Kentucky Derby 2022: Meet the trainers, see their records

Trainers who have been there and done that before in the winner’s circle at the Kentucky Derby are a precious commodity this year.

With two victories each, Todd Pletcher and Doug O’Neill make up the entire list.

OK, Brad Cox got one, but he did not get to celebrate in the winner’s circle. Mandaloun was not awarded the 2021 victory until the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission decided 296 days after the race to disqualify Medina Spirit for a failed drug test.

Of the 13 trainers who have horses among the top 20 currently lined up for the May 7 classic, 10 have a combined record of 0-for-37 in the race. Steve Asmussen, who has more wins at Churchill Downs than any of his peers, past or present, is 0-for-23. It is also worth noting he never has had the post-time favorite in the Derby. He might this year with two-time Grade 2 winner Epicenter.

At least five trainers are on deck to have the first Kentucky Derby starters in their names. Tim Yakteen is the most prominent after he saddled Taiba and Messier to the Santa Anita Derby (G1) exacta after they were transferred from suspended trainer Bob Baffert.

Including Kelly Breen, D. Wayne Lukas and Eric Reed – all with horses outside the top 20 who need dropouts to get in – here are the Kentucky Derby records of the trainers who will be competing for the roses. (Asterisks denote horses ranked 21st-24th.)

Steve Asmussen – Epicenter, Morello

A win in America’s biggest race is about the only thing missing from the résumé of America’s winningest trainer. Asmussen’s best previous chance might have been with Curlin, a two-time horse of the year who won the 2007 Preakness after finishing third in the Derby. But he had two second-place finishers. Nehro in 2011 and Lookin At Lee each lost by 2 3/4 lengths. Of Asmussen’s 23 Derby starters, only three were shorter than 10-1 at post time.

Chad Brown – Early Voting, Zandon

At 43, Brown already has four Eclipse Awards as North America’s top trainer. His reputation has been built on the turf, perhaps one reason he has had only six previous Derby starters, all of whom were at least 9-1 long shots. His best finish came four years ago with Good Magic, who ended up being a two-time Grade 1 winner, but not beyond nine furlongs. That Brown was able to get 1 1/4 miles out of him and finish second, 2 1/2 lengths behind eventual Triple Crown champion Justify, was an underappreciated accomplishment.

Ricky Courville – Un Ojo

Courville comes to his first Derby with the unlikeliest starter in the field. The one-eyed gelding Un Ojo got in thanks to his 75-1 upset in the Rebel (G2) at Oaklawn. Courville, a former jockey who once rode to a Grade 3 win in 1999 at old Calder Race Course, is in his 15th year as a trainer based in Louisiana. He has 194 wins from 1,673 starts for $5,291,398 in purse earnings.

Brad Cox – Cyberknife, Tawny Port, Zozos

When the late Medina Spirit was disqualified in February, Cox became the first Louisville native to have trained a Derby winner. What might have been forgotten in all the drama of the past year was that Cox had more Eclipse Awards as top trainer – one – than he had Derby starters before 2021. Now he has two of those trophies, and he will be looking to get one of his colts into the winner’s circle May 7 for a proper celebration.

Saffie Joseph Jr. – White Abarrio

When White Abarrio won the Florida Derby, he became Joseph’s fourth Grade 1 winner, joining Math Wizard, Mischevious Alex and Drain the Clock. He brings Joseph to the Kentucky Derby for the second time. The still-active Ny Traffic finished eighth in September 2020.

Kenny McPeek – Smile Happy, Tiz the Bomb

It has been nine years since McPeek trained a horse in the Derby. It has been 20 years since he had the favorite. Harlan’s Holiday carried odds of 6-1, the second longest price on any post-time Derby favorite since pari-mutuel betting was re-established at Churchill Downs in 1908. McPeek’s best finish in the race was in his first trip in 1995, when Tejano Run finished second by 2 1/4 lengths to 24-1 long shot Thunder Gulch.

