UPDATE: 2017 Preakness results
Always Dreaming pulled away on the final stretch to win the 2017 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, the first leg of the 2017 Triple Crown.
An estimated 158,000 in attendance watched the 143rd running of the Derby and saw Always Dreaming take the lead from State of Honor and never look back.
MORE: Triple Crown winner American Pharoah has retired to a life of sex, sex and more sex
"It means a lot," said jockey John Valezquez on NBC. TrainerTodd Pletcher and Valezquez "have had so much success in the past and we haven't won the Derby. And we partnered up together with this horse — an incredible horse, obviously a very young horse — and without a lot of experience, and we come in today and we raced great."
Lookin at Lee finished second, while Battle of Midway, Classic Empire and Practical Joke rounded out the top five.
Watch the race below.
Always Dreaming wins the 143rd Kentucky Derby!! pic.twitter.com/6L14DBKK15
— Kentucky Derby (@KentuckyDerby) May 6, 2017
Always Dreaming opened up a previously tight race on the final stretch and finished in 2:03.59.
"Well, on the quarter pull when he switched down the lane, and he got down and started running, I was like, 'They're going to have to run really hard to get us,' because he's running," Valezquez said.
It's Velazquez's second Derby win. He won with Animal Kingdom in 2011. It's the fifth consecutive year the favorite has won the race.
Always Dreaming entered the race as a 9-2 favorite.
Who won the 2017 Kentucky Derby?
Always Dreaming won the 2017 Kentucky Derby.
MORE: Preakness 2017 odds
Kentucky Derby results
- Always Dreaming
- Lookin At Lee
- Battle of Midway
- Classic Empire
- Practical Joke
- Tapwrit
- Gunnevera
- McCracken
- Gormley
- Irish War Cry
- Hence
- Untrapped
- Girvin
- Patch
- J Boys Echo
- Sonneteer
- Fast and Accurate
- Irap
- State of Honor
- Thunder Snow (DNF)