Always Dreaming Wins 2017 Kentucky Derby; Lookin At Lee Takes Distant 2nd

Always Dreaming pulled away from the field to win the 2017 Kentucky Derby on a muddy track Saturday.

The closing co-favorite with Irish War Cry began in the No. 5 post and stayed toward the front nearly the entire race. He took over the lead before the final turn and faced little resistance on the home stretch.

NBC Sports provided video of the fastest two minutes in sports:

It's now the fifth straight favorite to win the prestigious race.

Few horses were hotter than Always Dreaming coming into the weekend, winning three starts in a row, including the Florida Derby. This momentum continued to take home the first leg of the Triple Crown.

This is the second career Kentucky Derby win for both trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John R. Velazquez.

Here are the final results from Churchill Downs:

Position	Horse	Jockey	Trainer	Lengths
1	Always Dreaming	John R. Velazquez	Todd A. Pletcher	-
2	Lookin At Lee	Corey Lanerie	Steven M. Asmussen	2 3/4
3	Battle of Midway	Flavien Prat	Jerry Hollendorfer	7 3/4
4	Classic Empire	Julien R. Leparoux	Mark E. Casse	8 3/4
5	Practical Joke	Joel Rosario	Chad C. Brown	9 1/2
6	Tapwrit	Jose L. Ortiz	Todd A. Pletcher	10 1/4
7	Gunnevera	Javier Castellano	Antonio Sano	13 1/4
8	McCraken	Brian Joseph Hernandez Jr.	Ian R. Wilkes	13 1/4
9	Gormley	Victor Espinoza	John A. Shirreffs	14 1/4
10	Irish War Cry	Rajiv Maragh	H. Graham Motion	16 1/2
11	Hence	Florent Geroux	Steven M. Asmussen	18 1/2
12	Untrapped	Ricardo Santana Jr.	Steven M. Asmussen	19 1/4
13	Girvin	Mike E. Smith	Joe Sharp	19 1/4
14	Patch	Tyler Gaffalione	Todd A. Pletcher	20 3/4
15	J Boys Echo	Robby Albarado	Dale L. Romans	22 3/4
16	Sonneteer	J. Keith Desormeaux	Kent J. Desormeaux	26
17	Fast And Accurate	Channing Hill	Michael J. Maker	28 1/2
18	Irap	Mario Gutierrez	Doug F. O'Neill	40 1/2
19	State Of Honor	Jose Lezcano	Mark E. Casse	45 1/2
20	Thunder Snow	Christophe Soumillon	Saeed bin Suroor	DNF

The full payout information is also available for the top finishers:

Pos.	Post	Horse	Win	Place	Show
1	5	Always Dreaming	$11.40	$7.20	$5.80
2	1	Lookin at Lee		$26.60	$15.20
3	11	Battle of Midway			$20.80
4	14	Classic Empire
5	19	Practical Joke

Bleacher Report captured the winning moment on a wet track:

Plenty of those watching along also provided their thoughts on the dramatic race:

There was some concern about Thunder Snow after pulling up early, but Nicole Russo of Daily Racing Form reports he is in good shape:

State of Honor was the early leader out of the gate and kept control for nearly half of the race. However, he couldn't keep up the pace for the entire 1 ¼ miles.

Co-favorite Irish War Cry and morning-line favorite Classic Empire both challenged on the straightaway, but neither ended up in the money.

Instead, it was Lookin At Lee who provided the biggest challenge in surprising fashion to get into second. While he closed the gap in the final stretches, he simply ran out of room before the finish line. Battle of Midway also beat out some bigger names to end up in third place.

Still, the story will be Always Dreaming showing his ability as the top horse in the field.