Last year, a gray horse trained by Brad Cox won the Jeff Ruby Steaks and entered the Kentucky Derby without ever having raced on the dirt. That horse, Final Gambit, rallied to fourth place. This year, a gray horse trained by Brad Cox won the Jeff Ruby Steaks and enters the Kentucky Derby without ever having raced on the dirt. That horse, Fulleffort, could be even better than Final Gambit. Bet Fulleffort and the entire Kentucky Derby at TwinSpires, where new users who click through our links get a supersized $400 sign-up bonus:
20 Fulleffort (20-1)
- Trainer: Brad Cox
- Jockey: Tyler Gaffalione
- Last race: First in the Jeff Ruby Steaks by 2½ lengths
- Career record: 7 starts: 3 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third
- Career earnings: $694,115
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure: 94 (Jeff Ruby Steaks)
- Sire: Liam’s Map
Below, we’ll dig further into Fulleffort as part of our series profiling all the horses competing in the 152nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday, May 2. We’ll look back into his past performances, what questions need to be answered Saturday and analyze how the post draw affects his chances.
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. FanDuel Racing offers a $25 bonus with a $5 bet. Claim it here:
What to know about Fulleffort
Just like the phrase “Run for the Roses” or “The most exciting two minutes in sports,” you’re likely going to hear the following many times in the run up to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby: “Fulleffort has never raced on the dirt.”
Learn it. Live it. Love it. It will be repeated again and again until the starting gate opens for the race, because it is the biggest question with one of the biggest buzz horses of the race.
Trained by Louisville native Brad Cox, Fulleffort trained on the dirt as a 2-year-old but because he didn’t excel on it in the mornings, Cox put him on the grass in all four starts of 2025. The gray colt won his last two starts of the year.
With the Kentucky Derby in mind, Cox took the Turfway Park road to the Louisville, which meant three races on the synthetic surface. Fulleffort had a breakthrough effort in his last start, engaging the leaders much earlier than he had been when winning the Jeff Ruby Steaks by 2½ lengths over Stark Contrast, whose three career wins have come on the grass.
And now Cox has no choice but to run the improving Fulleffort on the dirt because that’s the surface for the Derby.
Cox wanted to get the horse acquainted to Churchill Downs as early as possible so Fulleffort was the first Derby contender to arrive on the backside. He has since impressed trackside observers in the mornings with his gallops on the surface, which has created some buzz around the horse and could drive down his odds at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET.
Fulleffort bears a striking resemblance to another Cox trainee, Final Gambit. Last year, Final Gambit entered the Kentucky Derby with zero dirt races and three consecutive synthetic starts at Turfway Park. He also impressed trackside observers with his morning workouts entering the Derby and was bet down from 30-1 on the morning line to 18-1. He ended up finishing a fast-closing fourth in the race behind Sovereignty, Journalism and Baeza.
Fulleffort arguably is more accomplished entering this year’s race than Final Gambit was last year. The former already has more wins, more starts, more starts against winners and better speed figures than the latter.
Top jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr., who was aboard Fulleffort for two of his three career wins, including the Jeff Ruby Steaks, has chosen to ride Renegade instead of Fulleffort (and Commandment and Further Ado). Tyler Gaffalione, who has won 14 riding titles at Churchill Downs, will ride Fulleffort for the first time. Claim our jumbo-sized 1/ST BET offer here to get a $500 sign-up bonus:
Post draw analysis
After rallying from the back of the back in his first two starts of 2026, Fulleffort collared the leaders in the Jeff Ruby Steaks much earlier than he had been. That ability to pounce on the leaders around the turn often bodes well in the Kentucky Derby, where the winner often is determined by the eighth pole. But that task may have gotten harder after drawing post No. 20. From this outside spot, he could lose tremendous ground if he employs the same strategy as he did in the Jeff Ruby Steaks and sits closer to the pace. Perhaps this post forces Gaffalione and Fulleffort to revert to his old running style of dropping to the back of the pack and making one run again.
