LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nik Juarez will ride in his first Kentucky Derby on Saturday when he climbs aboard American Promise. The guys around him know the ropes pretty well.
American Promise, who won the Virginia Derby by 7 3/4 lengths under Juarez, will be the 51st Derby starter for D. Wayne Lukas, who won the Run for the Roses with Winning Colors (1988), Thunder Gulch (1995), Grindstone (1996), and Charismatic (1999). Juarez’s agent is retired jockey Gary Stevens, who teamed with fellow Hall of Famer Lukas to win with Winning Colors and Thunder Gulch, and added another Derby with Silver Charm (1997).
“Nik’s got a great personality, great communicator, and he’s very honest with sharing what he’s feeling on horses,” Stevens said recently at Churchill Downs. “And he gets along with Wayne perfect. And one thing about Wayne is, he’s very, very loyal. I remember when I rode my first Kentucky Derby on Tank’s Prospect back in 1985, and every top jock in the country was trying to get aboard, and the same thing with Winning Colors, and Wayne wasn’t budging. . . . As a jock, it feels good to know that you’re in that spot.”
Agents have certainly expressed interest in American Promise to Lukas, who last year sent out a first-time Derby rider, Keith Asmussen, to finish 17th on Just Steel. Two weeks later, Lukas gave Jaime Torres his first-ever mount in a Triple Crown race in the Preakness Stakes, which he won on Seize the Grey.
“He rode [American Promise] very well,” Lukas said of Juarez. “Obviously, when he won the Virginia race, the phone rang, and they said, ‘Where are you going next with him and is he open or not?’ It was a picture-perfect ride, I thought so. Did exactly what we wanted. I don’t see why he can’t get him around.”
For his part, Juarez, who will pilot five stakes horses for Lukas this week, has stayed humble.
“I’m just a guy who is lucky enough to be named to ride Mr. Lukas’s horses,” Juarez said. “To be heading to the Derby for him is a dream come true.”
Get to know the five jockeys and four trainers whose Derby dreams are coming true this week.
Lonnie Briley – trainer, Coal Battle
72, from Opelousas, La. . . . Has won 10 stakes races in his career. . . Coal Battle was his first graded stakes starter and winner when he took the Grade 2 Rebel in February.
Despite his recent arrival on the national stage, Briley knows what a Kentucky Derby horse looks like. He was the farm manager for the late John Franks for more than a decade, raising homebreds including 1998 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and champion Answer Lively, who went on to finish 10th in the 1999 Derby. But Briley wasn’t expecting to end up training a Derby horse himself when he picked out Coal Battle at a Texas yearling sale.
“Well, how often do you run across a Derby horse?” Briley said. “I was looking for a racehorse, not a Derby horse. . . . I never – I watched it on TV, you know? But I never thought I’d have a horse of that quality.”
If Briley didn’t have a Derby horse, he might spend the weekend in the saddle with his family – he and his grandson have competed in team roping together – but faced with the biggest event in the sport, what is his alternate plan?
“To hide in the back,” Briley said. “Stay with my horse, mostly.”
Noriyuki Hori – trainer, Luxor Cafe
57, from Chiba Prefecture, Japan . . . Was the Japan Racing Association’s leading trainer by races won in 2015 . . . Trained 2015 Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice . . . Trained Japanese champions Cafe Pharoah, Duramente, Kinshasa no Kiseki, and Tastiera . . . Has trained Grade/Group 1 winners Jaguar Mail, Real Impact, Salios, Satono Crown, Satono Reve, and Strong Return.
Although this is his Derby debut, Hori is no stranger to classic-type races, international campaigns, or to the ability of Luxor Cafe’s family. His Japanese champions include Duramente and Tastiera, both winners of the Grade 1 Japanese Derby on turf. His champions include outstanding dirt horse Cafe Pharoah, a full brother to Luxor Cafe.
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Hori has traveled the world to win Group 1 races and contest prominent events in Dubai. He sent out his first U.S. starter last fall, when Satono Carnaval was ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.
“Mr. Hori is such a great trainer,” João Moreira, who will be aboard Luxor Cafe, told the international news site Idol Horse. “He is just so detailed and committed to what he does, he deserves this opportunity.”
Nik Juarez – jockey, American Promise
31, from Westminster, Md. . . . Has won more than 1,000 races . . . Has won 10 graded stakes.
Milestones are important to Juarez, who won his 1,000th race last year. A milestone horse in his career was Valid, with whom he began partnering shortly after he lost his bug. He won his first graded stakes on him in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin in 2015 at Monmouth Park and went to his first Breeders’ Cup on the horse, finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland. They added another score together in the Grade 3 Skip Away in Florida the following year. Juarez kept track of Valid after the millionaire was sold and moved to a different circuit, and in 2017 he acquired Valid and retired him to his mother’s farm in Maryland.
