At 89 years old, D. Wayne Lukas is still training thoroughbred racehorses at a high level. His strapping chestnut colt, American Promise, is coming off a record-setting win in the Virginia Derby and enters the Kentucky Derby as a live longshot. If American Promise were to win the Run for the Roses on Saturday, he would give Lukas his fifth Kentucky Derby victory and make him the oldest trainer ever to win the race.
5 American Promise (30-1 on morning line, now 12-1)
- Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas
- Jockey: Nik Juarez
- Last race: First in the Virginia Derby by 7¾ lengths
- Career record: 9 starts: 2 wins, 1 second, 1 third
- Career earnings: $444,874
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure: 95 (twice)
- Sire: Justify
Below, we’ll dig further into American Promise as part of our series profiling all the horses competing in the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 3. We’ll look back into his past performances, what questions need to be answered on Saturday, and analyze how the post draw affects his chances.
Kentucky Derby profiles 1 Citizen Bull | 2 Neoequos | 3 Final Gambit | 5 American Promise | 6 Admire Daytona | 7 Luxor Cafe | 8 Journalism | 9 Burnham Square | 11 Flying Mohawk | 12 East Avenue | 13 Publisher | 14 Tiztastic | 15 Render Judgment | 16 Coal Battle | 17 Sandman | 18 Sovereignty | 19 Chunk of Gold | 20 Owen Almighty | 21 Baeza
Kentucky Derby picks Michelle Yu | Gene Menez | Jody Demling | Jeff Hochman
Now that you know who’s in the field, you’ll want to know how to bet the Kentucky Derby on the top horse racing betting apps.
2025 Kentucky Derby start time, odds, preview: Journalism favored, plus horse profiles, bet strategies
Gene Menez
What to know about American Promise
Maybe no runner in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby will have better bloodlines than American Promise, who was bred to be a star. He’s a son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify out of a Tapit mare, which is the equivalent of horse racing royalty. That royalty came at a hefty price; he sold for $750,000 at auction two years ago.
Standing at 17 hands, American Promise is an enormous colt who needed time to figure things out. He didn’t break his maiden until his sixth start, but when he did, he earned a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, beating the talented Publisher in the process. His next two starts, in the Southwest and Risen Star Stakes, were duds. But he bounced back in a big way in the Virginia Derby, setting the track record for nine furlongs, winning by almost eight lengths, and earning another 95 Beyer Speed Figure. Other speed figure makers rate the race even faster.
Instead of running him in another prep race, trainer D. Wayne Lukas elected to train American Promise up to the Kentucky Derby, and Lukas has said the colt has improved even more since the Virginia Derby win. American Promise effortlessly worked five furlongs in 59 seconds and change on Saturday, and Lukas said the workout was as impressive a work of any horse he has ever brought to the Derby. Perhaps the 89-year-old Lukas is spinning a yarn, as octogenarians tend to do, but that’s still quite the statement coming from someone who has won this race four times.
A 30-1 longshot at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET, American Promise could very well be getting better at just the right time, much like one of Lukas’ most popular success stories, Charismatic, who went from claiming races to winning two-thirds of the Triple Crown in 1999.
Post draw analysis
Lukas says American Promise doesn’t have the quickness to beat the other speedballs to the front but expects American Promise to be forwardly placed even leaving from the No. 5 post. If he can break well, which has been a problem for him, and secure a stalking spot out in the clear, American Promise has a chance to give his trainer and connections quite the thrill down the stretch.