“Well some say Toby loved thoroughbred horse racing more than he did music, which is really saying a lot, right?” said the late Toby Keith’s horse trainer Kenny McPeek on Fox & Friends First this Friday. And a little over a year after the country music icon lost his long battle with stomach cancer, his Kentucky Derby finally came to fruition with Render Judgment. The thoroughbred from Keith’s Dream Walkin’ Farms raced at the 2025 Derby.

Naturally, country music star, Derby fan, and celebrity Shaboozey has named Render Judgment his pick to win beneath the Twin Spires this year. In a CBS video where several celebrities, including Shaboozey, named their picks to win it all, the singer-songwriter picked Render Judgment. And it truly was a tribute to Keith rather than a calculated pick.

Unlike the Kentucky Derby favorite Journalism, who held 7/2 odds, or even Bob Baffert’s Citizen Bull with 13/1, Dream Walkin’ Farms’ debutant sat firmly among the underdogs with 15/1 odds ahead of the race. Then again, the late country music star wasn’t really concerned with winning. Keith just wanted to see Render Judgment make it to the coveted track at Churchill Downs.

The chart-topping musician started his horse racing operation in 2001 and would partner with different stables to buy colts. Whilst Toby Keith was mostly responsible for naming the horses, he was passionate about seeing them grow into fine racing steeds. “It was Toby’s dream… Render Judgment is going to the @kentuckyderby,” the late musician’s Instagram page posted on April 27.

“He worked so hard to finally have one there! Toby will have the best seat in the house to watch,” the Keith estate added in their post. So it was a fitting tribute from Shaboozey. While the Grammy nominee had better options on paper, he chose to believe in the decades-old dream Render Judgment represented. Unfortunately for Shaboozey, the 2025 Kentucky Derby didn’t really favor the underdogs.

Sovereignty upsets the Kentucky Derby favorite

Yes, Render Judgment was nowhere near the favorite, despite Shaboozey putting his faith in Keith’s horse. The colt came into the Derby with 1 win, and McPeek had further bad news on Thursday. The trainer told CBS Sports partner Stephen Andress that the contender suffered a quarter crack. He added that Keith’s horse received therapy and would race, but it further hurt the underdog’s chances.

However, things didn’t turn out so great for Journalism either. On race day, Sovereignty proved too much for the pre-race favorite, especially on the final stretch at the sloppy Churchill Downs track. While Journalism and Sovereignty remained neck-and-neck, knocking off horse after horse in the tail end of the track, the 3-year-old colt still put 1 1/2 between him and Journalism to snap his four-race win streak, earning the Kentucky Derby title in 2:02.31.

Trainer Bill Mott notched his second-ever Kentucky Derby win in front of a record-breaking crowd of 147,406 fans in the stands. Interestingly, this was Mott’s first horse to cross the finish line ahead of the field, as his first win came in 2019 after the stewards disqualified that year’s winner, Maximum Security. “This one got there the right way,” Mott said after the race.

The winner bagged a mind-boggling $3.1 million, while the runner-up, Journalism, took home $1 million. So what about Shaboozey’s pick? Unfortunately, the underdog slid to the back of the pack, finishing 17th in the 20-horse field at the 151st Kentucky Derby. Then again, Render Judgment did accomplish his late owner’s dream.