Kentucky Derby 2024: Meet the trainers for the May 4 classic

Past success is no guarantee of future success, especially in the Kentucky Derby. But it doesn’t hurt.

As the current field stands, only four trainers who will saddle horses for the May 4 classic in the new paddock at Churchill Downs have had Derby winners before. D. Wayne Lukas has done it four times and Todd Pletcher twice. Bill Mott got to the winner’s circle once after a 22-minute wait for stewards to make their decision. Brad Cox had to wait nine months for a ruling to get his win.

Conversely, it looks like there will be at least six first-time Kentucky Derby trainers in the mix.

This list of those who are about to be on America’s biggest horse-racing spectacle includes some turf specialists, a diverse complement of international horsemen and ages that could range from 20 to 88. They are listed here alphabetically. Horses with asterisks will get into the Derby if others who qualified ahead of them drop out.

Steve Asmussen – Track Phantom

Spring brings the winningest trainer in North America both the opportunity to win the Kentucky Derby and the reminders he never has done it. “Yes, you’re sick of it,” Asmussen said last month of the reminders, “but every chance is a new chance. If you’re in horse racing, lost races and won races are over, and it’s all about the next one anyway.” Two-time Derby prep winner Track Phantom, who finished fourth last out in the Louisiana Derby (G2), is the next one for Asmussen, 58, a Hall of Famer who has had 25 previous starters in 17 runnings of the Kentucky Derby. Epicenter, who was left in second when he was caught late by 80-1 Rich Strike in 2022, was Asmussen’s only post-time favorite.

If allowance winner Grand Mo the First is promoted from the stand-by list, Barboza will train his first Kentucky Derby starter. An upset with Grand Mo the First would bring him his first U.S. Grade 1 victory. Barboza, 46, learned the craft from his father and won two training titles in his native Venezuela. In his 10th year with his own stable in America, his biggest wins have come with Distinta in the 2017 Inside Information (G2) at Gulfstream Park, Rich Mommy in the 2017 Sugar Swirl (G3) at Gulfstream and Petulante in the 2023 Salvator Mile (G3) at Monmouth Park. Barboza won the training title at Gulfstream last fall.

Whit Beckman – Honor Marie

After working as an assistant to Todd Pletcher, Eoin Harty and Chad Brown, Beckman went out on his own in the fall of 2021. Honor Marie provided him with his first graded-stakes victory when he won the Kentucky Jockey Club (G2) in November at Churchill Downs. Now the colt gives Beckman, 42, his first trip to the Derby as a trainer. The son of a veterinarian, Beckman grew up in Louisville, Ky., and went to St. Xavier High School, just three miles from Churchill Downs. He actually has had two stints as a head trainer, having done so first in Saudi Arabia in 2014. Honor Marie is one of the 28 horses Beckman had in training this winter in Louisiana and Kentucky.

Chad Brown – Sierra Leone, Domestic Product, *Tuscan Gold

Since he has made himself a star with turf horses, Brown has not had that many Kentucky Derby opportunities. This year he may have his best shot yet to win the roses. Potential favorite Sierra Leone and Tampa Bay Derby (G1) victor Domestic Product would give him his eighth and ninth starters in America’s biggest race with Tuscan Gold waiting for dropouts. Brown, 45, a four-time Eclipse Award winner, has hit the board twice in the Derby. Good Magic finished second to eventual Triple Crown champion Justify in 2018. Zandon was third to history-making long shot Rich Strike in 2022.

Success has come rapidly and recently for Cox, 44, the champion trainer of 2020 and 2021. This will be just the fourth Derby for the native of Louisville, Ky., who won the 2021 race, even though it took until the following February for stewards to promote Mandaloun over the disqualified Medina Spirit. Catching Freedom and Encino come in off victories last out in Derby points preps, and lightly raced maiden winner Just a Touch was an impressive second in the Blue Grass (G1). Cox’s résumé includes 2021 horse of the year Knicks Go as well as Eclipse Award winners British Idiom, Essential Quality, Idiomatic and Monomoy Girl.

After an eighth-place disappointment as the odds-on favorite in the Wood Memorial (G2), Deterministic was said by Clément this week to be unlikely for the Kentucky Derby. If he changes his mind, the 58-year-old native of Paris would be looking at his first start in the race. After working as an assistant on either side of the Atlantic for Alec Head, Shug McGaughey and Luca Cumani, Clément began training on his own in the U.S. in 1991. He won the 2014 Belmont Stakes with Tonalist and the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Pizza Bianco.

