Kentuckians will race just about anything during the Derby season — hot air balloons, turtles, rats, beds, steamboats and, of course, 3-year-old Thoroughbred horses.
One thing that’s not a race is the royal court of the Kentucky Derby Festival. And this year’s Kentucky Derby Festival Queen, a member of St. Bernadette Church, is keeping her focus on sharing the love and joy she finds in her faith.
Tania Vergara-Gongora, 20, said in a recent interview that she strives to model her faith and be “a voice for the Hispanic community” while attending the many social events of the Kentucky Derby Festival’s 2026 season.
“I don’t know how not to be Catholic. I grew up going to Mass in Mexico with my grandma every single day. My faith really is such a big part of my identity.”
— Tania Vergara-Gongora, Kentucky Derby Festival Queen
The Bellarmine University junior, who is studying broadcasting and marketing, was crowned the 2026 Derby Queen earlier this spring. Per tradition, she was chosen from a pool of Derby Princesses by a spinning wheel.
Members of the Kentucky Derby Festival’s Royal Court, dubbed “Derby Princesses,” are selected from hundreds of applicants on such merits as poise, community involvement and intelligence. Each of the five members of the court receives scholarships for their work as ambassadors of the Kentucky Derby Festival, attending various community events. The princesses for the 2026 season are Mallory Brown of Bardstown, Ky., and Vy Pham, Sydney Shouse and Brianna Williams of Louisville.
During the selection process, Vergara-Gongora said she prayed, “If the Lord allows this opportunity, let it be not for my will, but for his will.”
She remembers thinking that “this was one thing that I would love to do, and if it’s in the Lord’s plan, he’ll allow it to happen,” she said.
As reigning queen, she always aims to convey God’s love and share the joy of the Lord, she said. That’s been central to her life, especially since “receiving a message of joy from Pope Francis in 2022,” she said. Vergara-Gongora was part of a youth delegation to meet with the pope through the National Youth Advisory Council of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.
“My faith is very much ‘cradle Catholic,’ because it’s so tied in to Mexican culture,” she noted. “I don’t know how not to be Catholic. I grew up going to Mass in Mexico with my grandma every single day. My faith really is such a big part of my identity,” she said.
Vergara-Gongora said she’s also enjoying her role representing the Hispanic community in the Kentucky Derby Festival.
“There hasn’t been a Hispanic Kentucky Derby Queen in like 22 years. So, being able to be a voice for the Hispanic community, especially right now, has also been such a cool honor,” she said.
The experience has also provided an opportunity for camaraderie among women in the royal court.
“The girls have been amazing, I love them so much,” she said, noting that she gathered them for prayer before their first press conference. “Having a group of people that we’re able to experience everything together, we’re able to sort of lean on each other. … Since we’re all students, we have to kind of balance school as well. … We all share the same work ethic values.”
The scholarship program has its share of material perks, such as admission to Churchill Downs for the running of the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby, as well as complimentary wardrobe items.
But Vergara-Gongora said the most fulfilling part for her has been “seeing community joy and light, especially among children, and especially amidst so much societal darkness.”
In applying for the royal court, Vergara-Gongora went through two days of interviews. After the second day of interviews, she and the other candidates waited to be notified via phone if they were selected.
“Because our duties started the very next day, I went to Mass on Saturday, and I told them I was going to go to Mass,” she said. “I got the phone call right in the middle of Mass.”
Vergara-Gongora said that her dad leaned over to tell her he felt the pew vibrating — just before the consecration.
“I wasn’t really processing what was happening. I was just thinking, ‘I can’t leave!’ … I really thought that in that moment the Lord was like, ‘Okay, Tania, this is my blessing for you. Through this, you will let my work be spread.’ ”
While it has been challenging to balance her 17 credit hours at school and multiple internships with her royal duties, she said she reminds herself that this is something she prayed for.
This summer, Vergara-Gongora will do a 10-week media internship with EWTN, the Catholic broadcast organization, in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Rome in “social communication, digital media, and culture with a specialization in pastoral communication, which is exactly what I want to do,” she added.
What an inspiring story. Congratulations to Tania!