Get to know every trainer saddling a contender in the 2023 Kentucky Derby

Editor’s note: Kentucky Derby favorite Forte was scratched from the race Saturday morning after this article was originally published.

It’s almost time for the annual Run for the Roses.

The 149th edition of the Kentucky Derby is set to take place on Saturday, May 6, at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

The Kentucky Derby field was set Monday afternoon during the post position draw, which officially placed horses in the field and gave their trainers insight into where they’ll be starting the race.

But, plenty of changes have happened since then, and only 19 horses are set to take the starting gate.

Here’s a look at which trainers are expected to saddle horses for the 2023 Kentucky Derby, and how those trainers have fared before in the race.

Trainers are listed alphabetically.

Steve Asmussen

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: Second with Nehro (2011), Lookin At Lee (2017) and Epicenter (2022).

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Disarm (Post No. 9 and morning-line odds of 30-1).

▪ Only five of Asmussen’s 24 all-time Kentucky Derby starters have finished in the money.

▪ Asmussen is the Thoroughbred trainer with the most wins in North American history.

▪ Asmussen was the trainer for last year’s Kentucky Derby favorite Epicenter, who lost the lead, and the race, in the stretch to 80-1 long shot Rich Strike.

▪ Disarm was 16th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 46 points.

Ben Colebrook

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: None.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Raise Cain (Post No. 14 and morning-line odds of 50-1).

▪ Colebrook is expected to be one of four trainers making their Derby debut in this year’s race.

▪ Colebrook was the original trainer for Knicks Go, who went on to become the 2021 American Horse of the Year.

▪ Raise Cain was ninth on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 64 points.

Brad Cox

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: Mandaloun (2021).

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horses: Angel of Empire (Post No. 12 and morning-line odds of 8-1), Hit Show (Post No. 1 and morning-line odds of 30-1), Verifying (Post No. 2 and morning-line odds of 15-1) and Jace’s Road (Post No. 10 and morning-line odds of 50-1).

▪ Cox is the first and only Louisville-born trainer to have a horse win the Kentucky Derby, although it came after the fact when Medina Spirit was taken down as the winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby in February 2022.

▪ All three of Cox’s horses in last year’s Kentucky Derby — Cyberknife, Tawny Port and Zozos— finished seventh or worse.

▪ Cox leads all trainers with four horses currently projected to be in the 2023 Derby field.

▪ Angel of Empire was third on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 154 points.

▪ Hit Show was 11th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 60 points.

▪ Verifying was 13th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 54 points.

▪ Jace’s Road was 18th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 45 points.

Gustavo Delgado

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: 13th with Bodexpress in 2019.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Mage (Post No. 8 and morning-line odds of 15-1).

▪ This year will mark the third time Delgado, who is from Venezuela, has a horse in the Kentucky Derby.

▪ Mage ran second behind Kentucky Derby favorite Forte in the Florida Derby in early April.

▪ Mage was 15th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 50 points.

Keith Desormeaux

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: Second with Exaggerator in 2016.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Confidence Game (Post No. 4 and morning-line odds of 20-1).

▪ The Desormeaux name is a familiar one for horse racing fans: Keith is the brother of Hall of Fame jockey Kent, who was a three-time winner of the Derby himself and nearly captured a Triple Crown in 1998 with Real Quiet and in 2008 with Big Brown.

▪ Desormeaux’s close call in the 2016 Derby with Exaggerator bore fruit at the next time of asking: Exaggerator won the 2016 Preakness Stakes.

▪ Confidence Game was 12th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 57 points.

Terunobu Fujita

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: None.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Mandarin Hero (JPN) (Post No. 18 and morning-line odds of 20-1).

▪ Mandarin Hero was an ultra-impressive second in the Santa Anita Derby, becoming the first Japan-owned horse to hit the board in that event.

▪ Mandarin Hero was 23rd on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 40 points.

▪ Madarin Hero is into the projected Derby field after Thursday afternoon’s news that trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was indefinitely suspended from all Churchill Downs-owned racetracks and all of his horses were being scratched by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s Board of Stewards. This meant Lord Miles was removed from the Derby field.

Kenny McPeek

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: Second with Tejano Run in 1995.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Sun Thunder (Post No. 11 and morning-line odds of 50-1).

▪ McPeek’s two entrants in last year’s Derby, Smile Happy and Tiz the Bomb, finished next to each other in eighth and ninth.

