race winner, Maximum Security. Including that victory via DQ, Mott is 1 for 12 all time in the Run for the Roses. Resilience is fifth on the Derby leaderboard entering this year's race, with 110 points. He won the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct last month; he is 2-1-1 in six career starts. Mott, the fourth highest-earning trainer in North American history (more than $340 million in winnings), has an 18% win rate (27 victories in 151 races) this year, with a win-place-show percentage of 46 (27-24-18).
Todd Pletcher
Kentucky Derby horse: Fierceness
A Hall of Famer, Pletcher will add to a record he already holds: most Derby starters by a trainer. (Fierceness will be No. 65.) He had the morning-line favorite (Forte) entering last year's Derby. But on the morning of the race, Forte scratched. Pletcher, North America's richest trainer (more than $480 million in earnings), returns to Churchill Downs this year with yet another daunting entrant: Fierceness blew away the competition in his most recent start, the Florida Derby, rolling to a 13 ½-length victory at Gulfstream Park. A Texan, Pletcher has six Triple Crown wins: four in the Belmont Stakes (2007, 2013, 2017 and 2022) and two in the Derby (2010 with Super Saver and 2017 with Always Dreaming). A victory in this year's Derby would make him only the seventh trainer with three or more wins in the Run for the Roses, joining Baffert, Jones, Lukas, Thompson, James E. "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons and Max Hirsch.
Daisuke Takayanagi
Kentucky Derby horse: T O Password
T O Password clinched Takayanagi's first Derby appearance on the strength of a victory at the Fukuryu Stakes on March 23 at Nakayama Racecourse. But according to Horse Racing Nation, this won't be Takayanagi's first time in Kentucky. In 2017, Horse Racing Nation reports he visited the state "to get an inside look at the training operations of Ben Colebrook, Dale Romans and Tom Amoss, among others." Things will be different for T O Password in the Derby, though, as jockey Katsuma Sameshima (the winning rider at the Fukuryu Stakes) has been switched out in favor of Kazushi Kimura, who finished 12th in his Derby debut last year on Mandarin Hero. To win the Run for the Roses for Takayanagi, T O Password will have to buck history: He's made just two career starts (albeit both resulted in victories). In the previous 149 editions of the Derby, only once has a horse with two career starts gone on to win the race: Leonatus in 1883.
Yoshito Yahagi
Kentucky Derby horse: Forever Young
While this year will be the first time a Yahagi-trained horse competes in the Derby, it won't be the first time one of his thoroughbreds has qualified. Two days before last year's Run for the Roses, Yahagi announced Continuar would be scratched from the event, citing the colt was not "able to reach the peak fitness required to take on a race as tough as the Kentucky Derby." Yahagi has been one of Japan's leading trainers for years. He trained the country's first two Breeders' Cup winners, both in 2021: Loves Only You captured the Filly and Mare Turf race, and Marche Lorraine placed first in the Distaff. Forever Young has never lost a race, owning a 5-0-0 record and recently winning the Group 2 UAE Derby on March 30 at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai. Forever Young will vie to overcome history, as no horse that competed in the UAE Derby has won the Run for the Roses, sporting an 0-for-19 record entering 2024. Master of Hounds boasts the best finish in the Derby, taking fifth in 2011.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Brad Cox, Chad Brown, Todd Pletcher among Kentucky Derby 2024 trainers