CHURCHILL DOWNS
Wednesday, May 1
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 58 degrees
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The final countdown has begun to Oaks and Derby 2024 with the goal for the connections of all contenders to just keep their horses happy and sound until their respective races on Friday and Saturday.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dornoch has dealt with a foot issue known as a quarter crack through most of his career. Given his race record – three wins and two seconds from six starts – it has not been an impediment to success.
Noted farrier Ian McKinlay has examined Dornoch before each of his last three races – starting with the Grade 2 Remsen last December, which he won – and has done whatever work necessary to have the foot in racing condition. On Wednesday, McKinlay was at Churchill Downs where he laced, with wires, the top part of the crack, which is on the right front foot.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first thing that happens when someone breeds a Thoroughbred racehorse is they wait. It will take at least two years, bare minimum, from the time a foal hits the ground until it races. Buy a yearling, in September, say, and months and months of waiting still lie ahead. And after all that waiting, how many owners and breeders in an age of instant gratification want to wait some more, while a horse figures out how to race, how to win?
Join Daily Racing Form's Brad Free and Andrew Beyer as they discuss the 2024 Kentucky Derby, providing selections and analysis.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Encino, the Lexington Stakes winner, has been withdrawn from the Kentucky Derby due to a soft tissue strain in his right front leg, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday afternoon.
The scratch of Encino allows Epic Ride into the field and leaves Mugatu one deep on the also-eligible list. Encino drew post 9. Horses that were drawn in posts 10 through 20 will now move in one spot. Mugatu would need a scratch by 9 a.m. Friday to get into the race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Kazushi Kimura has gotten acquainted with his Kentucky Derby mount T O Password the last couple of mornings at Churchill Downs. Tuesday was a better experience than Monday.
After nearly being unseated by T O Password during a routine gallop Monday morning when the horse spooked from something in the stretch, Kimura got a much better feeling from his Derby longshot when he guided him through a five-furlong move in 1:00.06 over Churchill’s main track.
A place in the Kentucky Derby starting gate is a coveted dream. It also is one of the hardest places in racing to get into, despite a larger gate, literally, than other prestigious American races.
It’s a sad song.
It’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy.
It’s a sad song.
We’re gonna sing it anyway.
– 2019 Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown”
Black Gold’s story is tragic. The game little black horse died at Fair Grounds after breaking down in January 1928, racing through lameness and past his prime. It was a failure on the part of the humans in his life – and a coda to the tragedy in their own lives.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 67 degrees
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monday proved to be a pretty quiet morning on the Kentucky Derby and Oaks watch with perhaps the most eventful moment taking place about 100 yards from the finish line where T O Password shied from a shadow on the track, nearly unseating his rider in the process while in the latter stages of his routine gallop.
