Sovereignty wins the 151st Kentucky Derby
Sovereignty won the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs Racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky.
The 2025 edition of the longest continuously held major sporting event in the United States featured all of the pomp and pageantry that has become the hallmark of 'The Run for the Roses.'
Advertisement
After a slate of preliminary races, American gymnast Simone Biles, an 11-time Olympic medalist, gave the 'riders up' call for the jockeys to mount their rides in the paddock.
Moments later, the bugler sounded the call to the post and the horses began to enter the famed Churchill Downs Racetrack as the University of Louisville marching band and choir performed 'My Old Kentucky Home.'
After a heavy dose of rain earlier in the day, the 19 horses took to the muddy track in front of 147,406 spectators under cool, overcast conditions.
When the starting gates opened, it was Citizen Bull and Neoequos taking the lead to set the pace early, while the eventual frontrunners found themselves stuck in traffic towards the rear of the pack.
Advertisement
Citizen Bull and Neoequos were joined by American Promise and East Avenue as the leaders raced four-wide down the back stretch.
Horses race around turn one. -Alvarado rides Sovereignty to victory. - Leandro Lozada/AFP/Getty Images
Alvarado poses atop of Sovereignty in the winners circle after winning the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby. -As the horses raced around the final turn, Journalism and Sovereignty began to impose their wills on the rest of the field. The two horses ran neck-and-neck as they passed the rest of the pack on the outside.
The pair reached the final sixteenth of a mile running nose-to-nose before Sovereignty began to pull ahead, finishing a length and a half ahead of pre-race favorite Journalism.
Baeza, meanwhile, was able to follow the two leaders as they made their push to the front and surged to a third place finish, just a neck behind Journalism.
Advertisement
The three-year-old Sovereignty, trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Venezuelan jockey Junior Alvarado, entered the race as one of the favorites at 9-1 odds to win.
Alvarado, a first-time winner at the Derby, gave all the credit to Sovereignty.
'It was him, Soverignty, who got me all the way to the wire,' Alvarado told the NBC broadcast after the race. 'It meant the world to me and my family here, I thought I had a great chance. … I was so confident all week. … It's more than even a dream come true to have it done with (Mott).'
Mott was appreciative of the atmosphere at Churchill Downs, saying 'it'll take a while to sink in' after getting his second career Derby win.
Advertisement
'This one got there the right way,' Mott said. 'He's done well. He's a great horse. He's come from a great organization and I can't say enough about the horse and the organization that started him out and did everything to make this happen.'
Bob Baffert, a six-time Kentucky Derby winner, made his return to Churchill Downs on Saturday after a three-year absence.
Until last year, the Hall of Famer was banned from running horses at the first leg of the triple crown after his horse Medina Spirit's failed drug test in 2021.
However, his return wasn't as successful as he would have hoped after his two horses failed to win.
Advertisement
Citizen Bull finished in 15th while Rodriguez had to withdraw earlier this week due to a bruised foot.
The next leg of horse racing's triple crown will take place in two weeks at The Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland, followed by the final race on June 7 at the Belmont Stakes. The Belmont Stakes is being held in Saratoga Springs, New York, for the second consecutive year due to ongoing construction the race's typical venue of Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN's Jacob Lev contributed to this report.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Olympic legend Michael Phelps joins his hometown NFL team the Baltimore Ravens for diving contest
Olympic legend Michael Phelps joins his hometown NFL team the Baltimore Ravens for diving contestSource: Baltimore Ravens Solve the daily Crossword
USA Today
42 minutes ago
- USA Today
Ivanka Trump, a student of jiu-jitsu, may play a key role in the White House UFC fight
Ivanka Trump has been sharpening her Brazilian jiu-jitsu skills. And while her moves may not be on display for the occasion, she'll play a key role when the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a professional mixed-martial arts organization, stages its fight on the White House grounds as part of America's 250th birthday celebrations. The first daughter will be involved in the planning of the historic UFC fight on July 4, 2026, a White House official told USA TODAY. President Donald Trump first introduced the idea of hosting the UFC fight last month while talking about special events around the country to celebrate the anniversary of American independence. 'I even think we're going to have a UFC fight,' he said during an Iowa rally last month. 'We're going to have a UFC fight. Think of this – on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there,' he said. 'It's gonna be a championship fight, full fight, like 20-25,000 people.' Seeing 'oceanfront property' in Ukraine, Trump's real estate history shapes his presidency The president is known to be fascinated with the sport, having attended three UFC events since his election in November. At the Republican National Convention, Dana White, the president of the organization, introduced him to the crowd. White told CBS Mornings that he had chatted with Trump about the event on Aug. 11, and was planning to visit Washington, D.C., toward the end of the month to discuss details with the president and his daughter. 