Junior Alvarado rode Sovereignty to Kentucky Derby 2025 win. What to know about journey
The 38-year-old jockey from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, fractured his shoulder blade in a spill at Gulfstream Park days before the Florida Derby. After riding Sovereignty in each of his four career starts, Alvarado was forced to watch him race from the hospital. "If it's meant to be, it's meant to be," Alvarado thought to himself.
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But something nagged at him. If he couldn't heal up in time to ride the Into Mischief colt in the Kentucky Derby, would he have missed his chance? After five attempts with Mohaymen (fourth in 2016), Enticed (14th in 2018), Tax (14th in 2019), Rocket Can (ninth in 2023) and Resilience (sixth in 2024), Alvarado felt certain of one thing. Of Sovereignty.
This was the right horse for me to win the Derby.
Trainer Bill Mott, a longtime collaborator of Alvarado's, called him the day after he was discharged from the hospital. Mott promised his jockey he'd be able to reunite with Sovereignty in the Run for the Roses as long as he recovered in time. That quieted Alvarado's worried heart. And Saturday, his beloved colt proved to the world that they were kismet.
The pair rode to victory in the 151st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. It marked their fifth start together and second at the commonwealth's most famed racetrack. Alvarado and Sovereignty came out of Post 16, finishing the 1 ¼-mile race in 2:02.31 — ahead of second-place Journalism. Sovereignty improved to 3-2-0 across six starts with the win.
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With the victory, Alvarado won his first Triple Crown race and delivered trainer Bill Mott his second Derby win. It was Mott's first victory "the natural way," as one reporter put it during their postrace news conference. Mott previously won with Country House via disqualification in 2019.
"It's just a really special feeling to win and have it happen for the team," Mott said. "Number one, my regular rider, Junior Alvarado." To have had him pilot Sovereignty to victory, Mott felt, made it even sweeter.
Another member of that team is ownership group Godolphin, LLC. Alvarado, Sovereignty and Mott's efforts delivered Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum his first Derby win in 13 tries. Godolphin's best finish before Saturday came with Essential Quality (third) in 2021.
Godolphin USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan gushed over Alvarado after the race. Sovereignty had clipped another horse's hind heels and bobbled a bit at the start. But Alvarado kept him steady, leading Sovereignty past 3-1 favorite Journalism after a productive turn for home.
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"The confidence Junior has in the horse, especially a horse coming from off the pace like that, having known him so well, I think that really helped him get there today. Because he (Sovereignty) knows he's (Alvarado's) going to be there for him."
Alvarado stroked Sovereignty's neck as he guided the colt from the mud onto the turf track and toward the winner's circle. The jockey grabbed a yellow rag, wrung it out and guided it along Sovereignty's dark brown mane. This horse had just granted him immortality. The least Alvarado could do was tidy him up a bit before draping the rose garland over his shoulders.
Growing up in Venezuela, the only American horse racing event Alvarado could catch on TV was the Kentucky Derby.
"That would be nice," Alvarado thought then, "to be in the United States riding (in) the Kentucky Derby."
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Decades later, he realized and surpassed that dream. He had years to plan a victory speech of sorts. But Saturday night, nothing felt good enough.
"I tried to think," Alvarado said. "What words can I use when people ask me, 'What does it feel (like) to win the Derby?' And I don't know if I'm gonna be able (to), actually, to find the right words that can describe this feeling that I have right now."
Reach college sports enterprise reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Junior Alvarado: Kentucky Derby results, Sovereignty jockey name
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