Eniel Cordero – *Le Dom Bro

It will take more than a few defections to get Fountain of Youth (G2) runner-up Le Dom Bro and Cordero, the son of a Gulfstream Park farrier, into the Derby. “I’m surprised I’m here so soon,” the 20-year-old native of Puerto Rico told Gulfstream’s media team before Le Dom Bro came in last of nine finishers in the Florida Derby (G1). Still looking for his first graded-stakes victory, Cordero would need a lot of circumstances to fall his way to become the youngest trainer ever to win the Kentucky Derby. That distinction is held by Jimmy Rowe Sr., who was 24 when Hindoo finished first in 1881.

Phil D’Amato – Stronghold

D’Amato’s biggest wins have come on the grass, most notably training Obviously to victory in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Stronghold is the first Derby horse for D’Amato, 48, a Southern California native who inherited the stable of the late Mike Mitchell a little more than 10 years ago. D’Amato has 19 Grade 1 victories and, between Santa Anita and Del Mar, 10 training titles.

Larry Demeritte – West Saratoga

A native of the Bahamas, Demeritte moved to America 48 years ago and manages a small stable at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, Ky. His motto is, “I don’t buy cheap horses. I buy good horses cheap.” He usually does just that and then trains them up to a level where owners can sell them for a profit. As a case in point, Demeritte’s client and friend Harry Veruchi bought West Saratoga for $11,000. A second-place finish last month in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) at Turfway Park put Demeritte in position to be only the fourth Black trainer since the Great Depression to have a horse in the Kentucky Derby. “That means a great deal, because I always tell my staff we represent a race of people,” Demeritte said last fall. “I feel like when I win, I win for a country. My whole country. My country celebrates, and that’s the way we do it for our athletes in the Bahamas.”

John Ennis – *Epic Ride

After working in his native Ireland as well as England and Dubai, Ennis has found a home training horses at Turfway Park. His 18 combined winners there during the fall and winter seasons ranked second only to Brad Cox. If attrition gets stakes winner Epic Ride into the Derby, it will mark the first run for the roses for Ennis, 42, who is still looking for his first graded-stakes winner in the U.S. Before he started training on his own, he worked for trainer Charlie LoPresti, notably as the exercise rider for two-time horse of the year Wise Dan.

Danny Gargan – Dornoch, Society Man

Best known as the trainer of three-time graded-stakes winner Tax in 2019 and 2020, Gargan returns to the Derby with Remsen (G2) and Fountain of Youth (G2) winner Dornoch as well as Wood Memorial (G2) runner-up Society Man. Gargan grew up in Louisville, Ky., the son of his late namesake father who rode Bag of Tunes to win the 1973 Kentucky Oaks (G1) the day before Secretariat began his Triple Crown assault. After jobs as an assistant to trainer Nick Zito and as a jockey agent, Gargan started his stable 11 years ago.

Gulfstream Park has become the winter playground for Joseph, 37, a native of Barbados. He has won the last three titles in the track’s championship meets. As a 29-1 long shot, Catalytic earned his place in the Kentucky Derby with a second-place finish to Fierceness in the Florida Derby (G1). Joseph would have been in his third run for the roses last year, but Churchill Downs temporarily suspended him while it investigated the deaths of two of his horses after April races. After he was cleared a month later, Joseph was allowed back, but not before his Wood Memorial (G2) winner Lord Miles was scratched from the Derby.

More than just the dean of U.S. racing, Lukas is a four-time champion trainer who has been in the Hall of Fame for a quarter-century with 14 wins in Triple Crown races and 20 in the Breeders’ Cup. The 88-year-old native of Wisconsin had an unprecedented run of success from 1994 to 1996 when he won the Derby twice, the Preakness twice and the Belmont Stakes twice. His most recent classic win came with Oxbow in the 2013 Preakness. He enjoyed a return to the big stage two years ago when Secret Oath won the Kentucky Oaks (G1). About to race for the 12th time, durable Just Steel qualified to run for the roses when he finished second as a 32-1 long shot in the Arkansas Derby (G1). Allowance winner Seize the Grey needs dropouts ahead of him to get in the race. A four-time Derby winner, Lukas last won the race 25 years ago with Charismatic.

McCarthy and owner Amerman Racing have gone back and forth on whether to run Endlessly on May 4 in what would be his first dirt race. He won the qualifying points he needed with his first-place finish March 23 in the Jeff Ruby Steaks (G3) on the Tapeta at Turfway Park. The Oscar Performance colt also won the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, the same race that was the springboard for Rombauer to skip the 2021 Kentucky Derby on his way to winning the 2021 Preakness. This is déjà vu for McCarthy, 53, who also trained Rombauer. A native of Ohio, McCarthy worked for trainers Doug Peterson, Ben Cecil and 13 years for Todd Pletcher before starting his own operation 10 years ago in California. He guided City of Light to wins in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and 2019 Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).

