Kentucky Derby 2023: Meet the jockeys who will ride Saturday

Of the 22 jockeys listed in the entries for Kentucky Derby 2023, only two know what it is like to cross the finish line first and keep the victory.

Hall of Famer John Velázquez has done it three times in the last 12 years. Joel Rosario got to the winner’s circle a decade ago.

Stewards' decisions since 2019 took a fourth victory from Velázquez, made first-time Derby winners out of Flavien Prat and Florent Géroux and erased the lone victory for Luis Sáez.

Fair odds: Why DeRosa sees 1 horse as solid Derby play.

Irad Ortiz Jr., the four-time Eclipse Award winner who will be on this week’s favorite Forte, seeks his first victory after six Derby losses. Others trying to break personal maidens in America’s biggest race include Hall of Famer Javier Castellano, who is 0-for-15, and Ortiz’s brother José, who is 0-for-7.

Experience, then, is not the be-all, end-all that casual fans might believe it to be. According to the online media guide curated by Churchill Downs media managers Darren Rogers and Kevin Kerstein, first-time Derby jockeys have won the race 28 times, most recently Sonny León last May on 80-1 stunner Rich Strike. This raises hopes for the likes of Gerardo Corrales, Juan Hernández, Jareth Loveberry and Ryusei Sakai.

Listed alphabetically, these are the jockeys who will ride in Kentucky Derby 2023 with asterisks next to horses who, like Rich Strike last year, are also-eligible to draw into the field if there are any dropouts:

Júnior Alvarado – Rocket Can

The heartwarming story of Cody’s Wish put Alvarado into a mainstream spotlight last year. His ride from worst to first in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile sealed a victory for the horse who bonded with wheelchair-bound teenager Cody Dorman. The native of Venezuela who turns 37 on Preakness day won the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in January on Art Collector. Now in his 17th year riding in the U.S., Alvarado had three previous Derby assignments that finished off the board, all on horses who were at least 11-1 at post time.

Rafael Bejarano – King Russell*

Never better than ninth in 12 previous Derbies, Bejarano would be on another long shot if King Russell were to draw in. None of his rides has been shorter than 9-1, and his last three were at least 23-1. Bejarano, 40, who was born in Perú, had his best year in 2008, when he was dominant in all the Southern California meets and was nominated for an Eclipse Award. He has won five times in the Breeders’ Cup, including with repeat Dirt Mile victor Goldencents in 2013 and 2014.

Javier Castellano – Mage

In a Hall of Fame career that has spanned wins in two Preaknesses and 12 Breeders’ Cup races, Castellano is hoping to avoid approaching a dubious record held by a new Hall of Famer. Corey Nakatani rode in the Derby 18 times without winning. Castellano, a four-time Eclipse Award winner, is tied for second at 0-for-15. Only once, though, did he ever ride the post-time favorite. That was in his Derby debut in 2005, when Bellamy Road wound up seventh. He and Audible finished third to Justify in 2018. The 45-year-old Venezuela native had ridden in 12 consecutive runs for the roses until that streak was snapped last year.

Gerardo Corrales – Raise Cain

Corrales was not the first choice to make his Derby debut riding the Gotham Stakes (G3) winner. Trainer Ben Colebrook had called on Castellano, who decided instead to ride Mage. Raise Cain’s first three starts, including a maiden-breaker at Keeneland, came with Corrales in the irons. In his ninth year as a U.S.-based jockey, Corrales, 26, is from Panamá, where his father is a trainer. He has won riding titles at Turfway Park, Ellis Park and Thistledown.

Manny Franco – Hit Show

Franco holds the unique, modern-day distinction of having ridden in the Kentucky Derby on a horse who already had won a classic. That was in the COVID year of 2020, when Tiz the Law finished first in the Belmont Stakes before he placed second to Authentic as the odds-on favorite in the September run for the roses. Of Franco’s four Derby mounts, Tiz the Law was the only one who was shorter than 48-1. Born in Puerto Rico, Franco, 28, was on Sharing for a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf win in 2019.

Tyler Gaffalione – Verifying

Verifying might be the prototypical Derby ride for Gaffalione. Three of his five previous mounts went off around 15-1, the very odds this year’s Blue Grass (G1) runner-up got for Saturday’s program. Born in Florida, Gaffalione, 28, might have had a shot at winning the 2019 Derby if he and War of Will had not been interfered with by Maximum Security, whose victory that day was overturned in a stewards decision. Two weeks later War of Will was triumphant in the 2019 Preakness for Gaffalione, himself an Eclipse Award winner as the top apprentice jockey of 2015.

