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It’s May, and Hallmark Channel shifts gears into Mother’s Day mode with its ‘May for Moms’ theme, although moms play a very small role in the first film of the month, Kentucky Roses, which debuted on the same day as the real Kentucky Derby.
Kentucky Roses unfolds across two timelines, present day and 1932. Sadie Moore (Odette Annable) works in the Churchill Downs greenhouse with dreams of becoming a florist, designing the iconic garland of roses that crowns the Derby champion, just like her great-grandmother did nearly a century earlier. Then, Sadie crosses paths with Ash Taylor (Andrew Walker), the son of the Churchill Downs CEO (Gregg Henry), who’s been tasked with an emergency repair on the Twin Spires after it’s damaged in a storm. While Sadie and Ash come from two different worlds, they each share a similar weight of familial expectations and legacy, and the desire to build a future on their own terms. As Derby Day draws closer and romance begins to blossom, a long-buried connection between their families complicates their relationship and history is threatened to repeat itself. While Sadie and Ash are circling around a romance, Sadie’s very pregnant friend Camila is stressing out because she is entering a horse into the Derby this year, and on the day of the draw for starting positions, her horse gets the dreaded 17 spot, from which no horse has ever won. Can underdogs and good luck prevail for them all?
Kentucky Roses, written by Jamie Pachino, does a nice job of taking the viewers behind the scenes at what it takes to hold an epic event like the Kentucky Derby. Of course, this is just a very small part of all of the events — and it’s a movie with a specific fictional story to tell, so people picking at it for not documenting everything need to lighten up. It’s not a documentary. The story cleverly builds off of the love story from 1932, involving Ash’s great uncle, ”Lefty”, and Sadie’s great-grandmother, Gloria (aka Gigi), mirroring that of Ash and Sadie in the present, two people from different stations in life. But the 1932 story takes a totally unexpected turn as class status undoes the romance — and a proposal — leaving each family with a very different story to tell, Ash’s family believing Gloria kept the engagement ring, a Reed family heirloom, and a necklace ”Lefty” had made featuring a horseshoe and roses, made of gold and diamonds, labeling the woman as a ‘golddigger’. Sadie’s family believes Gloria returned the jewelry, but the true story has been lost to history. Also lost are the original blueprints for the spires at Churchill Downs, which were built by ‘Lefty’ (after his dreams of moving to New York City with Gloria and building skyscrapers were thwarted by his overbearing family). This is another Hallmark romance where the two leads, who you know are the destined lovebirds, spend nearly the entire movie not showing any real romantic spark. There is flirting, and a moment where it seems things will finally take off, but Sadie’s and Ash’s responsibilities keep them at arms length and, following the usual template, there is a major disagreement that threatens to tear them apart completely — and this one comes very early in the story when Sadie sees a photo on a wall in a Speakeasy of Gloria, and Ash recognizes his uncle with her … and then while he doesn’t say it outright, his implication that Gloria used ‘Lefty’ for his wealth and status pushes Sadie away. Could he possibly think that Sadie is just using him too to help further her goals of owning her own florist shop? Of course she is hurt, but perhaps just taking a breath and comparing family stories instead of storming off would have been a better option. It didn’t help matters that Ash didn’t reveal to Sadie upon their first meeting that he was a Reed. He uses his middle name, Taylor, for his construction business because he doesn’t want people thinking he’s leveraging his family name to get ahead. He also has a contentious relationship with his father, whom Ash believes does not respect him or his work, especially as Frank is constantly making sarcastic remarks about Ash being a ‘do-gooder’ with his work — being more charitable rather than going after the big money jobs, something Frank seems to feel is beneath the family name.
