Roughly 17.7 million people tuned in to watch Sovereignty win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs, NBC announced Sunday. That’s up about 6% from last year’s race, which made it the most-watched Kentucky Derby since 1989.

The 2025 Derby was won by a true closer in Sovereignty, but the race had an influx of early pace courtesy of Bob Baffert’s Citizen Bull, who ran the opening quarter-mile in 22.81 seconds and the opening half-mile in 46.23 seconds. It was 1:10.78 for the first three-fourths of a mile.