Kentucky Derby 2024: Meet the jockeys in Saturday’s classic

Two Hall of Famers, four former winners, nine Eclipse Award champions and five first-timers are among the jockeys who drew assignments for Kentucky Derby 2024 on Saturday.

John Velázquez and newly elected Joel Rosario not only bring Hall of Fame bona fides but also experience winning America’s biggest race. Velázquez has done it three times and Rosario once. Florent Géroux and Flavien Prat were promoted from runner-up finishes to their Derby victories.

Championship pedigree is brought by brothers Irad and José Ortiz, Rosario and Velázquez. They have combined for eight Eclipse Awards as best riders. Axel Concepción, Tyler Gaffalione, Brian Hernandez Jr. and Kazushi Kimura were apprentice champions as was Joe Talamo, who is assigned to also-eligible Mugatu.

Concepción, Keith Asmussen, Ben Curtis, Antonio Fresu and Ryusei Sakai are poised to make their Derby debuts. There have been 28 previous riders who won America’s biggest race on their first tries, most recently Sonny León in 2022 on 80-1 long shot Rich Strike.

Júnior Alvarado – Resilience

Alvarado will be linked forever with 2023 horse of the year Cody’s Wish, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner whose name was inspired by the late wheelchair-bound teenager Cody Dorman. A Venezuela native who turns 38 this month, Alvarado rode Señor Buscador to a February victory in the $20 million Saudi Cup (G1), the world’s richest race. Now in his 18th year competing in the U.S., Alvarado had four previous Derby mounts who finished off the board, all on horses who were at least 11-1 at post time.

He is the 25-year-old son of Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and the nephew of 1979 champion apprentice jockey Cash Asmussen. His namesake grandfather was a quarter-horse jockey. Since earning his master’s at the University of Texas, Keith Asmussen has established himself riding the past two winters at Oaklawn. That was where he earned his first graded-stakes victory riding Lemon Muffin in the February renewal of the Honeybee (G3). Asmussen punched his first Kentucky Derby ticket when he took 32-1 long shot Just Steel to a runner-up result in the Arkansas Derby (G2).

Adam Beschizza – Epic Ride*

Beschizza established himself in his native England with his first win as a 17-year-old riding a horse trained by his aunt. His first stakes victory came in 2017 just before he made a permanent move to America. In his first four years at Fair Grounds, he won one riding title and finished a close second twice. The jockey nicknamed Biscuit is a 10-time Grade 3 winner in North America, most recently in July on Mohawk Trail in the Ontario Colleen at Woodbine. Now 31, Beschizza is married to Keeneland stakes coordinator Jorie Beschizza.

His father Jesús Sr. was a trainer in México who died only six months before Castañón rode Shackleford to victory in the 2011 Preakness. Horse and rider combined again to win the 2012 Clark Handicap, the most recent Grade 1 victory for Castañón. In a career anchored by a 1989 victory at Agua Caliente, the México City native has won riding titles at Ellis Park and Tampa Bay Downs. With two brothers who also are jockeys, Castañón, 41, lives in Louisville, Ky., and is married to trainer Roly Castañón, who herself was an Eclipse Award finalist for top apprentice jockey in 1999 when she was known as Roly Simpson.

Chop Chop’s win Friday’s Bewitch (G3) at Keeneland gave the 19-year-old native of Puerto Rico his first graded-stakes victory. It continued the upward path for the most recent Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey. In 2023 Concepción was the top rider during the Laurel Park spring season, second in wins during the December meet at Turfway Park and had a 20 percent strike rate for winners with 52 percent of his rides finishing in the top three. Concepción’s agent Bryson Cox is the son of Encino’s trainer Brad Cox.

Ben Curtis – Honor Marie

On the threshold of his first Kentucky Derby, the 34-year-old from Ireland already has experienced victory on one of racing’s biggest stages. Curtis rode Dandalla to a first-place finish in the 2020 Albany (G3) at Royal Ascot. Ireland’s top apprentice jockey in 2010, Curtis picked up after 10 years riding in England and moved to New Orleans in time for the 2023-24 meet at Fair Grounds. When he finished fourth in the jockey standings with 43 wins including two stakes, Curtis decided to stay in America. Trainer Whit Beckman has kept Curtis paired with Honor Marie after they finished second in the Louisiana Derby (G2) to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.

