Keeping It In The Family: 2025 Kentucky Derby & Oaks

(Tapit is the sire or broodmare sire of seven of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks entries and grandsire of one of the Kentucky Derby runner’s sires.)

Welcome to Kentucky Derby (G1) week – a week where everyone with an entry in the 12^th race at Churchill Downs on Saturday is dreaming of roses. This year, we have a full field of 20 in the Kentucky Derby and one also eligible in Baeza. Meanwhile, the day before sees 14 entered in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) for the fillies.

Keeping up with my yearly Derby week tradition, I dug into the stats on each horse in the Kentucky Derby to learn more about the bloodstock side of the entries as we prepare for one of the biggest days of the year in U.S. horse racing.

Odds Of Making The Derby

Did you know there were 18,491 foals born in North America in 2022 according to The Jockey Club? Of those 18,491, 20 are entered in this year’s Kentucky Derby (there are 21 in the race overall with one bred in Japan) and 14 in the Kentucky Oaks.

To break that down even more, that means the percentage of the foal crop to make the Derby and the Oaks – two of the biggest 3-year-old races of the year for their divisions – sits at .18% with only .11% making it into the Kentucky Derby (a race where either males or females can run).

States Bred

With Kentucky producing the most foals every year (7,754 foals in 2022), it’s no surprise that they have the most representatives in the Kentucky Derby with 19. Florida’s Neoequos was one of 1,192 foals born in his state (7% of the foal crop). Japan also has one runner born there (Admire Daytona), but two of the runners are based in Japan with the Kentucky-bred Luxor Cafe also trained in the country.

Of the 14 Kentucky Oaks entrants, 11 are Kentucky-bred, two are New York-bred (there were 1,347 foals born in New York in 2022), and one is a Pennsylvania-bred. That Pennsylvania-bred (Simply Joking) is one of 520 The Jockey Club notes was born in the state in 2022.

Birthdays

One of the biggest questions breeders have about a late foaling mare is if they should breed her back when she foals in late April or May. It’s worth noting that Mage, Rich Strike, and Authentic were all 2020s-decade Kentucky Derby winners born after April 15.

WATCH IT AGAIN: Authentic wins the 146th running of the @KentuckyDerby! pic.twitter.com/Sb96Vl8c1F

— Churchill Downs (@ChurchillDowns) September 5, 2020

In this year’s Kentucky Derby, none of the entrants were born in January, but February has the most birthdays of any month at eight, followed by April at five and March at four. May ties with March with four entrants born that month – in fact, three will be celebrating their birthday after the Derby runs. East Avenue is the oldest of the Derby group with a February 2 birthday while Rodriguez is the youngest with a May 20 birthday.

April was the busiest month of the year for foaling Kentucky Oaks entrants in 2022 with five born. Four were born in February and four in March with Fondly the lone May foal with a May 21 birthday.

In all, 12 Kentucky Derby and Oaks entrants were born in February, 10 in April, eight in March, and five in May.

Sales

The commercial market is a big part of the Thoroughbred industry, but the Derby and Oaks show breeders aren’t afraid to keep the horses they’re breeding. Of the 35 horses entered in the two races, nine never went through the ring and are owned at least in part by their breeders and one (Anna’s Promise) started her career running for her breeder before being claimed. The final horse not to go through the ring was sold privately by his breeders (Luxor Cafe).

While it’d be easy to brush off the homebred part as just breeders retaining fillies, four of the Kentucky Derby runners are also homebreds who never went through the ring. Outside of those who didn’t sell, Journalism went through the ring and sold for $825,000 as a yearling, but his breeder Don Alberto stayed in his ownership with Publisher’s breeder Airdrie doing the same after he sold for $600,000 at the same sale. Grandview Equine also kept a piece of Baeza after selling him for $1.2 million.

The Kentucky Oak has four fillies who never went through the ring and race at least in part for their breeders with none of the ones who sold seeing their buyers brough back in. Two of the Oaks runners sold as weanlings at Keeneland November and one sold as a 2-year-old at OBS April (Tenma for $850,000).

The majority of those who sold went through the ring as yearlings with five selling at Keeneland September (including Tenma) and one each at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga, the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-Bred Sale, and one at Fasig-Tipton October. The most expensive of those yearlings was the $550,000 Quickick with the least expensive being the $20,000 Early On.

