Brown: Louisville trainers, with 6 horses in Kentucky Derby 150 field, out to make history

Through the first 149 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, no Louisville native lucky enough to train a horse in the race has watched their entrant cross the finish line first.

That could change on Saturday night during the 150th Run for the Roses. Native sons Brad Cox, Danny Gargan and Whit Beckman have a combined six horses in the 20-horse field.

“It’s nice to see more guys from Louisville,” said Beckman, who is a St. Xavier High graduate. “Hopefully, one day, we'll get there with the results.”

The Derby entrants Cox trains are Catching Freedom (8-1), Just a Touch (10-1), Encino (20-1); Gargan has Dornoch (20-1) and Society Man (50-1); and Beckman is in with Honor Marie (20-1).

None of the trio grew up with their sights set on becoming trainers.

Both Cox and Gargan grew up in neighborhoods connected to Churchill Downs’ backside, within ear shot of listening to the public address speakers blaring on race day.

Cox's first job in horse racing was as a hot walker during the summer. But he looked at it just as a way to make some summer cash, not as an entry point to training.

Now look at him.

“I mean, you'd have to say at his age, he's probably one of the top three trainers in the country,” said Gargan, who graduated from Central High.

Gargan wasn’t sure he’d have the capital and backing to get it done. He had stopped dealing with horses directly and was a jockey agent for a period before his big break.

Randy Hill and Dean Reeves, who will accompany Gargan in the walkover, are who he credits most for helping him get started as a trainer.

“They're the two owners in the beginning that said, ‘Let's start by giving you some young horses and see what we can do,’” Gargan said.

Beckman went to College of Charleston and took some classes at the University of Louisville without finding a profession he was passionate about.

It took him working on his mother’s farm in LaGrange to figure it out.

“I just kind of found this, this little spark of enthusiasm and it just kind of grew and the connection just got even deeper with the horses,” Beckman said. “…it checked all the boxes for me.”

There’s one big box they’d all like to check off on Saturday.

Beckman and Cox have favorable posts. Honor Marie will go out of the No. 7 post beside Just a Touch at No. 8 and Encino at No. 9. Catching Freedom is at No. 4.

Gargan got the dreaded bookend draws. Dornoch will have to overcome the misfortune of drawing the No. 1 post. The last horse to win from there was Ferdinand in 1986. Society Man is at the opposite end in No. 20.

The celebration if one of their horses brings it home would be worth the 150 year wait.

Given the luck needed to overcome the variables of the biggest field these horses have faced, it’s hard to have civic pride when only one of them can be called the winner. Once the horses are out of the gates, Louisville ties are set well aside. It’s every trainer for himself.

“I will tell you this, based off the last few derbies — we ran three two years ago and four last year — you gotta have the right one, not a bunch,” said Cox, an Iroquois High graduate. “I always say there’s one Derby winner and 19 horses.”

Cox does hold the distinction of being a Derby-winning trainer. Mandaloun was awarded the win from the 2021 race after the Bob Baffert-trained Medina Spirit was disqualified for a failed drug test.

But Mandaloun wasn’t officially recognized as the winner until February 2022 — that’s a long way from the winner’s circle, the raising of the trophy, the bed of roses flanked over the horse and the smell of victory cigars being puffed.

Now imagine the scene on Saturday if one of those six horses trained by Louisville’s own crosses first with 160,000 fans screaming.

It’s sure to make some kid watching — in person, on the broadcast or just listening from the backside neighborhoods over the PA system — dream of being next.

“Hometown kids growing up around (the Derby), it's just dreaming about being in this position and working hard to get here,” Cox said. “And here we are.”

Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville, with trio of trainers, well represented in Kentucky Derby