The international chase to the 2025 Kentucky Derby (G1) gets out of the gate on the final weekend of September on the turf in Ireland and England.
Foreign horses clearly have become an integral part of the Run for the Roses, especially after the third-place near-miss by Japan’s Forever Young in 2024. Contenders from the “Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby” and the UAE Derby (G2) in Dubai—Forever Young ran in both—have become regular visitors to Churchill Downs.
Still, it’s unlikely these first two heats—Saturday’s Royal Lodge Stakes (G2) at Newmarket and Beresford Stakes (G2) at the Curragh in Ireland—will be relevant to the first Saturday in May in Louisville.
For one thing, Churchill Downs has tweaked the makeup of the series, moving the UAE Derby out of the main, U.S.-based “Road to the Kentucky Derby” into a restructured “European/Middle East Road.” And because of the way the points schedule is set up, the winner of the Dubai race is guaranteed to finish atop the seven-race leaderboard.
For another, the first four races in the series are run in the autumn on the turf—conditions that are just fine for contenders for the following year’s European Classics but infinitely less so for Kentucky Derby prospects. None of the fall races in the series has ever impacted the outcome.
That point is driven home by the pedigrees.
The three early favorites in the seven-horse Royal Lodge are Luther (GB), a Frankel colt; Wimbledon Hawkeye (GB), by Kameko ; and Puppet Master (IRE), a son of Camelot .
Kameko, it’s true, was bred in Kentucky by Calumet Farm. But his sire, Kitten’s Joy , was all about turf and so was Kameko. Into the bargain, Wimbledon Hawkeye races for the Gredley Family, familiar faces at Ascot and Epsom but not among the Churchill Downs barns.
Five 2-year-olds are set for the Beresford: the cleverly named Hotazhell (GB), by Too Darn Hot ; Lambourn (IRE), by Australia ; Trinity College (IRE), by Dubawi ; Windlord (GB), also by Dubawi; and Tennessee Stud (IRE), by Wootton Bassett .
Windlord’s dam, Goldika, is by Intello , out of the superstar turf mare Goldikova , whose sparkling record included three consecutive victories in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, which is, of course, run on turf. These bloodlines have been nurtured by the Wertheimer family, Coolmore and Juddmonte Farms.
Tennessee Stud’s damsire is Sadler’s Wells , whose progeny included the likes of Galileo .
The point is, these youngsters are bred for the turf.
The “European/Middle East Road” crosses the Channel to France for the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) Oct. 6 at Longchamp and floats back for the Futurity Trophy (G1) on the Doncaster turf on Oct. 26.
Conditions switch to something more logical for the purpose when the series resumes Feb. 26 on the Kempton Park all-weather course with the Road to the Kentucky Derby Conditions Stakes at Kempton and the Patton Stakes at Dundalk in Ireland two days later, both on all-weather tracks.
The UAE Derby is a week later than usual in 2025, on April 5, to accommodate the end of Ramadan.
In the unlikely event one horse won the first six races in the series, he would accumulate 80 points—10 for each of the four turf races and 20 for each of the all-weather events. The winner of the UAE Derby gets 100 points with the runner-up and show horse awarded 50 and 25 points, respectively.
