Flying Mohawk profile: 2025 Kentucky Derby odds, post position, history and more to know
Get caught up with Flying Mohawk's past performances, jockey, trainer and full analysis heading into the Run for the Roses
Last year, former Major League Baseball player Jayson Werth hit a horse racing home run when Dornoch, a horse he co-owned, won the Belmont and Haskell Stakes. This year Werth is taking another swing in a Triple Crown race with Flying Mohawk, a colt who will be making his first start on the dirt at the Kentucky Derby. He opened at 30-1 on the morning and he's one of the few horses that hasn't seen any odds movement leading into the race on Saturday.
11 Flying Mohawk (30-1 on morning line, still 30-1)
- Trainer: Whit Beckman
- Jockey: Joe Ramos
- Last race: Second in the Jeff Ruby Steaks by 3½ lengths
- Career record: 6 starts: 2 wins, 2 seconds
- Career earnings: $295,800
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure: 84 (2025 Jeff Ruby Steaks)
- Sire: Karakontie
Below, we'll dig further into Flying Mohawk 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.
What to know about Flying Mohawk
In six career starts, Flying Mohawk owns two wins and two runner-up finishes. One of the second-place finishes came in a Grade 3 stakes race.
That's a pretty respectable record for any horse. But none of those starts came on dirt, and on Saturday, Flying Mohawk will bring that résumé into the most important 3-year-old dirt race in the world, the Kentucky Derby.
How does a horse qualify for the Kentucky Derby without having raced on the dirt? Churchill Downs' Derby qualifying system awards points to horses who compete in certain prep races around the world. Two of those prep races are held at the Churchill Downs-owned Turfway Park, home of the Jeff Ruby Steaks, which is run on a synthetic surface. Synthetic surfaces have a reputation of being more like a turf course than a dirt one, which was perfect for Flying Mohawk, whose first five starts came on the grass. In the Jeff Ruby Steaks, he took to the synthetic with aplomb, finishing second to Final Gambit and earning enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby.
How he will handle the dirt and, more importantly, the kickback is anyone's guess. Flying Mohawk is a son of Karakontie, a grass horse who excelled at the mile distance. Flying Mohawk's dam sire was also a grass horse.
Even the speed figures he has earned on the grass and synthetic (his career high is an 84) would not be fast enough to be competitive on the dirt. He would need to make enormous improvement in order to make any dent in the Kentucky Derby. He's going off as a 30-1 longshot at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET.
Post draw analysis
Flying Mohawk does have one thing going for him: a good post. The No. 11 hole is perfect for him to drop to the back of the pack and hope for a pace meltdown, which would benefit his come-from-behind running style.