Kenny McPeek – Mystik Dan, *Common Defense

McPeek has become a Derby regular again. He went nine years between entrants until 2022. Now he is ready to be in his third consecutive run for the roses, this time with Southwest (G3) victor Mystik Dan and maybe with Rebel (G2) runner-up Common Defense. McPeek, 60, who grew up in Kentucky, had his best Derby result the first time he had a horse in the race when Tejano Run finished second to Thunder Gulch in 1995. He has wins in the other U.S. classics, scoring with 70-1 Sarava to spoil the Triple Crown bid of War Emblem in the 2002 Belmont Stakes and with the filly Swiss Skydiver in the 2020 COVID renewal of the Preakness.

Resilience got himself and Mott into the Derby with a triumph this month in the Wood Memorial (G2) at Aqueduct. Mott was 0-for-8 in the Derby until 65-1 Country House was promoted to victory in 2019 after the interference disqualification of Maximum Security. The trainer best known for his work in the ’90s with fellow Hall of Fame inductee Cigar enjoyed a renaissance the last two years with the success of Cody’s Wish. The night the now-retired champion was crowned horse of the year, Mott, 70, won his fourth Eclipse Award as the top trainer in the U.S. and Canada.

Long known for his work with track and horse owner Frank Stronach around the turn of the millennium, Orseno could be training his second Derby horse if Hades draws into the race. Thunder Blitz, his first, finished fourth in 2001. Hades was a 9-1 winner of the Holy Bull (G3), but he followed that with a troubled fifth in the Florida Derby (G1) and a seventh only two weeks later in the Lexington (G3). If Hades gets into the Derby, he would be racing for the third time in five weeks. Orseno, 68, a native of Philadelphia, won the 2000 Preakness with Red Bullet and Breeders’ Cup races that year with Macho Uno and Perfect Sting.

With 64 previous starters, eight-time Eclipse Award winner Pletcher is the most prolific trainer in Kentucky Derby history. If the goal is to get to the gate in America’s greatest race, Pletcher is the man. He has but two wins in the Derby with Super Saver in 2010 and Always Dreaming in 2017, and only one of his last 18 starters in the race has hit the board. Then again, Always Dreaming was his only post-time favorite. Pletcher, 56, would have had another if Forte had not been scratched for a bruised foot on race day last year. Fierceness, who won the Florida Derby (G1) by 13 1/2 lengths, is favored in Las Vegas futures betting for this year’s first classic.

Based at Parx Racing not far from where he grew up in New Jersey, Reid could be training his first Kentucky Derby starter if Withers (G3) winner Uncle Heavy moves into the main field off his two victories in races on wet tracks. The Social Inclusion colt was bred by the trainer’s sister-in-law Barbara Reid. In his 40th year conditioning horses in his name, Reid is a three-time Grade 1 winner with Poseidon’s Warrior scoring in the 2012 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap and Vequist finishing first in the 2020 Spinaway and 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. He also won the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Marathon (G2) with Afleet Again.

Daisuke Takayanagi – T O Password

T O Password may be Takayanagi’s ticket to racing glory in America, but T O Keynes was his calling card in his native Japan. T O Keynes won the December 2021 Champions Cup, which used to be known as the Japan Cup Dirt. That was the first Grade 1 win for Takayanagi, 46, who trains for owner Tomoya Ozasa, the inspiration for the T O names. With just a 2-for-2 record, T O Password won his debut in January and then the Fukuryu Stakes last month to qualify him via the Japan road to the Kentucky Derby. This will not be the Takayanagi’s first trip to the bluegrass state. He visited in 2017 to get an inside look at the training operations of Ben Colebrook, Dale Romans and Tom Amoss, among others, before starting his stable back home in 2018 at the famed Ritto Training Center.

Yoshito Yahagi – Forever Young

Even though UAE Derby (G2) winner Forever Young would be his first Kentucky Derby runner, Yahagi knows the routine. Continuar qualified for last year’s race and made the trip to America, but he was scratched when Yahagi decided he was not in peak form. Now with Forever Young, Yahagi has a highly regarded horse who will try to become the first of 20 UAE Derby graduates to finish better than fifth in the Kentucky Derby. A four-time training champion in Japan who is known for his brightly colored hats, Yahagi, 63, trained Loves Only You and Marche Lorraine to breakthrough victories for his country in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar. He also guided Contrail to a sweep of the 2020 Japan Triple Crown, and he owns major victories in Australia, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.

If a first-timer were to win May 4, it hardly would be a first for the Kentucky Derby. In fact, 38 percent of the victorious trainers turned their first run for the roses into a visit to the winner’s circle. Most recently Eric Reed did it with 80-1 Rich Strike in 2022.