Doug O’Neill – Happy Jack

Name the three trainers who won the Kentucky Derby twice in the 2010s. It is easy to remember Baffert and Todd Pletcher. But O’Neill also did it, first with 15-1 long shot I’ll Have Another in 2012 and then with 2-1 favorite Nyquist in 2016. Hot Rod Charlie was promoted from third last year to second to give him three in-the-money finishers from seven Derby starts. Slow Down Andy, his best chance this year, was ruled out last week after he spiked a fever.

Johnny Ortiz – Barber Road

In only his sixth full year as a trainer, the Kentucky-based Ortiz had a pair of Grade 3 winners at Churchill Downs in 2019. Barber Road is a four-time stakes runner-up who has carried Ortiz to his first Derby. The son of an accomplished jockey in Colombia, Ortiz worked in the barns of Bill Mott and Graham Motion before becoming an assistant to trainer Kellyn Gorder.

Todd Pletcher – Charge It, Mo Donegal, *Pioneer of Medina

No one has started more Derby horses than Pletcher, who sells his client owners on the dream of making that walk from the backstretch gap to the paddock. Although he has 3.4 percent success rate in the race, Pletcher also has had only one favorite from 59 starters. That was Always Dreaming, who won in 2017. After going 0-for-24, Pletcher finally got his first Derby score with Super Saver in 2010.

Antonio Sano – Simplification

Five years ago, Sano’s story of having survived two kidnappings in his native Venezuela got as much or more attention than his first Derby starter. Gunnevera finished seventh in 2007 after having won the Fountain of Youth (G2). Sound familiar? That is the same path Simplification used to get into the 20-horse field on May 7.

Bhupat Seemar – Summer Is Tomorrow

After his uncle Satish Seemar, a six-time training champion, was suspended over his association with controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Bhupat Seemar took over the stable and became the top trainer this winter-spring season at Meydan. He got to his first Kentucky Derby with Summer Is Tomorrow, the runner-up in the UAE Derby (G2). That was the Summer Front colt’s only time racing farther than seven furlongs.

Koichi Shintani – Crown Pride

In only his third year as a trainer, Shintani brings serious international momentum from Japan into his first Kentucky Derby. Crown Pride’s victory in the UAE Derby was one of five for Japan last month on Dubai World Cup night. That followed four others on the Saudi Cup card and a pair of victories last fall in the Breeders’ Cup.

Tim Yakteen – Messier, Taiba

Yakteen has not saddled a horse in his name in the Derby, but he was along as an assistant for the first three of Baffert’s six victories in the race. Before he became the new trainer of record for the transferred Baffteens, his best horse was Mucho Unusual, a still-active 5-year-old turf mare who won the 2020 Rodeo Drive at Santa Anita. A native of Germany, Yakteen has been on his own as a trainer for 31 years and has four Grade 1 wins, including Taiba’s upset in the Santa Anita Derby.

Kelly Breen – *In Due Time

After In Due Time missed a chance to make the Derby with a win last week in the Lexington (G3) at Keeneland, Breen still could get in if two horses in the top 20 drop out. Breen has not had a runner for the roses since 2011, when Pants On Fire finished ninth.

D. Wayne Lukas – *Ethereal Road

The 86-year-old dean of the backstretch still has a chance to get Ethereal Road in the gate if three horses in the top 20 take a pass. The four-time winner has not had a starter in the Derby since Bravazo finished sixth in 2018. The last time Lukas had a horse hit the board in the big race was 20 years ago, when Proud Citizen finished second to War Emblem.

Eric Reed – *Rich Strike

Needing four horses to drop out, Reed could yet get his first Derby starter with Rich Strike, a maiden winner who finished third in the two points preps on Turfway Park’s synthetic track. In his 40th year as a trainer, Reed’s biggest claim to fame might have been when Rinterval came within a neck of beating Zenyatta in the 2010 Clement L. Hirsch (G1) at Del Mar.

The list of first-time Derby trainers who have emerged as winners is deep. Starting with Ansel Williamson, who handled Aristides in the first running in 1875, and continuing through Cox last year, there have been at least 57 first-time Derby trainers who were winners, or 46 percent who are known. There probably were more, but records are incomplete from 1876 to 1897.