Yukihiro Kato – trainer, Admire Daytona
59, from Tokyo, Japan . . . 700 career wins, including 17 graded/group wins . . . Trained multiple Grade 1 winner Nonkono Yume and Group 1 winner Shadow Gate.
Kato has managed his top runners through consistent careers. Nonkono Yume won the 2015 Japan Dirt Derby and his five stakes wins included the prestigious Grade 1 February Stakes three years later. Shadow Gate won three stakes, highlighted by the Group 1 Singapore International Cup.
Luan Machado – jockey, Final Gambit
30, from Porto Alegre, Brazil . . . Won Group 1 Grande Premio Brasil on Quarteto De Cordas in 2018 . . . Has won nine graded stakes in North America . . . Regular rider of Next, piloting him to five stakes wins between 2022-24.
Machado followed his father, Ronaldo, to become a rider in his native Brazil, and attended professional jockey school. After a trip to the United States in which he rode fewer than a dozen races in 2015-16, he returned to Brazil to hone his craft and became a Group 1-winning rider in June 2018. That attracted interest from some horsemen, and he moved his tack back to the United States later that year.
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“I’ve learned to adapt myself to many situations throughout my life, so it wasn’t really a difficult transition coming to Kentucky,” Machado said. “I had a lot of support that helped me get started.”
Machado had a fall season marked by controversy, as he misjudged the finish line in races at Keeneland and Churchill Downs. However, he put together a breakout season in 2024, winning 11 stakes and finishing in the nation’s top 25 by wins and earnings.
João Moreira – jockey, Luxor Cafe
41, from Curitiba, State of Parana, Brazil . . . Has ridden more than 3,500 career winners, including 219 graded/group stakes winners worldwide . . . Owns Grade/Group 1 wins in Australia, Brazil, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Japan . . . Multi-time leading rider in Hong Kong.
After starting his career in his native South America, Moreira, known as the “Magic Man,” won four titles while riding in Hong Kong and now is riding on short-term licenses in Japan. He comes to his first Kentucky Derby – a race he admits never quite made his bucket list – on a roll, with two Grade 1 wins in Japan already this year, including the 1000 Guineas with Embroidery.
“I have never had the Kentucky Derby on my wish list because I just thought it would be too difficult to get an opportunity while based in Asia,” Moreira told the international news site Idol Horse.
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Moreira’s travels do include a trip to the United States in 2017, winning twice from 17 starts, including a maiden race on the Churchill turf. He piloted Judy the Beauty to two graded stakes placings.
Joseph Ramos – jockey, Flying Mohawk
25, from Puerto Rico . . . Won his first graded stakes in March with Mercante in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic.
In January 2024, Ramos was on vacation in Puerto Rico when he lost control of his motorcycle due to high winds and was seriously injured in a crash, sustaining hairline skull fractures, a brain bleed, and a broken collarbone, among other injuries.
Remarkably, Ramos returned to racing in September 2024. A little more than five months later, he had a banner day at Turfway Park, riding Mercante to his first graded stakes score in the Grade 3 Kentucky Cup Classic and also finishing second on Flying Mohawk in the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby. He finished third by wins at the Turfway winter-spring meet.
Juan Vargas – jockey, Coal Battle
43, from Peru . . . Has ridden more than 500 winners . . . Started career in Peru, where his wins included the Group 1 Gran Premio Nacional Augusto B. Leguia with Shuaily . . . Won a pair of Grade 3 stakes with Potomac River, the 2013 River City Handicap at Churchill and the 2014 Fair Grounds Handicap.
This spring Derby prep season has featured a number of rounds of musical riders, as preps landed on the same dates, forcing riders to make choices, and a number of riders also missed major races with injuries. Vargas – who came to the United States in 2008 – and Coal Battle thus stand out in their partnership. Vargas has ridden the colt in all but one of his eight career starts, including all his starts this year as a 3-year-old.
Ethan West – trainer, Chunk of Gold
32, from Cambridge City, Ind. . . . First graded stakes win came with Runaway Storm in the Grade 3 Bryan Station in 2023 at Keeneland.
West, training since 2018, comes to his first Derby with $2,500 yearling Chunk of Gold. He was philosophical after drawing post 19 in the huge field.
“Rather have 19 than not have a number at all,” he said. “It’s cool to have our name up there.”
As of a week out, West hadn’t decided where he was going to watch the Derby from, or quite how he would manage the long day. First post is 11 a.m., and the Derby does not go off until nearly 7 p.m.
“It will be a very long day, but we’re excited for it, we’re anxious for it,” West said. “We’re ready for it to get here.”
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