Days of Our Lives alum Peyton Meyer joins Hallmark’s Kentucky Roses

Peyton Meyer showed up on Days of Our Lives as Doug Williams III with a last name Salem never treats casually, and the show wasted no time putting that weight on his shoulders. After stirring up some trouble, he left Salem with his head hanging low, but in real life, Meyer has a new project that would pep up any soap character.

Meyer traded Days of our Lives for the Derby

Daytime Confidential reported that Meyer had lined up his next project with a Hallmark film called Kentucky Roses. It’s being filmed at Churchill Downs in Louisville, the actual track where the Kentucky Derby is held every May. Meyer is part of a cast that includes Andrew Walker (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch), Odette Annable (Walker), Ally Ledford (From Ashes to Us), Brynn Thayer (best known as Jenny on One Life to Live; she also briefly appeared as DAYS' Susan Banks), and Gregg Henry (Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book II).

The story moves between two time periods, but it mostly sticks with the present, following Sadie Moore (Annable), who works in a greenhouse and wants a chance to contribute roses to the Derby garland, something her great-grandmother once did. As Derby week approaches, she spends more time with Ash Taylor (Walker), the CEO’s son, who’s tied up with repairs at Churchill Downs and the expectations that come with his last name.

What develops between them doesn’t announce itself. It builds during workdays, conversations that wander, and old family history that keeps pushing its way back in. Meyer plays a character named Lefty, which doesn’t sound suspicious at all. (Revisit Holly and Ari’s kidnapping.)

Why the movie fits him

After playing the sketchy Doug III, this role felt like a reset without pretending the past hadn’t happened, which had always been Meyer’s sweet spot on soaps. He played men shaped by legacy, expectation, and mistakes they didn’t fully understand until it was too late, and Hallmark loved that energy when it came wrapped in softer stakes.

Kentucky Roses airs on May 2, with streaming the next day. It carries the faint sense that this wasn’t a detour for Meyer so much as a natural extension of what he’d already been doing, just with better odds and fewer kidnappings and thefts.

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“Hallmark Media and Churchill Downs are both legacy brands, each with more than a hundred years of history,” said Hallmark Media Vice President Jessica Callahan. She also talked about wanting to make something that people of different ages could connect with, a story meant to feel familiar, rooted in community, and shaped by traditions that have lasted for a reason.

Days of our Lives is available on the Peacock streaming app.

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