'He said, 'I want Ivanka in the middle of this,'' White told 'CBS Mornings.' 'So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities.' Meanwhile, Ivana Trump, also of fan of UFC – judging by her social media posts – has talked about her introduction into the martial arts. A mother of three, Ivanka Trump, said her whole family got involved after her daughter Arabella began taking jiu-jitsu lessons. 'It's almost like a moving meditation because the movements are so micro,' she said in an interview with the YouTube Jui Jitsu Channel. 'It's like three-dimensional chess. I'll watch Ultimate Fighting and … see some of these moves are so subtle. It's fun.' Ivanka Trump, who served as a senior advisor in the White House during her father's first term in office, has kept a low profile in the first six months of his second term. But that might be about to change. Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
A look at Venus Williams' tennis career and comeback. She's returning to the US Open at age 45
Venus Williams is back on the professional tennis tour at age 45 and will be returning to the U.S. Open next week for her first Grand Slam competition in two years. She received a wild-card entry for singles from the U.S. Tennis Association on Wednesday — she will be the oldest player in that event in New York since Renee Richards was 47 in 1981 — after earlier getting one for mixed doubles. Here is a look at the career of Williams, who owns seven Grand Slam titles in singles, 14 in women's doubles with her younger sister, Serena, and two in mixed doubles, plus a record five Olympic tennis medals: Venus Williams' pro tennis debut came in 1994 Williams, who was born in Lynwood, California, on June 17, 1980, played her first WTA tournament in Oakland in October 1994, at 14. In the first round, Williams faced Shaun Stafford, the 1988 NCAA singles champion, and won 6-3, 6-4. In the second round, Williams lost to Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, who would retire with four Grand Slam trophies. The first Grand Slam event for Venus Williams was the 1997 French Open Her Grand Slam debut came at Roland-Garros in 1997, eliminating Naoko Sawamatsu in the first round and losing to Nathalie Tauziat in the second. Later that year, Williams played in the U.S. Open for the first time and reached the final before losing to Martina Hingis. The 1998 Australian Open featured the first Venus vs. Serena matchup Venus beat Serena — who is 15 months younger — in the second round of the 1998 Australian Open, the first of 31 meetings as pros. Serena went 19-12, 11-5 in Slam matches. The Williams sisters won their first women's doubles Slam title in 1999 Venus and Serena teamed up to win their first major doubles title at the 1999 French Open. They also won the U.S. Open that year. Venus Williams won her first major singles trophy at Wimbledon in 2000 Her first Grand Slam singles trophy arrived at the All England Club when she was 20, via a victory over Lindsay Davenport in 2000. That made Williams the first Black woman to win Wimbledon since Althea Gibson in the 1950s. With Serena having won the 1999 U.S. Open, they became the first sisters in tennis history to each win a major singles championship. They were just getting started. 'I always expected to win Grand Slams,' Venus said at the time. 'This was meant to be.' She also collected the Venus Rosewater Dish — the Wimbledon women's trophy — in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008. Olympic success for Venus Williams Williams left the 2000 Sydney Olympics with gold medals from singles and doubles (with Serena, of course), then added golds in women's doubles in 2008 and 2012, plus a silver in mixed doubles (with Rajeev Ram) in 2016. The first Williams vs. Williams Grand Slam final Venus won her first U.S. Open title in 2000 with another victory over Davenport, and her second by defeating Serena a year later in the first major championship match between sisters since Maud Watson beat Lillian Watson at Wimbledon in 1884. During one remarkable stretch from 2002 into 2003, the Williams siblings met in four consecutive Slam finals; Serena went 4-0. Venus Williams reaches No. 1 in the WTA rankings in 2002 Venus was ranked No. 1 for the first time in February 2002 and was there for 11 weeks. Serena spent a total of 319 weeks at No. 1. Venus Williams announces her diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome in 2011 During the 2011 U.S. Open, Williams withdrew before her second-round match and revealed she had been diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome, an energy-sapping auto-immune disease that can cause joint pain. Later Grand Slam success for Williams Williams had a career resurgence in 2016-17, making it to the finals at two major tournaments (at the Australian Open and Wimbledon) and the semifinals at two others (at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open). Time away from the tour for Venus Williams — and a comeback Williams had 10 consecutive Slam exits in the first or second round, including at the 2023 U.S. Open, her most recent major appearance. No one knew until recently, but Williams also was having more health issues: She had surgery for uterine fibroids last year. She was away from the tour for 16 months until returning at the DC Open this July, winning once each in singles and doubles.
