The Hallmark Channel has cleverly found ways to tap into the zeitgeist and create romantic movies based around just about every major holiday, major NFL franchises, river cruises, and now, the Kentucky Derby. Kentucky Roses, about a couple who fall in love while working at Churchill Downs could have been a stretch – Really? A movie about the horse race? – but as always, Hallmark succeeds at turning what could be a flimsy premise into a layered romance with parallel romantic plots, multiple crises that need to be averted, and a solid cast to move the whole story along.
The Gist: Odette Annable stars as Sadie, the daughter of the woman who runs the greenhouse at Churchill Downs, the legendary horse racing track in Louisville, Kentucky, but she really wants to be a florist. Andrew Walker plays Ash, the son of Churchill Downs’ CEO, though he wishes above all else to be able to get out from his father’s shadow. Ash is an architect who wants his work to make a positive mark on the community, so when his father calls with an urgent request that Ash and his team repair the damaged spire that towers over the racetrack, he’s reluctant to help… but there are only two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, and if Ash doesn’t help… well, let’s just say his dad gives him no choice but to help.
Both Ash and Sadie have parents who expect them to follow the path that their families have created, but each of them wants to strike out on their own. When they meet, she’s tending to the flowers in the winner’s circle and he’s assessing the spire’s damage, and they bond over their desires to work independently of their families and spread their wings. Strangely, Sadie doesn’t put it together that Ash’s family runs the racetrack until his mother hires her to do the floral design for an event – Sadie feels embarrassed that she didn’t realize she was falling for the boss’s kid and didn’t even know it. She tries to pull away, but with the Derby approaching, their paths keep crossing and it turns out, perhaps their romance is a little bit star-crossed when they both learn that Ash’s great uncle Charlie and Sadie’s great aunt Gloria also once fell in love, only to be forced apart due to his family disapproving of Gloria.
We see Gloria and Charlie’s story play out in flashbacks set in 1932, theirs was a love that couldn’t overcome their class differences, and Ash and Sadie are all too aware that their backgrounds might also be too different for them to make things work. Luckily, as the two modern-day characters dig into the real story of Charlie and Gloria, they realize that they don’t want to lose out on love the way their ancestors did.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Hallmark has been making TV movies for decades at this point, so of course this isn’t the first movie on the channel where a florist finds love and gets to pursue her creative passions, too. This one brought to mind the 2024 movie An Easter Bloom.
Performance Worth Watching: Brynn Thayer, an actress who has previously appeared in everything from Suits to Fatal Attraction (the reboot) to Matlock (the original) plays Ash’s mother, Lillie Taylor Reed, and though you’d assume she gives off a blue-blooded classy vibe, she’s actually a touchstone of kindness and has a welcoming, warm vibe with all of her scene partners.
Sex And Skin: None.
Our Take: The fact that Kentucky Roses was shot on location in Louisville, with many scenes taking place at the real Churchill Downs, is one of the main draws of the film. On top of the real locations, the film also has the added layer of historical flashbacks to tell the story of Gloria and Charlie and, to be honest, if it weren’t for the mystery element of that subplot, the dynamic between Walker and Annable might seem a little dry. Both are great actors and there’s chemistry between them, but there’s a lack of any true drama or friction in their own relationship, so it helps that they have this old timey mystery to play off of.
Having watched my fair share of Hallmark films, one thing I look forward to is a film with a solid ensemble – they don’t all have them, but this one certainly does. Brynn Thayer, Katherine Morgan, Abigail Esmena and Gregg Henry all deserve accolades for adding something extra to their supporting but vital roles. The film ultimately becomes one about a community that rallies together to make the race a success, and with this cast, you truly feel that sense of community come through.
Our Call: Between the great casting, the beautiful Churchill Downs backdrop and, of course, the apt timing of the film, which drops the same weekend as the 2026 Kentucky Derby, it’s a great entry in the Hallmark canon. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