Warrendale sold two Kentucky Oaks runners a combined three times as the consignor with the most sale connections after selling Drexel Hill for $20,000 as a weanling and $50,000 as a yearling and Ballerina d’Oro for $320,000 as a yearling. Gainesway sold Quickick twice – for $275,000 as a weaning and $550,000 as a yearling.

Of the four Kentucky Derby runners to sell as weanlings or short yearlings, only one didn’t go through the ring again – that being Japan’s Admire Daytona. Tiztastic saw the biggest pinhook return as a $80,000 Keeneland January graduate who came back to Keeneland September and sold for $335,000 and Flying Mohawk also saw a big return with his $25,000 Keeneland November price rising to $72,000 as a yearling. Hunter Valley was the consignor of Tiztastic as a short yearling and Flying Mohawk as a yearling.

Only one Kentucky Derby entrant sold as a 2-year-old – the $1.2 million Sandman. He’s one of two seven-figure sales horses with Baeza selling for $1.2 million as a yearling month after half-brother Mage won the Kentucky Derby. His half-brother Dornoch won the Belmont Stakes (G1) last year.

Hunter Valley was the consignor of two Kentucky Derby entrants alongside Taylor Made (Owen Almighty and Citizen Bull), Denali (Tiztastic and Journalism) and Airdrie (Publisher and Chunk of Gold) with the other consignors having one each. The average price for weanling/short yearlings was $236,319 and the average price for yearlings was $428,321.

Breeders

Godolphin is the breeder of two of the Kentucky Derby entrants with the operation running East Avenue and Sovereignty in the race. They aren’t the only breeder with two representatives though. Brereton C. Jones/Airdrie Stud bred Chunk of Gold and Publisher to join the two-entry club with Brereton C. Jones’s estate one of Publisher’s owners.

No breeder bred more than one Kentucky Oaks contender but Godolphin and Brereton C. Jones both bred one Kentucky Oaks entrant as well.

Sires & Stud Farms

On the 10^th anniversary of American Pharoah’s Triple Crown victory, he is one of three stallions to have two Kentucky Derby runners. The stallion is the sire of Publisher and Luxor with Curlin siring Journalism and Grande, and Into Mischief the sire of Sovereignty and Citizen Bull. While all three of those stallions are established, first crop sires Authentic, McKinzie and Tiz The Law have entries in the race (McKinzie’s Baeza is on the AE list) and second-crop sires Preservationist and Coal Front are second crop sires with runners.

Tapit is the King of Derby entries this year as he tries to get his first Kentucky Derby winner as a sire or broodmare sire. Tapit’s entry as a sire is Sandman, who became his 33^rd Grade 1 winner with an Arkansas Derby (G1) win. But the stallion is also the damsire of three runners in American Promise, Final Gambit, and Tiztastic. Tiztastic is an interesting entry for the stallion as that one is also by Tapit’s grandson Tiz The Law. Tapit doesn’t have a Kentucky Oaks runner as a sire, but he has three (Ballerina d’Oro, Bless The Broken, and Tenma) as a broodmare sire.

Tapit is the only stallion who has runners both as a sire and broodmare sire, but he’s not the only stallion who has multiple daughters with runners. Distorted Humor is the damsire of Citizen Bull and Sandman. That pensioned stallion has yet to see one of his daughters produce a Kentucky Derby winner, but he did sire Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Funny Cide.

Only one stallion has multiple Kentucky Oaks entries – Medaglia d’Oro. Medaglia d’Oro is the sire of Good Cheer – whose damsire Street Sense is the only stallion who has entries as a sire and damsire – and Ballerina d’Oro. His studmate Street Sense is overachieving in the Oaks as the sire of La Cara, broodmare sire of Good Cheer, and grandsire of Quickick (who is by his son McKinzie). Medaglia d’Oro joins Street Sense as a stallion who also sees his son with a runner thanks to Bolt d’Oro’s Drexel Hill running.

The late Uncle Mo doesn’t have a runner in either the Kentucky Derby or Oaks, but he is the damire of Journalism in the Kentucky Derby and the grandsire of both Bless The Broken (by Laoban) and Tenma (Nyquist) as the only stallion with two sons who have runners in the race. Tapit is the only broodmare sire to have multiple runners in the Oaks.

The Kentucky Oaks showcases first crop sires with McKinzie, Promises Fulfilled (Anna’s Promise), and Vekoma (Five G) all having entries.

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