▪ Only one of McPeek’s previous eight Derby horses finished in the money.

▪ McPeek is a Lexington native.

▪ Sun Thunder was 14th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 54 points.

Ron Moquett

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: 15th with Far Right in 2015.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: King Russell (Post No. 19 and morning-line odds of 50-1).

▪ Moquett and King Russell moved into the Kentucky Derby field on Thursday night when Continuar, the horse that received an invitation to the race via the Japanese qualifying pathway, scratched from the race due to fitness concerns.

▪ King Russell emerged as a Derby contender after finishing second in the Arkansas Derby.

▪ Former Kentucky Governor Brereton C. Jones is the breeder of King Russell.

▪ King Russell was 24th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 40 points.

Bill Mott

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: Country House (2019).

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horses: Rocket Can (Post No. 16 and morning-line odds of 30-1).

▪ Mott’s only Kentucky Derby triumph came amid controversial circumstances, as Country House was awarded the 2019 Derby title after race winner Maximum Security was disqualified.

▪ Mott was formerly the all-time wins leader at Churchill Downs.

▪ Mott also finished third in the 2019 Derby with Tacitus after the disqualification of Maximum Security.

▪ Rocket Can was 10th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 60 points.

Hidetaka Otonashi

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: None.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Derma Sotogake (JPN) (Post No. 15 and morning-line odds of 10-1).

▪ The former jockey is training one of the dark-horse favorites for the race in Derma Sotogake, who was third in the Saudi Derby and first in the UAE Derby earlier this year.

▪ Derma Sotogake has won half of his eight career starts.

▪ Derma Sotogake was seventh on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 100 points.

Todd Pletcher

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming (2017).

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horses: Forte (Post No. 13 and morning-line odds of 3-1), Tapit Trice (Post No. 5 and morning-line odds of 5-1) and Kingsbarns (Post No. 6 and morning-line odds of 12-1).

▪ Eight of Pletcher’s 62 all-time Kentucky Derby starters have finished in the money.

▪ Pletcher had gone 0-24 at the Derby dating back to his race debut in 2000 (when he had four horses) before winning the race in 2010 for the first time.

▪ None of Pletcher’s three horses in last year’s race — Mo Donegal, Charge It and Pioneer of Medina — finished in the money.

▪ All three of Pletcher’s top Derby contenders this year — Forte, Tapit Trice and Kingsbarns — won top Kentucky Derby prep races in their last starts.

▪ Forte was first on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 190 points.

▪ Tapit Trice was fourth on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 150 points.

▪ Kingsbarns was eighth on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 100 points.

Larry Rivelli

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: None.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Two Phil’s (Post No. 3 and morning-line odds of 12-1).

▪ Another trainer set to make his Derby debut in 2023, Rivelli is in the Run for the Roses after Two Phil’s posted a commanding win in the Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway Park in Florence.

▪ Two Phil’s has won at Churchill Downs before, as he crossed the line first in the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes last October in Louisville.

▪ Two Phil’s was fifth on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 123 points.

Dale Romans

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: Third with Paddy O’Prado in 2010 and Dullahan in 2012.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Cyclone Mischief (Post No. 17 and morning-line odds of 30-1).

▪ Cyclone Mischief moved into the Derby field on Thursday afternoon after the scratch of Practical Move.

▪ A Louisville native, Romans was also fourth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with Shackleford, who went on to win that year’s edition of the Preakness Stakes.

▪ Romans got his start in horse racing helping his father, Jerry, who was a trainer at Churchill Downs. Romans had his first Derby horse in 2006.

▪ Cyclone Mischief was 21st on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 45 points.

Tim Yakteen

▪ Past Kentucky Derby winners: None.

▪ Best Kentucky Derby finish: 12th with Taiba in last year’s race.

▪ 2023 Kentucky Derby horse: Reincarnate (Post No. 7 and morning-line odds of 50-1).

▪ Yakteen, who rose up the ranks as an assistant trainer for Bob Baffert, made his Derby debut last year with two of Baffert’s former horses: Tabia was 12th and Messier was 15th.

▪ Practical Move was the horse that figured to be Yakteen’s best shot at a Derby win in 2023, but he was scratched on Thursday afternoon due to an elevated temperature.

▪ Reincarnate was 17th on the Kentucky Derby qualifying points leaderboard with 45 points.

This story was originally published April 29, 2023 at 7:00 AM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription