Kentucky Derby 2025: Journalism, Sovereignty, And Rodriguez In Works

A rain-soaked Churchill Downs track caused trainer Michael McCarthy to move their Saturday, April 26 five-furlong breeze for top Kentucky Derby favorite Journalism to Sunday, April 27, with Journalism’s regular race jockey Umberto Ruspoli, who had flown into Louisville from Santa Anita, in the irons. It was a good gamble — the track dried out and was fast. Journalism posted 1:01.24 in the breeze, galloping out in 1:13.52 at six furlongs and hitting the seven-eighths pole in 1:26.73, according to the Daily Racing Form timer Mike Welsch. Notably, the Churchill timer had Journalism at 1:01.4 for the five furlongs.

Trainer McCarthy wasn’t looking for a blistering time; this was to be a pre-Derby breeze simply as a barometric reading of how his athlete was feeling as well as delivering Journalism the tonic of getting him out and moving.

After the work, the trainer was mobbed by the press at 7:30 in the morning, as any leading Derby trainer is and forever will be during Derby week. With what we can describe as hilariously Delphic understatement, he said: “Just a nice leg-stretcher. He got to see the whole place,” adding that jockey Umberto Rispoli “seemed like he was very happy” with his mount.

But before we get into other contenders’ works, here, a refresher on the field and its morning line.

Post Position, Horse, Trainer, Jockey, Morning Line

1. Citizen Bull, Bob Baffert, Martin Garcia, 20-1

2. Neoequos, Saffie Joseph Jr., Flavien Prat, 30-1

3. Final Gambit, Brad Cox, Luan Machado, 30-1

4. Rodriguez, Bob Baffert, Mike Smith, 12-1

5. American Promise, D. Wayne Lukas, Nik Juarez, 30-1

6. Admire Daytona, Yukihiro Kato, Christophe Lemaire, 30-1

7. Luxor Café, Noriyuki Hori, Joao Moreira, 15-1

8. Journalism, Michael McCarthy, Umberto Rispoli, 3-1

9. Burnham Square, Ian Wilkes, Brian Hernandez Jr., 12-1

10. Grande, Todd Pletcher, John Velazquez, 20-1

11. Flying Mohawk, Whit Beckman, Joe Ramos, 30-1

12. East Avenue, Brendan Walsh, Manny Franco, 20-1

13. Publisher, Steve Asmussen, Irad Ortiz Jr., 20-1

14. Tiztastic, Steve Asmussen, Joel Rosario, 20-1

15. Render Judgment, Kenny McPeek, Julien Leparoux, 30-1

16. Coal Battle, Lonnie Briley, Juan Vargas, 30-1

17. Sandman, Mark Casse, Jose Ortiz, 6-1

18. Sovereignty, Bill Mott, Junior Alvarado, 5-1

19. Chunk of Gold, Ethan West, Jareth Loveberry, 30-1

20. Owen Almighty, Brian Lynch, Javier Castellano, 30-1

Also eligible

21. Baeza, John Shirreffs, Flavien Prat, 12-1

Source: Churchill Downs, 4/29/2025

For his part, the Bob Baffert-trained Rodriguez, pictured above on April 26, was just a shade snappier on Sunday at the five furlong mark, putting in a strong 59.02 according to the Daily Racing Form and a 1.00:0 according to the track. Returning to Churchill after his infamous two-year-plus-one-year Churchill ban dating from Medina Spirit’s 2021 betamethasone disqualification, Baffert was buoyant. “Right over there, on our shed-row rail, that’s where the roses are going to hang,” the six-time Derby winner joked to the assembled press.

More seriously, Baffert noted that he’d been pleasantly surprised by the increasing maturity Rodriguez had exhibited in training recently, which, in Baffert-parlance, is the trademark laconic New-Mexico-cowboy sort of praise that handicappers would do well to take seriously on Saturday.

Translated into lay language, it means that Rodriguez isn’t flighty or much spooked by anything foreign; and, unusually for a three-year-old, he gets down to business on the track with increasing amounts of focus. It means Baffert himself, a man who knows something about saddling Derby winners — namely, six of them — has a growing measure of confidence in Rodriguez’ ability to handle this particular field’s version of Derby chaos Saturday afternoon. The athlete’s ability to shut out the massive Derby chaff and focus on the job at hand is one of the three great pillars, along with athletic talent honed by careful conditioning, that makes a Derby runner.

Veteran trainer Bill Mott’s Sovereignty, pictured above, was definitely not to be left out of the final Churchill works. For his five-furlong breeze in company — meaning, with a workhorse stablemate alongside — Mott had Sovereignty kept in hand, and the colt clocked an intentionally slow 1:01.8. Generally, trainers, and especially that rare subset of Triple Crown trainers, are deathly shy of blowouts six days before a big, tough race like the Derby. Hewing to form, Sovereignty’s work was about gaining familiarity with Churchill, including the architecture of the track, barns, paddock et al., as well as about maintaining the fitness levels to which all these young Thoroughbreds have been brought. Because Sovereignty is known as a deep closer and the book on him is that he will take to the Derby’s mile-and-a-quarter.