Though horses from Japan have excelled on the international stage in recent years, no horse based in Japan has won the Kentucky Derby. Forever Young, however, nearly pulled off the feat last year, finishing third by two noses. This year Japan’s best hope to end its Derby drought is Luxor Cafe, a Kentucky-bred son of 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah with a devastating turn of foot.
7 Luxor Cafe (15-1 on morning line, now 11-1)
- Trainer: Noriyuki Hori
- Jockey: Joao Moreira
- Last race: First in the Fukuryu Stakes by 5 lengths
- Career record: 6 starts: 4 wins, 1 second
- Career earnings: $379,057
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure: N/A
- Sire: American Pharoah
Below, we’ll dig further into Luxor Cafe 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 Luxor Cafe
The mystery horse of this year’s Kentucky Derby field, Luxor Cafe, comes to the Kentucky Derby from Japan, where he has spent his entire six-race career.
This is what we know: He is a son of 2015 Triple Crown hero American Pharoah and out of a More Than Ready mare. The breeding should be good enough.
Luxor Cafe has won his last four starts, but his last was the most impressive. In the Fukuryu Stakes on March 29, he stalked the pace, running wide the whole way, before unleashing the most awesome turn of foot and acceleration of any of the Kentucky Derby hopefuls and dominating the field by five lengths. He finished the last furlong of that race in a swift 12 seconds.
This is what we don’t know: While his Fukuryu certainly passed the eye test, what was the quality of the fields he beat? Two starts ago, he won the Hyacinth Stakes in Japan. The fourth-place finisher of that race, Admire Daytona, returned to win the UAE Derby in Dubai, earning his spot in the Kentucky Derby. But Admire Daytona is a 30-1 longshot on Saturday at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET.
Also, just how fast were Luxor Cafe’s performances? There are no Beyer Speed Figures available for the Japan starts, however, the performance figures from Thoro-Graph have him within striking distance of the fastest horses in the Kentucky Derby field, including Journalism.
Post draw analysis
Luxor Cafe has faced 10 or more rivals in each of his six starts, so he will arguably be the horse most prepared to deal with the big Kentucky Derby field. He drew the favorable post No. 7, which should allow him to get the outside stalking trip that he has employed in his recent races. If he doesn’t lose too much ground around both turns, he should be in position to unleash his powerful acceleration at the top of the stretch.