Get caught up with Wonder Dean's past performances, jockey, trainer and full analysis heading into the Run for the Roses
By Gene Menez Apr 29, 2026 at 11:23 am ET • 3 min read 
USATSI When Wonder Dean leaves the starting gate in the 2026 Kentucky Derby on Saturday, he will be making his seventh start at a seventh different race track with a seventh different jockey in a fourth different country. But despite all of the travel and change, the colt from Japan just keeps running. And on Saturday, he can do something that no horse from Japan or the UAE Derby has ever done. Bet on Wonder Dean at the Kentucky Derby with TwinSpires, where new users who click through our links get a supersized $400 sign-up bonus:
10 Wonder Dean (30-1)
- Trainer: Daisuke Takayanagi
- Jockey: Ryusei Sakai
- Last race: First in the UAE Derby by 2½ lengths
- Career record: 6 starts: 2 wins, 2 seconds
- Career earnings: $770,541
- Best career Beyer Speed Figure: N/A
- Sire: Dee Majesty
Below, we'll dig further into Wonder Dean 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 and you can claim it here:
What to know about Wonder Dean
Since 2000, 21 horses have used the UAE Derby in Dubai as a prep race for the Kentucky Derby, and zero have won the Run for the Roses. At the same time, seven Japan-breds have competed in the first leg of the Triple Crown, and also none have won.
So Wonder Dean, a Japan-bred who's coming off a win in the UAE Derby, is trying to do buck decades of history.
He started his career in Japan and won only one of his first five starts, but the results didn't completely say how good that form was. That included a fourth place finish in the one-mile Saudi Derby, which was clearly too short for this horse who is bred for distance.
Then in the UAE Derby at 9½ furlongs Wonder Dean, running midpack, chased down a loose-on-the-lead Six Speed to win by 2½ lengths. Though Six Speed may end up being a distance-challenged miler, he finished 6 lengths ahead of the third-place horse, and no one made up any ground on the top two.
Though no Beyer Speed Figure is available on the UAE Derby, Thoro-graph gives Wonder Dean a strong figure for his effort and says he's one of the fastest horses in the Kentucky Derby field.
This will be the second Kentucky Derby for trainer Daisuke Takayanagi, who brought the lightly raced T O Password to Louisville two years ago. The 48-1 longshot outran his odds, finishing fifth.
This also will be the second Derby for jockey Ryusei Sakai, who finished third aboard Forever Young that same year and has helped that horse become the sport's alltime career earnings leader.
Wonder Dean is listed at 30-1 at FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and 1/ST BET, and there's no reason to think that he will go any lower than that. Claim our jumbo-sized 1/ST BET offer to get a $500 sign-up bonus:
Post draw analysis
The connections of Wonder Dean cheered wildly last week when the horse drew the No. 10 post position, which, if the post draw was a post draft, would be the No. 1 selection for many connections. Because he'll be in the No. 10 hole, he will be one of the last two horses in the starting gate. Since Wonder Dean won't have to stand in the gate as long as others, that could help him break alertly, which has been an issue with him in the past and would be a killer on Saturday.
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