Florent Géroux – Jace’s Road

Even though his six previous Derby horses left the gate with odds of at least 10-1, Géroux finished in the money with two of them. Future horse of the year Gun Runner, whom Géroux rode to victory in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic, was 10-1 when he finished third in 2016. Mandaloun was 26-1 when he crossed the line second, nine months before his promotion as a result of the drug disqualification of the late Medina Spirit. Géroux, 36, who grew up in France, has seven Breeders’ Cup wins. He has become a preferred rider for two-time champion trainer Brad Cox.

James Graham – Confidence Game

Confidence Game will be the third long shot Graham has ridden in the Derby. The previous two finished eighth and 10th. Graham, who turns 44 this month, grew up in Ireland wanting to be a jockey, carrying that ambition to a career in North America that began 20 years and nearly 3,000 wins ago. Graham was a fixture at the now-closed Arlington Park. That was where he won two years ago on Two Emmys in the Mister D. Stakes (G1), the temporary name of what was the last Chicagoland running of the original Arlington Million.

Brian Hernandez Jr. – Sun Thunder

Hernandez returned to the Derby last year riding Tiz the Bomb to a ninth-place finish for trainer Kenny McPeek, with whom he will work again Saturday with long shot Sun Thunder. A troubled eighth with McCraken six years ago was the best finish in the race for Hernandez, 37, who comes from Louisiana. The continent’s top apprentice jockey in 2004, Hernandez got the biggest win of his career when Fort Larned led the whole way in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Juan Hernández – Skinner

A native of México, Hernández, 31, hit the ground running at Santa Anita in 2020, winning the last two winter-spring titles there. In his short time in Southern California, Hernández has ridden to six Grade 1 victories, including twice last year with Cave Rock. In making his Derby debut, Hernández takes over on Skinner from Víctor Espinoza, the 2015 Triple Crown-winning jockey who had ridden the maiden-winning colt’s last five races.

Kazushi Kimura – Mandarin Hero*

A native of Japan, Kimura, 23, has made a professional home for himself in Canada, where he has won four Sovereign Awards and is the reigning two-time champion jockey. He also won the Eclipse Award as the top apprentice rider of 2019. Kimura spent his winter in Southern California, where he took Mandarin Hero to a close second in the Santa Anita Derby (G1), missing a certain invitation to the Kentucky Derby by a nose.

Christophe Lemaire – Derma Sotogake

A five-time riding champion in Japan, Lemaire earned his spot in Saturday’s classic by riding Derma Sotogake to an emphatic, 5 1/2-length victory in the UAE Derby (G2) at Meydan. The 43-year-old product of Gouvieux, France, has raced only four times at Churchill Downs. His 13th-place finish on Crown Pride in last year's Kentucky Derby marked his first race at the racecourse in 10 1/2 years and his first ever on the main track. This weekend Lemaire also will race on the Derby undercard in a pair of Grade 1 turf stakes. Until last year’s Derby, Lemaire had not ridden in America since he and Visiyani finished fifth in the 2013 Secretariat (G1) on the turf at Arlington Park.

Paco López – Lord Miles

If Joe Bravo was dubbed Jersey Joe for winning 13 riding titles at Monmouth Park, maybe López should be called Jersey Lo. That is because he was the leading rider at the track last year for the ninth time. Now 37, the native of México was the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 2008, and he was the regular rider on two-time male-sprint champion Roy H. In his third Derby, López will try to improve on finishes of 11th and eighth on long shots.

Jareth Loveberry – Two Phil’s

Good fortune helped Loveberry, 35, get to Churchill Downs. Only two months ago he suffered a leg injury in the Fair Grounds starting gate that could have derailed him for months. It turned out it was a hairline fracture that did not keep him from coming back three weeks later with Two Phil’s to win the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park. A native of Michigan, Loveberry won the last two riding titles at Arlington, where he was inextricably linked with nine-time training champion Larry Rivelli. The two are together again in their first Kentucky Derby.

