East Avenue profile: 2025 Kentucky Derby odds, post position, history and more to know

East Avenue has one way of running: on the lead. He runs well when he gets to the front early and doesn’t run well when he doesn’t. One problem: The 2025 Kentucky Derby field is filled with speed, speed, speed, and there’s no guarantee he’ll get to the front on Saturday.

12 East Avenue (20-1)

• Trainer: Brendan Walsh
• Jockey: Manny Franco
• Last race: Second in the Blue Grass Stakes by a nose
• Career record: 5 starts: 2 wins, 1 second
• Career earnings: $654,395
• Best career Beyer Speed Figure: 96 (2025 Blue Grass Stakes)
• Sire: Medaglia d’Oro

Below, we’ll dig further into East Avenue 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 | 4 Rodriguez | 5 American Promise | 6 Admire Daytona | 7 Luxor Cafe | 8 Journalism | 9 Burnham Square | 10 Grande | 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 | Jeff Hochman | Jody Demling

What to know about East Avenue

Trained by Brendan Walsh and owned by Godolphin, East Avenue was the first 2-year-old to generate Kentucky Derby buzz last year. In October he went gate-to-wire in the Breeders’ Futurity, one of the key juvenile races every year, blitzing the field at Keeneland by 5¼ lengths and earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure. That performance made him the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile one month later, but he stumbled badly at the start of that race and never engaged. 

After a three-month layoff, East Avenue made his 2025 debut in the Risen Star Stakes. This time he got out of the gate fine, but he did no running and lost by almost 23 lengths. Walsh still has no explanation for that no-show performance.

East Avenue finally got back to his October form in his last start, in the Blue Grass Stakes. In that race, he set a hot pace and battled gamely before losing by a nose to the late-running Burnham Square.

So which East Avenue will show up on Saturday? That’s hard to know. He has done his best running when on the lead—he has never passed a horse in the stretch—so he figures to leave the gate running in the Kentucky Derby. However, there are other horses who also have done their best running when on the lead (Citizen Bull and Rodriguez among them), so there’s no guarantee East Avenue will be out in front the first time the field crosses under the wire. That one advantage he has over those two is post position; he is drawn outside.

The Kentucky Derby distance is also an issue. The final fractions of the Blue Grass Stakes were slow, which doesn’t suggest the stretchout to 10 furlongs on Saturday will be his friend.

Here’s another concern for East Avenue backers at TwinSpires and 1/ST BET: His two fastest races have both come at Keeneland. He will need to transfer his Lexington form to Louisville to even have a chance.

Post draw analysis

East Avenue was one of the under-the-radar winners of the post draw. Not only did he receive a stall in the middle of the gate (No. 12), he also drew outside almost all of the other speed horses (Citizen Bull, Rodriguez and American Promise, among others). Owen Almighty is the only speed horse outside of East Avenue, but that rival is mired all the way out in post No. 20. From post No. 12, jockey Manny Franco can see how speed is unfolding inside him and make adjustments as necessary.