Kentucky Derby winners: A complete list of all-time race champions, records, Triple Crown horses

The Kentucky Derby is a staple on the spring sports calendar partly due to its fashion and fanfare, but the "Run for the Roses" also kickstarts the quest for one of the most elusive titles in all of sports.

That would be horse racing's Triple Crown.

To date, there have only been 13 winners of the Triple Crown. Only two horses — American Pharoah and Justify — have accomplished the feat since 1979 and only one jockey, Eddie Arcaro, has won the Triple Crown twice.

The Kentucky Derby is the first leg of the three-race series and is the intermediate race of the event at 1 1/4 miles. It has been run since 1875 and is the youngest of the three Triple Crown races despite being known as the most prestigious.

The Derby is followed by the 1 3/16-mile Preakness Stakes and the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes. There is a two-week gap between the Derby and the Preakness while the Belmont occurs three weeks after the Preakness is run.

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As important as the latter two races are, neither can quite compare to the pomp and circumstance of the Kentucky Derby. The race at Churchill Downs provides its winner with a great deal of hope, as it guarantees the winner a chance to win the Triple Crown by being the first to be run.

So which horses have won the Kentucky Derby and had a chance to complete the Triple Crown? And which ones have actually achieved that feat? Here's what to know about the history of winners on horse racing's grandest stages.

Kentucky Derby winners list

There have been 149 official winners in the history of the Kentucky Derby. Below is a list of all the winning horses and their finishing times.

MORE: Complete guide to Kentucky Derby hat tradition

Most famous Kentucky Derby horses

Secretariat, 1973

Secretariat is widely considered the greatest racehorse in American history, as he holds the all-time record for fastest Kentucky Derby at 1:59.40 in 1973 and cruised to the Triple Crown with wins in the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes.

While Secretariat's Kentucky Derby was dominant, his performance at the Belmont Stakes is considered to be one of the greatest performances of all-time. Secretariat won the race by 31 lengths, leaving the rest of the field in the dust and capturing the Triple Crown with ease.

When Secretariat died, he was found to have an abnormally large heart that might have helped him become such a dominant racehorse. 

Citation, 1948

Citation is considered one of the greatest American racehorses, as he won the Triple Crown in 1948 as part of a run of 16 consecutive wins. The first horse to win $1 million, Citation won each Triple Crown race by more than three lengths and tied the record at the time for fastest Belmont Stakes run. 

American Pharoah, 2015

For 37 years, Kentucky Derby winners tried to snap a Triple Crown drought that started in 1978. No one could do it until American Pharoah, trained by Bob Baffert, completed the feat in 2015.

American Pharoah's time of 2:03.02 in the Kentucky Derby wasn't eye-popping, but he rose to the occasion as the focus shifted to the Triple Crown. In the Belmont Stakes, American Pharoah ran the second-fastest time of any Triple Crown winner and ended the nearly four-decade drought. 

Donerail, 1913

Donerail remains the biggest longshot to win the Kentucky Derby, winning with 91-1 odds in 1913.

Trainer Thomas Hayes had to be convinced by jockey Roscoe Goose just to let Donerail run in the derby, given the perceived low chance of winning. Donerail pulled off the victory by pulling in front of Ten Point late in the race, finishing with what was a record-setting Kentucky Derby time of 2:04.80.

While there have been plenty of upsets in the more than a century since the 1913 Kentucky Derby, no one has been able to match Donerail -- and it's extremely rare to even see a horse enter the race with odds as distant as 91-1. 

Rich Strike, 2022

Rich Strike is the closest a horse has come to Donerail's piece of history, as the 80-1 longshot had the second-worst odds of any Kentucky Derby winner when he won in 2022. 

Rich Strike was actually a late addition to the field, only added after another horse was scratched the day before the race, and he wasn't even in the top five at the final turn at Churchill Downs. Seemingly shot out of a cannon, Rich Strike pulled ahead from the inside at the last minute and stunned fans. 

Rich Strike didn't get the chance to compete for the Triple Crown, as he was held out of the Preakness by his team, but he finished sixth at the Belmont Stakes. 

MORE: Where is Churchill Downs?

Fastest Kentucky Derby champions of all-time

Here are the 10 fastest winning times in Kentucky Derby history, from Secretariat to Fusaichi Pegasus: 

Secretariat (1973) and Monarchos (2001) are the only horses to run the Kentucky Derby in under two minutes. 

Historic Kentucky Derby upsets

Here are the 10 biggest upsets in Kentucky Derby history, from Donerail to Mystik Dan:

Only nine horses with odds more distant than 20-1 have won the Kentucky Derby, but five have done it since the start of the 21st century. Rich Strike (2022), Country House (2019), Mine That Bird (2009) and Giacomo (50-1) have all registered upsets with 50-1 odds or worse since the turn of the century, but no one has been able to match Donerail's win at 91-1.

Country House has the distinction of winning without crossing the finish line first in 2019, as a rule violation got Maximum Security disqualified and put runner-up Country House in the winner's circle. 

Female horses that won the Kentucky Derby

Three female horses, or fillies, have won the Kentucky Derby:

Regret became the first female winner in 1915, running the derby in 2:05.04, and two more fillies won in the 1980s when Genuine Risk and Winning Colors both ran impressive races to become part of history. 

40 fillies have run in the Kentucky Derby, but fewer have participated in the 21st century, with only two running the derby since 2000.

International horses that won the Kentucky Derby

Seven horses from outside the United States have won the Kentucky Derby:

No international horse has won the Kentucky Derby since Canada's Sonny Halo in 1983. Of the seven international winners, three are from Canada while two are from the United Kingdom. The remaining two are from Venezuela and Puerto Rico, respectively.

2000 winner Fusaichi Pegasus is revered in Japan and was owned by a Japanese man, but the horse itself was born and bred in the United States. 

How post position impacts success at Churchill Downs

No post position is universally advantageous or disadvantageous because each horse runs in a different style. Some jockeys may prefer their horse to have an inside post position, which gives horses less ground to cover but less room to run, while others may prefer an outer post position with more ground to cover but more space to get off to a strong start. 

At the Kentucky Derby, No. 5 post position has produced the most winners (10), while No. 1, No. 7, No. 8 and No. 10 have all produced either eight or nine. The derby field has expanded over time, so the fact some of the outer-most post positions have fewer wins is largely the product of fewer opportunities. 

Here is each post position by number of Kentucky Derby wins:

Triple Crown winners all time

Only 13 horses have ever won the Triple Crown. It was first won by Sir Barton in 1919, and Justify is the most recent Triple Crown winner after achieving the feat in 2018. Before Justify, American Pharoah notably ended a 37-year period during which no horse won the award.

Below is a full history of the Triple Crown-winning horses and jockeys dating back to 1919.

Kentucky Derby records

• Speed: 1:59.4 — Secretariat (1973)
• Margin of victory: 8 lengths — Old Rosebud (1914), Johnstown (1939), Whirlaway (1941), Assault (1946)
• Most wins by a jockey: 5 — Eddie Arcaro (1938, 1941, 1945, 1948, 1952), Bill Hartack (1957, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1969)
• Most wins by a trainer: 6 — Ben A. Jones (1938, 1941, 1944, 1948, 1949, 1952), Bob Baffert (1997, 1998, 2002, 2015, 2018, 2020)
• Longest odds to win: 91 to 1 — Donerail (1913)