If you bet on the bay, odds are you’ve probably picked a few Kentucky Derby winners through the years.
Mage with Javier Castellano wins the Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY on May 6, 2023.
Bay horses have been the most successful in the Derby (bay also is the most common horse color) earning the trophy for the winning connections 56 times (a 37.58% strike rate).
Bay horses have won the most Kentucky Derbys
Chestnuts checked in as runner-up with 50 winners, including 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage. Horses listed as brown have won 17 times to complete the color trifecta, while dark bay/brown runners have 11 wins, gray/roan check in with eight, black with four and dark bays with three.
The last bay to win the Derby – Authentic, 2020
The last chestnut to win the Derby – Mage, 2023
The last dark bay/brown to win the Derby – Always Dreaming, 2017
The last gray/roan to win the Derby – Giacomo, 2005
The last black to win the Derby – Flying Ebony 1925
In 1962, The Jockey Club merged the dark bay and brown color classifications to dark bay/brown.
In 1993, gray and roan were merged to gray/roan.
There’s an old saying in racing about betting gray horses on rainy days, and the long-range weather forecast for Churchill Downs, home of the Derby on May 4, indicates cloudy skies with rain early in the day and showers likely later in the afternoon.
However, since 1930, 111 gray horses have started, producing the aforementioned eight winners for a 7.2% strike rate. Both 1968 and 1981 had the most gray starters – five in each year.
Last year, four grays ran — Hit Show, Tapit Trice, Reincarnate and Rocket Can. The best finisher was Hit Show (fifth).
West Saratoga is the lone gray/roan horse scheduled to run in the Derby next weekend.