Donna Brothers to Call Final Kentucky Derby, Honoring Trailblazer Charlsie Cantey

Donna Brothers will step into the Churchill Downs spotlight one last time Saturday, closing out a run that helped define how NBC viewers experience the Kentucky Derby. NBC Sports said the former jockey will work her 26th and final Derby broadcast, making her the only member of the network’s on-air team to have been part of every one of its 26 Kentucky Derby presentations.

Her final walkover interviews and post-race conversations will come during NBC’s 7.5 hours of Derby day coverage, with the 152nd Kentucky Derby set for 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock from Louisville, Kentucky. The network’s first Derby show in 2001 lasted just 90 minutes. Brothers has lived through the expansion from a single, compact telecast into a full-day event, and she has been one of the people most responsible for making the extra airtime matter.

That role has become her signature. Brothers, who retired from riding in 1998 after an 11-year career that produced 1,130 wins, joined NBC two years later and quickly became the network’s eyes and ears in the moments that matter most. She speaks to the winning jockey immediately after the finish and interviews connections during the walkover, the kind of live access that turns a fast race into a human story. For casual viewers who know Derby day through NBC, she has been the voice at track level explaining what the crowd at Churchill Downs is seeing in real time.

Brothers said turning 60 this year felt like the right time to step away. She has also said she never expected to stay in television this long after leaving the saddle, but the work kept growing with the sport. Along the way, she handled some of the Derby’s most difficult and memorable broadcasts, including the 2004 race, when weather knocked out communications, the 2019 Derby and its 24-minute stewards’ inquiry, and the pandemic-era 2020 Derby held in September without fans.

Her final Derby also carries a personal note of gratitude. Brothers said she never expected to follow in the footsteps of Charlsie Cantey, the ABC racing reporter whose on-air role in the 1990s helped set the template she later refined for NBC. On NBC’s April 28 preview call, Mike Tirico called Brothers irreplaceable and said she defined the role. That is the real end of the story here: not just the retirement of a familiar face, but the exit of the reporter who made the Derby’s trackside moments feel as essential as the race itself.