Always Dreaming has splashed through the mud to win the Kentucky Derby, giving trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez their second victories in the race but their first together.

Pletcher and Velazquez have teamed up often over the years and are the sport's leading money winners. On their own, they were a combined 2 for 63 coming into America's greatest horse race.

Together, they were unbeatable on a cool and rainy at Churchill Downs.

Sent off at 9-2, Always Dreaming made it the fifth straight year that a Derby favourite has won, the longest such sequence since the 1970s.

Always Dreaming was followed across the finish line by a pair of long shots, Lookin At Lee (33-1) and Battle of Midway (40-1).

Pletcher won his first Derby in 2010 with Super Saver while Velazquez won the following year with Animal Kingdom.

Godolphin's Thunder Snow took no part after bucking at the start.