Churchill Downs

NBC Sports coverage of Kentucky Derby weekend will kick off Friday, at 1 p.m. with their Kentucky Oaks show on USA Network and Peacock. Saturday, the races on the early Derby Day card will also be televised on NBC and Peacock, starting at noon. At 2:30, coverage switches to NBC. The 2025 "Run for the Roses" marks NBC Sports' milestone 25th presentation of the Kentucky Derby --a show which has grown markedly since NBC's initial 90-minute broadcast in 2001. NBC Sports' Derby Day coverage features 10 races across 7.5 hours--five...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A year after recording a historic double with Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) in the GI Kentucky Oaks and Mystik Dan (Goldencents) in the GI Kentucky Derby, jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. is coming back for more. The native of Lafayette, Louisiana will pilot the stretch-running GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes winner Burnham Square (Liam's Map), a live contender for trainer Ian Wilkes in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, and the Kenny McPeek-trained GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes runner-up Take Charge Milady (Take Charge Indy) in Friday's Kentucky Oaks. The aforementioned...

9th-CD, $141K, OC100K/N3X, 3yo/up, 6f, 5:13 p.m. ET. WORLD RECORD (Gun Runner) in his second start for WinStar and BBN Racing going seven over Churchill's main track last May was certainly impressive when he won by 6 1/4 lengths. That effort garnered the colt 'TDN Rising Star' honors and the Rodolphe Brisset trainee proceeded to run third in the Maxfield Stakes over course and distance, and then he checked off the GII Amsterdam Stakes at the Spa in late July. Despite finishing sixth in the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bob Baffert stood in front of Barn 33--covered once again with green-and-white plaques celebrating his six GI Kentucky Derby winners and three GI Kentucky Oaks winners-- and held court with the media and posed for pictures with fans on a humid Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. Following a well-documented, three-year suspension following the medication disqualification of Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby, it was business as usual for the Hall of Fame trainer, who will make his highly anticipated return beneath the Twin Spires this weekend...

NBC Racing analyst Steve Kornacki joins the TDN Writers' Room's Kentucky Derby Show. Plus, our hosts participate in a Derby-Oaks draft.

Precocious kid, streaks ahead of his peers, brought crashing to earth? Hang in there, boy. Because if that's pretty much where the champion juvenile finds himself, heading into the GI Kentucky Derby off a disappointing run at Santa Anita, he need not seek far for inspiration. Robert Low bred Citizen Bull (Into Mischief) with his wife Lawana from their mare No Joke (Distorted Humor), who had cost them $750,000 as a yearling at the 2017 Keeneland September Sale--just days after her half-sister Moonshine Memories (Malibu Moon) had won the GI...

The Equibase chart detailing the running of race 2 at Churchill Downs Wednesday summarized Sassy C W (Yaupon)'s performance very succinctly: 'rocket ship, hand ride'. Yup, that pretty much summed up the TDN Rising Star-earning performance. Appearing to be catapulted out of post 7, Sassy C W instantly opened up by three lengths as third choice Wakuda (Gun Runner), her closest rival, gave futile chase. Still churning her piston-like legs approaching the quarter pole, the Larry Rivelli-conditioned filly pivoted off the turn nine lengths in front, and was as good...

Bee Buck, a freelance photographer for Churchill Downs who has shot six Kentucky Derbies and two Breeders' Cups, is the guest on this week's Boundless podcast, hosted by jockey and veterinarian Ferrin Peterson. Buck describes how she was a horse-crazy kid who got her start photographing polo matches. A former art history student, she said that the study of classic proportions has helped her to frame her photos and understand what she wants to shoot. "I crave constructive criticism," she said. "If I don't have constructive criticism that's coming to...

Koichi Nishikawa's Luxor Café (American Pharoah) and Junko Kondo's Admire Daytona (Jpn) (Drefong) turned in works during the 7:15-7:30 a.m. EST training period reserved for Kentucky Derby and Oaks entrants over a fast track Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs. Trained by Noriyuki Hori, Luxor Café worked five furlongs in 1:02.40 with jockey Joao Moreira aboard. Fractions on the work were :13.40, :26, :37.80 and 1:02.40. "I was asked to canter a lap as a warm-up," Moreira said. "Then I galloped him from the five-furlong pole. It was just an easy work,...

Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), last year's Eclipse champion juvenile, completed his major preparations for Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby with a bullet five-furlong work in :58.40 (1/15) Monday at Churchill Downs. Churchill Downs clockers caught Citizen Bull in fractions of :11.60, :23, :45.80, :58.40 and out six furlongs in 1:12.40 and seven-eighths in 1:27.20. "He worked really good out there," said jockey Martin Garcia, who was aboard for the work. "But he was just messin' around. He did it easy." Garcia also revealed that trainer Bob Baffert, who has radio contact...

NBC Sports will present coverage for both the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby May 2-3 on USA Network and Peacock as well as offer live streaming for all weekend races at Churchill Downs on Peacock, the outlet announced Monday afternoon. Live coverage from Churchill Downs begins with five hours of Kentucky Oaks day Friday, May 2, beginning at 1:00 p.m. on USA Network and Peacock. Derby day coverage features 10 races across 7.5 hours--five on NBC and Peacock on Saturday starting 2:30 p.m., which follows the opening 2.5 hours beginning...

The Kentucky Derby Museum is celebrating 40 years of telling stories Monday as they officially opened their doors to the public Apr. 28, 1985 and have served more than 7.2-million guests since then, the organization announced Monday morning. Established thanks in part to an endowment from the James Graham Brown Foundation and support of private donors, the museum credits its partnership with Churchill Downs as a key part of its ongoing success. The Derby Museum welcomes nearly 38,000 students annually through its outreach and in-house education efforts, and in the...