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win
Horse: Justify
Jockey: Mike Smith
Trainer: Bob Baffert
Paid $7.80, $6 and $4.40. Became first horse to win the Derby without racing as a 2-year-old since 1882.
place
Horse: Good Magic
Jockey: Jose Ortiz
Trainer: C.C. Brown
Returned $9.20 and $6.60. Good Magic's sire, Curlin, now has a horse who has won or placed in a Triple Crown race in each his first six crops.
show
Horse: Audible
Jockey: Javier Castellano
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Paid $5.80 to show. Had he won, everyone in America would have been given a free download of the audio book "American Pharaoh" on the Audible app.
race rewind
Lead-up
The track surface at Churchill Downs was downgraded to sloppy about four hours before the big race. Twelve of the 20 horses in the Kentucky Derby had never run on a wet track.
The break
The field set a blistering pace through the muck, going a half-mile in 45.77 seconds.
The finish
Entering the final turn, Justify took the lead and kept on going to the finish under Mike Smith's left-handed whip. The winning time, 2:04.20 is the second-slowest in the past 28 years.
winner's circle
With a $1 rain poncho covering his lavish suit, Bob Baffert raised the winner's trophy and shook hands with onlookers as an oversized bottle of Mumm champagne glistened with raindrops.
cool-down
notes
• This is Baffert's fifth Kentucky Derby win.
• The National Weather Service declared it the wettest Derby on record, with the official rainfall measurement at 2.83 inches about a half-hour before the race. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that the rainfall Saturday eclipsed the 2.31 inches that fell in 1918.
• Spotted: One Derby-goer donned a giant purple top hat dedicated to a Minnesota icon, with Prince's iconic symbol glued to the front. Passersby gave her a thumb's up, or sang "Purple Rain."
• Steve Asmussen earned his 8,000th career victory on Kentucky Derby day. The 52-year-old trainer saddled Lookin At Lee to a 2¼-length win in the third race at Churchill Downs on Saturday. A year ago, Lookin At Lee finished second in the Derby to Always Dreaming, by 2¾ lengths.
quote of the day
"Our hair looked great like two hours ago."
— Orlando resident Amanda Phillips, enduring a pre-race downpour
Tweet of the day
"A little shoutout to the zillion-to-one horse who went from nowheresville to fourth. Don't let anyone convince you that you aren't in the race."
— Toronto Star managing editor Irene Gentle (@IreneGentle), praising Instilled Regard (who went off at 85-1)
Up next
May 19: The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
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