Jaime Torres returns to Derby spotlight aboard Incredibolt, Albus too

Jaime Torres is back on racing’s biggest stage with more than one chance to matter. In the 152nd Kentucky Derby, set for Saturday at Churchill Downs, the 27-year-old jockey has landed Incredibolt, a long shot, and Albus, a colt who already earned his ticket with Torres in the saddle.

That is a far cry from the rider who was still largely anonymous on Churchill Downs’ backstretch two years ago, making his pre-dawn routine and waiting for a break that finally arrived in national view. Torres was 25 when he guided Seize the Grey to victory in the 2024 Preakness Stakes, a ride that turned him from a promising local name into a jockey with real Triple Crown credentials. Two weeks earlier, he had already won the Pat Day Mile on the same horse, then delivered a perfectly timed front-running trip in Baltimore to complete the spring surge.

The Seize the Grey victory carried extra weight because it came for the MyRacehorse syndicate, which had more than 2,700 members, and for D. Wayne Lukas, who at 88 became the oldest trainer ever to win a Triple Crown race. It was Lukas’s seventh Preakness win and his 15th Triple Crown race victory overall. He stayed loyal to Torres despite outside pressure for the mount, a vote of confidence that helped cement the young rider’s reputation.

Torres has built on that breakthrough instead of fading from it. His Derby opportunity on Albus came through a 100-point qualifying victory in the Road to the Kentucky Derby series, when Riley Mott’s colt won at 1 1/8 miles in 1:51.71 on a fast track. That performance not only punched the horse’s ticket to Louisville, it also showed Torres could handle a horse that needed a clean, measured ride in a pressure race.

The Derby now gives Torres a chance to prove the Preakness was not a one-off upset but the start of a bigger climb. Incredibolt may not carry the same expectations as the favorites, but the presence of two legitimate mounts says more about Torres than any single post position does. The growth has been fast, and Churchill Downs has become the place where it shows most clearly.