Frankie Dettori – Society Man

Difficult as it is to distill Dettori’s career into a few words, it could be said he was born in Milan and made at Ascot. He bade farewell in June to the royal meeting, where he rode 81 winners between 1987 and 2023. A statue of Dettori was unveiled in October at England’s most revered course. That is where he had his most remembered accomplishment, winning all seven races Sept. 28, 1996, at the British Festival of Racing. Putting off his announced retirement to ride again in America this year, Dettori, 53, is looking to win one of the few big races he has not conquered. The gelding Society Man will be Dettori’s first Kentucky Derby ride since 2000.

From his homeland in Sardinia, Italy, through summers in England and winters in Dubai to recent success in Southern California, Fresu has established himself on three continents. He scored his first Group 1 and Grade 1 wins on the late Zenden in the 2021 Golden Shaheen and on Stronghold this month in the Santa Anita Derby. Fresu, 32, is a fourth-generation jockey who took trainer Doug O’Neill’s advice to move to America. He is married to Veronika Aske, a former TV newscaster in Norway who is an international show-jumping jockey.

Tyler Gaffalione – Sierra Leone

Likely to be the second choice in betting, Blue Grass (G1) winner Sierra Leone will be the best chance Gaffalione has had to win the Kentucky Derby. All six of his previous rides went off at odds of at least 14-1, and none finished better than seventh. That was War of Will, who went on to win the 2019 Preakness. The son of a former jockey, Gaffalione, 29, was the Eclipse Award winner as the top apprentice of 2015. The Davie, Fla., native has won two Breeders’ Cups, both in 2022 riding Wonder Wheel in the Juvenile Fillies and Caravel in the Turf Sprint.

Gun Runner, the 2017 horse of the year, has been the most accomplished mount in a riding career that has been highlighted by eight Breeders’ Cup victories, most recently with Idiomatic in the 2023 Distaff. Yet it was 26-1 long shot Mandaloun who carried Géroux, 37, a native of France, to the 2021 Kentucky Derby victory that was awarded nine months after the race when stewards disqualified Medina Spirit. Gun Runner was 10-1 when Géroux finished third riding him in the 2016 Derby.

More than 20 years since his first victory at Delta Downs in his native Louisiana, Hernandez, 38, is a nine-time Grade 1 winner whose career has been highlighted by a triumph on his 27th birthday. That was his gate-to-wire-leading ride on Fort Larned in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. He won the 2004 Eclipse Award as the top apprentice jockey. Hernandez’s younger brother Colby is also a jockey, and so was their father.

Long established as a jockey in the Americas, Jaramillo’s biggest accomplishment actually came in the Middle East, where he rode favored X Y Jet to a front-running triumph in the 2019 Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1). Eight years after making his Kentucky Derby debut, Jaramillo, 47, returns on Grand Mo the First, who has finished third in all three of his 2024 starts, including the Florida Derby (G1). Before emigrating to South Florida nine years ago, Jaramillo made a name for himself as a 13-time champion in his home country Venezuela.

Kimura took his riding talents from Japan to North America, where he was honored this month with his third consecutive Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion jockey. He also won a Sovereign in 2018 and Eclipse Award in 2019 as the top apprentice jockey. Riding winters at Santa Anita and summers at Woodbine, Kimura had a career year in 2023 with $8,798,122 in earnings and 175 wins, including Gold Phoenix’s 10-1 upset in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile (G1) at Santa Anita.

Ortiz has been awarded five of the last six Eclipse Awards as champion jockey. He has won twice in the Belmont Stakes. His 20 Breeders’ Cup victories are tied for second all-time. It is the Kentucky Derby that remains prominently elusive for the 31-year-old from Puerto Rico. Counting Tampa Bay Derby (G3) winner Domestic Product, Ortiz has been paired with seven underdogs on the first Saturday in May. His only Derby favorites were Improbable, who finished fourth in 2019, and Forte, who was an injury scratch 11 hours before last year’s race.

