Always Dreaming wins 143rd Kentucky Derby

May 07, 2017 Sports

(Yahoo Sports) The Kentucky Derby has a new champion: Always Dreaming.
The three-year-old thoroughbred covered the famed mile and a quarter at Churchill Downs in 2:03.59 to win by three lengths over Lookin At Lee (2nd) and Battle Of Midway (3rd).
It’s the second win for trainer Todd Pletcher, as well as jockey John Velazquez.
On a muddy track, Always Dreaming went off as the co-favorite at 9/2 (along with Irish War Cry). Velazquez steered Always Dreaming to the lead on the backstretch, and from there cruised to victory.
This year’s Derby was one of the most wide-open in recent memory. Famed trainer Bob Baffert, winner of four Derbies, had no horse entered into the race. And there was no consensus pre-race favorite, no American Pharaoh — the 2015 winner who captured the first Triple Crown in 37 years — to grab the betting public’s imagination.
Coming into the Derby, the odds-on favorites were Always Dreaming (4-1 as the sun rose on Churchill Downs), Irish War Cry (7-1), Classic Empire and McCraken (both 7-1), and Gunnevara (9-1). No other horses started the day at better than 10-1 odds. Experts like Yahoo Sports’ own Pat Forde had targeted Classic Empire, Irish War Cry, Hence, and Always Dreaming prior to the race.

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