Irad Ortiz Jr. – Forte

The reigning champion jockey and eight-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher are together with a four-time Grade 1-winning colt who himself was the best of his division last year. Yet nothing is certain, and no one knows that better than Ortiz. This will be the second time the 30-year-old from Puerto Rico will be on the post-time favorite in the Derby. The last time was 2019, when Improbable finished fifth and was promoted to fourth. Ortiz’s only classic victories came in the Belmont Stakes with Creator in 2016 and Mo Donegal last year. His 17 wins rank third in Breeders’ Cup history.

José Ortiz – Kingsbarns

No brothers have met more often in the Derby than the Ortizes. The younger José, 29, has gotten the best of Irad in four of their first five matchups in the Kentucky classic. A one-time winner himself in the Belmont who also has been shut out in the first two jewels of the Triple Crown, José Ortiz has hit the board twice in the Derby, finishing second with Good Magic in 2018 and a promoted third with Tacitus in 2019. He got the assignment on the undefeated Kingsbarns only after Pletcher paired them for a workout last weekend at Churchill Downs.

Flavien Prat – Angel of Empire

The 30-year-old native of Melun, France, hit the board in four of his first five Derby assignments, including last year with third-place Zandon. He also finished second with Hot Rod Charlie in 2021 and was promoted to victory on 65-1 Country House in 2019 some 22 minutes after the race, when stewards decided apparent winner Maximum Security was guilty of interference. Prat also won with Rombauer in the 2021 Preakness. Oh, yes. He also happened to be aboard for six rides on an undefeated champion named Flightline.

Joel Rosario – Disarm

Even though he won on Orb in 2013, the Kentucky Derby has been a star-crossed affair for the 38-year-old from the Dominican Republic. Rosario looked like he would win last year on 4-1 favorite Epicenter. That was before 80-1 Rich Strike’s winning rally along the rail. That runner-up finish was the only other time the 2021 champion jockey finished better than fourth in America’s biggest race. Rosario, who has 15 Breeders’ Cup trophies, will be looking for his fourth victory in a Triple Crown race. He also was the jockey named for also-eligible Cyclone Mischief, but he would take that ride only if Disarm were to be scratched.

Luis Sáez – Tapit Trice

The argument can be made that Sáez’s 9: 0-0-1 Derby record is misleading, what with his crossing the wire first in 2019 with Maximum Security. The counterargument would be that he had himself to blame for the disqualification that resulted in a demotion to 17th. The one time he formally hit the board was with 2021 favorite Essential Quality, who wound up third. Five weeks later they won the Belmont Stakes. Tapit Trice is likely to mark the third time the 30-year-old from Panamá will be on a Derby starter who carries odds shorter than 10-1.

Ryusei Sakai – Continuar

Sakai, 25, the youngest jockey currently in the main Derby field of 20, has been making himself familiar with Churchill Downs by exercising Continuar every morning in preparation for his first U.S. classic. In 3,861 rides since he began his career in his native Japan, Sakai has won 327 times with purse earnings of more than $46 million. He rides most often for legendary trainer Yoshito Yahagi, and the two are in Kentucky to campaign third-place UAE Derby (G2) finisher Continuar.

Ramón Vázquez – Practical Move

The only other time Vázquez was in the Kentucky Derby, he rode to a 13th-place finish for trainer D. Wayne Lukas in 2015 with Mr. Z, a colt named for and owned by Ahmed Zayat. That was the same day Zayat won the Derby with eventual Triple Crown champion American Pharoah. A two-decade riding veteran who came out of Puerto Rico, Vázquez, 39, moved last spring from the Midwest to Southern California. Since trainer Tim Yakteen paired them in December, Vázquez and Practical Move are 3-for-3 together, all in Derby preps.

John Velázquez – Reincarnate

The Hall of Famer who holds the record with nearly $465 million in career earnings will become only the third jockey to have been in 25 Derbies. Only Mike Smith and the late Bill Shoemaker rode in more. Velázquez, 51, ended an 0-for-12 Derby drought when he won with Animal Kingdom in 2011. His only time on the post-time favorite was in 2017, when he won with Always Dreaming. He and eventual horse of the year Authentic were triumphant in the COVID Derby of 2020. Velázquez had a fourth win in the race before Medina Spirit was stripped of his 2021 triumph. This is the 17th consecutive year the native of Puerto Rico will have ridden in the Derby, putting him alone in second behind the Pat Day’s 21 straight from 1984 to 2004.

__________