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So while he’s dealing with his father, and a crew at Churchill Downs that doesn’t respect him because they feel he only got the job of repairing the spire because his daddy gave it to him, Sadie is dealing with her duties at the family greenhouse business and juggling that with her job at a very exclusive, high-end florist — word of mouth business only to attract the ‘right’ clientele (whatever that means) — run by a terrifying woman named Delilah, who is very, very passive-aggressive with Sadie. She wants Sadie focused on her work, but she also shows some encouragement for Sadie to develop her floristry skills, but then is unwilling to help Sadie after she says yes to an event that happens in two days (even though it could be good for the business). Sadie is also unaware in that moment that her client is Ash’s mother. But she manages to succeed, even though there are no red roses to be found anywhere (except in the wild), and when the traditional florist who constructs the rose blanket finds herself without roses (her shipment from South America is delayed because of a storm), it all falls on Sadie to save the day, having to convince Delilah to help — using the forbidden social media — and mending fences with Ash so he’ll take her back out to the family property to get more of the wild roses. Pachino manages to juggle all of the various storylines, including Camila’s horse and the 1932 story (which comes together nicely in the end, even if it is a bit too coincidental), finally allowing Ash and Sadie to, surprise, realize they do make a good pair after all. Director Clare Niederpruem uses the Kentucky locations to the best advantage, having full access to the real Churchill Downs (with footage shot at 2025’s 151st Derby), and depicting some of the events leading up to the day including the draw and Winsday Wednesday (apparently there are other events that people are mad they didn’t show, but it’s a 90-minute movie with Ash and Sadie as the focal point, not a history of the Derby), giving the viewer a taste of actually being there.
As for the cast, everyone turns in excellent performances. Andrew Walker brings his usual easy charm to the role of Ash, a man who knows his family status but refuses to cash in on it just to further his own career goals. Even though he’s rarely overt about his attraction to Sadie, Walker knows how to display both his nervousness around her after their first meeting, and a natural chemistry with her as the story moves on, showing how he feels with just subtle looks or smiles. He can also put up his walls around Frank, and he relates to mom Lillie much better, making Ash determined to make it on his own. He has a nice, natural chemistry with Odette Annable that helps make their budding (pun intended) relationship feel authentic. Annable is also very good as Sadie. She really conveys how Sadie is feeling almost oppressed by the thought that her mother expects her to carry on the family greenhouse business, almost being belittled by everyone because of her ‘second job’ at Delilah’s like she’s not allowed to have her own dreams and goals. She brings a nice giddiness to the role during her second encounter with Ash — of whom she forgot to ask his name when she first met him — and while she is totally focused on moving forward with her own goal, she also makes her connection with Ash feel completely natural. And even though she isn’t keen on running the greenhouse, she is still fiercely protective of her family honor, probably even more-so than Ash is of his, willing to put family ahead of romance. Of course the Fates conspire to make Sadie need Ash’s help, so the universe will be in complete balance by the end. Walker and Annable make it all feel completely natural.
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Gregg Henry is perfect at making Frank pompous and full of himself, a man who only operates on status and cannot understand why anyone of his family’s station in life would want to do anything charitable and lose out on money and adulation. Even when he’s trying to show some respect to Ash when asking him to take on the job of repairing the spire after a storm — two weeks before the Derby — he still comes with an agenda and insults. Brynn Thayer is also very good as mother Lillie, the one who has to balance the relationship between her husband and son, always playing the peacemaker but often favoring Ash while trying to make Frank stop being such a jerk to their son. Peyton Meyer and Ally Ledford portray ‘Lefty’ and Gloria in the 1932 scenes, their romance much more overt than Ash and Sadie’s, but even in their few brief scenes they give us fully fleshed out characters, telling the complete story of their relationship. Abigail Esmena offers nice support to Annable as Sadie’s friend Camila, egging her on to talk to Ash the second time they see each other, and making Camila’s stress about her horse very real. Annie Fitzpatrick plays Sadie’s mother, Anna, with the right amount of motherly concern for her daughter’s future, while also being concerned that Sadie is not going to carry on the family legacy at the greenhouse. Mark Mozingo also does a nice job as Ash’s friend and right hand man in business, Shep, pushing Ash to talk to Sadie and completely professional in his duties to the company, at one point helping secure some custom shingles for the spire after his crew — actually Frank’s crew — just tries to slap some everyday shingles on the roof (which would have violated the historic trust codes and made Ash look bad in the end, which was perhaps the intention). Everyone from the main to secondary to background roles all do their jobs perfectly.
Kentucky Roses gives us another slow burn romance that simmers more than it sizzles, but the multiple storylines and the natural chemistry between its leads, as well as the authentic locations, help make this one well worth the watch.
Kentucky Roses has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, is rated TV-G, and is streaming on Hallmark+. Try Hallmark+ free for seven days on Apple TV.
Preview | Kentucky Roses
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Listen to Let the Big Horse Run by John Stewart featured in Kentucky Roses