In the first six matchups of the Ortiz brothers in the Kentucky Derby, José, 30, has gotten the best of the older Irad five times. Their seventh meeting Saturday will extend their record for most simultaneous Kentucky Derby appearances by siblings. José Ortiz has come closer to winning America’s biggest race with a second-place finish on Good Magic in 2018 and a promoted third on Tacitus in 2019. The champion jockey of 2017 needs the Derby to complete a career Triple Crown after his 2017 Belmont Stakes victory on Tapwrit and his 2022 Preakness win on Early Voting.

Prat had to wait 22 minutes after the 2019 Derby before he and Country House were promoted to a 65-1 victory after stewards disqualified Maximum Security. The 31-year-old France native and son of a trainer has hit the board with five of his first six Derby rides, including last year’s third-place finish on post-time favorite Angel of Empire. Prat enjoyed a second classic score in 2021 when underdog Rombauer rallied for an 11-1 upset in the Preakness. The best horse on the résumé of the Melun, France, native was Flightline, who went 6-for-6 on his way to being retired as the 2022 horse of the year.

First in his home country Italy as a two-time champion jockey and then for eight years in France and Hong Kong, Rispoli carved out a successful riding career before moving full-time to America 4 1/2 years ago. Now in his 20th year as a professional, Rispoli, 35, has won 12 Grade 1 and Group 1 races in five countries on three continents. A 44-time graded-stakes victor in the U.S., Rispoli made his Derby debut three years ago riding Brooklyn Strong to a 14th-place finish. He and his wife Kimberley Mosse have two children.

With three triumphs in U.S. classics, 15 more in the Breeders’ Cup and an Eclipse Award in 2021, Rosario, 39, was elected last week to the Hall of Fame. In a three-month span of 2013, he won the Dubai World Cup (G1) with Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby with Orb and the Norfolk (G2) with No Nay Never at Royal Ascot. Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Rosario has ridden to top-five finishes in the Derby eight times, including last year’s fourth-place result on 27-1 Disarm.

Sáez’s biggest wins came with Essential Quality in both the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the 2021 Belmont Stakes. Maybe just as memorable, though, was the victory taken from him in 2019. That was when he and Maximum Security crossed the finish line first in the Kentucky Derby only to be disqualified for interference in the second turn. Two years later Sáez rode Essential Quality, the post-time favorite, to a third-place finish for his only official, in-the-money result in the Derby. Originally from Panama, Sáez, 31, learned his craft at a training academy established by Hall of Famer Laffit Pincay Jr.

Even though this will be his first Kentucky Derby, Sakai, 26, got the feel for the busy buildup at Churchill Downs when he worked Continuar every morning in preparation for last year’s race. His Derby debut was a scratch when trainer Yoshito Yahagi decided Continuar was not training up to par. Competing mostly in his home country Japan, Sakai has ridden 477 winners from 4,988 starts with earnings of more than $72 million. His first time racing at Churchill Downs is scheduled to come Friday aboard T O Saint Denis in the Alysheba (G2).

Joe Talamo – Mugatu*

Since he was the champion apprentice jockey of 2007, Talamo has ridden to 24 wins in Grade 1 races but none since 2020. His biggest victory came when he was a teenager in 2009, when California Flag delivered as the 3-1 favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita. That also was where and when Talamo was featured as one of the riders in the Animal Planet reality show “Jockeys.” Now 34, the Louisiana native will get into his first Kentucky Derby in four years if maiden winner Mugatu draws into the main field.

With his 26th ride coming Saturday, the Hall of Famer will move into a tie for second with Bill Shoemaker for most starts in the Kentucky Derby, trailing Mike Smith by two. Now 52, the Puerto Rico native will take part in his 18th consecutive Derby, a race he has won three times since 2011. Velázquez, who won Eclipse Awards in 2004 and 2005, has scored six times in Triple Crown races, most recently last May with National Treasure in the Preakness. Also a second-place finisher twice in the Derby, Velázquez has hit the board in U.S. classics 18 times.