The 151st Kentucky Derby could be a mudder's delight with rain in the forecast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Derby is tough to win, with a huge field of stampeding horses and 150,000 screaming fans in the stands. Toss in a rainy forecast that could turn the Churchill Downs dirt strip into something resembling peanut butter and it gets trickier.

A field of 19 3-year-olds is set to run 1 1/4 miles for a $3.1 million prize and the garland of red roses on Saturday. Mucking things up is a forecast of 65 degrees (18 degrees Celsius) with a 90% chance of rain.

The soggy weather isn't just a bummer for those wanting the fairest of track conditions. The Derby is also a big party and fashion show, and rain means pulling out ponchos — no umbrellas allowed — to protect the huge hats and floral dresses.

Thirteen of the Derby contenders — including early 3-1 favorite Journalism — have never raced on a wet track. Clods of flying mud hitting their faces could be a turnoff.

“I may go through three pairs of goggles,” said Brian Hernandez Jr., who will be aboard Burnham Square.

Six longshots have experience in the muck, with four winning. Coal Battle is 2 for 2, while Japan-based Luxor Cafe is 3 for 4. The others are Neoequos and American Promise, trained by 89-year-old D. Wayne Lukas.

The last Derby run on a sloppy track was in 2019, when Country House won via a disqualification that had nothing to do with the weather. The last muddy track was in 1989, when Sunday Silence won.

Trainer Bob Baffert goes for a record-setting seventh victory in his return from a three-year suspension. He'll saddle Citizen Bull, last year's 2-year-old champion. The colt breaks from the dreaded No. 1 post, leaving him little choice but to get to the front before the rest of the field comes over, potentially cutting him off.

“We're going to tell him to get out of there like he just robbed a bank,” Baffert said.

No horse has won from the No. 1 post since Ferdinand in 1986.

Baffert's other horse, Rodriguez, was scratched Thursday with a bruised foot, moving Baeza into the field. Trainer Todd Pletcher's only entry, Grande, was scratched Friday for the same reason.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen tries to snap an 0 for 26 Derby losing streak with a pair of 20-1 shots: Publisher and Tiztastic. Both are next to each other in the starting gate.

Sovereignty, the early 5-1 second choice, won at Churchill Downs last fall. He'll try to snap an 0 for 13 Derby skid for Godolphin, the racing stable of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

“I know he loves this track,” jockey Junior Alvarado said, “so I'm sitting on a good run with him now.”

Sandman, the early 6-1 third choice, is the most expensive horse in the field at $1.2 million. Conversely, 30-1 shot Chunk of Gold was bought for $2,500.

“There's been a lot of expensive horses not pan out and there's been a lot of cheap ones that have panned out,” Chunk of Gold trainer Ethan West said. “It's not like he's a big, robust, grand-looking animal. He's very good-looking, but he doesn't look like Journalism, that's for sure.”

Journalism looked the part of the Derby favorite while training during a mostly rain-free week on the track and breaks from the No. 8 post.

“The history of the Derby is usually a pretty vibrant opening quarter-mile," trainer Michael McCarthy said. ”He'll be part of that, probably just back off the speed."

The Southern California-based colt's mother's name is Mopotism and wanting a name ending in “ism,” co-owner Aron Wellman took inspiration from his old gig as sports editor of the Beverly Hills High School newspaper.

“Now more than ever, in the climate that we're living in, journalists and responsible journalism is so important,” he said. “It's so poignant that a horse named Journalism is going to have all eyes on him.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing

Graphic shows horses in the Kentucky Derby with post positions, silks and odds.

A race fan sits in the stands at Churchill Downs before the 151st running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race Friday, May 2, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

A fan looks out at the paddock at Churchill Downs before the 151st running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race Friday, May 2, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas watches a workout at Churchill Downs Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Trainer Bob Baffert motions to a visitor outside his barn at Churchill Downs Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kentucky Derby entrant Coal Battle works out at Churchill Downs Monday, April 28, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kentucky Derby entrant Luxor Cafe, from Japan, works out at Churchill Downs Monday, April 28, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Horses workout as the sun rises at Churchill Downs Friday, May 2, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Kentucky Derby entrant Journalism works out at Churchill Downs Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

People chat as they stand around the paddock at Churchill Downs before the 151st running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race Friday, May 2, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Kentucky Derby entrant Journalism gets a bath after a work out at Churchill Downs Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats Friday as widening protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.

At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, which were sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency but have increasingly seen crowds chanting anti-government slogans.

The protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the demonstrations have yet to be countrywide and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.

Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”

“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.

Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged on the social platform X that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during years of protests sweeping the country.

“Trump should know that intervention by the U.S. in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the U.S. interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”

Larijani’s remarks likely referenced America’s wide military footprint in the region. Iran in June attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after the U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel's 12-day war on the Islamic Republic. No one was injured, though a missile did hit a radome there.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “the Great People of Iran will forcefully reject any interference in their internal affairs. Similarly, our Powerful Armed Forces are on standby and know exactly where to aim in the event of any infringement of Iranian sovereignty.”

Araghchi also said that Trump’s message likely was influenced by those who fear diplomacy between the two nations without elaborating.

Video circulated on social media late Friday showed protests continued in many cities across the country, including at least three points in the south and east of the capital Tehran. The Associated Press cannot independently verify the footage.

No major changes have been made to U.S. troop levels in the Middle East or their preparations following Trump’s Iran post, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council's secretary for years, separately warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut.”

“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he added on X.

Iran's hard-liner parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf also threatened that all American bases and forces would be “legitimate targets.”

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei also responded, citing a list of Tehran's longtime grievances against the U.S., including a CIA-backed coup in 1953, the downing of a passenger jet in 1988 and taking part in the June war.

The Iranian response came as the protests shake what has been a common refrain from officials in the theocracy — that the country broadly backed its government after the war.

Trump's online message marked a direct sign of support for the demonstrators, something that other American presidents have avoided out of concern that activists would be accused of working with the West. During Iran's 2009 Green Movement demonstrations, President Barack Obama held back from publicly backing the protests — something he said in 2022 “was a mistake.”

But such White House support still carries a risk.

“Though the grievances that fuel these and past protests are due to the Iranian government’s own policies, they are likely to use President Trump’s statement as proof that the unrest is driven by external actors,” said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“But using that as a justification to crack down more violently risks inviting the very U.S. involvement Trump has hinted at,” he added.

Demonstrators took to the streets Friday in Zahedan in Iran's restive Sistan and Baluchestan province on the border with Pakistan. The burials of several demonstrators killed in the protests also took place, sparking marches.

Online video purported to show mourners chasing off security force members who attended the funeral of 21-year-old Amirhessam Khodayari. He was killed Wednesday in Kouhdasht, over 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Tehran in Iran's Lorestan province.

Video also showed Khodayari's father denying his son served in the all-volunteer Basij force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, as authorities claimed. The semiofficial Fars news agency later reported that there were now questions about the government's claims that he served.

Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.

The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well. Tehran has had little luck in propping up its economy in the months since the June war.

Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.

Associated Press writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

A woman shows a portrait of the late commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, on her smartphone during a ceremony commemorating his death anniversary at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People wave Iranian flags as one of them holds up a poster of the late commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, during a ceremony commemorating his death anniversary at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This combo shows President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. and Iranian Secretary of Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Bilal Hussein)