Trainer Kenny McPeek is still perplexed over what happened regarding Blackout Time on the last Friday of October. It hasn’t deterred him from trying to get the now 3-year-old colt to the grandest stage on the first Saturday in May. Blackout Time has not raced since his runner-up finish to Ted Noffey in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 4. He will return to the races Sunday in the Grade 2, $1 million Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park as McPeek tries to get him to the May 2 Kentucky Derby. The Rebel is one of three Kentucky Derby points-scoring races on the calendar this weekend as the Run for the Roses is now just nine weeks away. Saturday, Gulfstream Park hosts the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth, a race won last year by Sovereignty, who would go on to win the Kentucky Derby. At Aqueduct, Derby points will be available in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham, a one-turn mile race that hasn’t produced a Kentucky Derby winner since Secretariat in 1973. McPeek won the Kentucky Derby two years ago with Mystik Dan, a horse who took the Arkansas route to Louisville. He won the Grade 3 Southwest, skipped the Rebel, and finished third in the Arkansas Derby. At Churchill Downs, he beat Sierra Leone and Forever Young in a race decided by two noses. :: DRF's Derby Watch Top 20 | Who's hot, who's not | Pedigree profile: Blackout Time Blackout Time, a son of Not This Time, went 1 for 3 as a 2-year-old. His victory came by 9 3/4 lengths in a one-mile maiden race Aug. 2 at Ellis Park. That race, against 11 opponents, produced five next-out winners. In his next start, Blackout Time was sent off the second choice in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity and chased Ted Noffey home. He was beaten 2 3/4 lengths while finishing 2 1/4 lengths ahead of Litmus Test. McPeek thought that race had Blackout Time set up for a big run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar. But in the days leading up to the race, regulatory veterinarians expressed some concerns about the way Blackout Time was moving. Ultimately, they scratched him from the Juvenile, much to McPeek’s chagrin. “We X-rayed his left front the morning of the race, then they didn’t like something in his left hind,” McPeek said. “I was like, what?” McPeek said Blackout Time had some “2-year-old growth issues. On a scale of 10, it was maybe a 1 or 2. It’s frustrating to go all that way and have that happen.” Brian Hernandez Jr., who had ridden Blackout Time in his first two starts, tried to hurry back from serious injuries suffered in a spill last September to ride the horse in the BC Juvenile, but Hernandez didn’t receive clearance to ride by that time. “He was a horse we’ve been pretty high on from early last year,” Hernandez said. “He seems to be working right along and progressing nicely. He’s been working down here in New Orleans with Gould’s Gold ,who’s a pretty solid [older] allowance horse and he’s been staying right with him.” After Blackout Time returned to Kentucky from the Breeders’ Cup, McPeek had a bone scan done that didn’t reveal any significant issues. He brought the horse to Fair Grounds, where he began breezing again in January. In order to run at Fair Grounds, he needed to work satisfactorily before a track veterinarian, which he did. McPeek thought about the Risen Star but said he ran out of time to have him ready. :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2026: Top contenders, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more In order to run at Oaklawn Park, McPeek had to have the horse perform a workout for the track veterinarian. The horse worked a bullet five furlongs in 1:00 on Feb. 11 before returning to Fair Grounds, where he had another five-furlong workout Feb. 21. “I didn’t have a horse that I thought could work with him,” McPeek said. “I had him scheduled to work on [Feb. 17], but the workmate was unable to breeze. I thought he needed an especially strong breeze, and he got that [on Feb. 21]. We had to shift it a little bit, but he got that and that sets him up for the weekend.” McPeek believes Blackout Time has “top-level talent” and a pedigree to match. He is hoping to use this race as a stepping-stone to the Arkansas Derby on March 28 and then move on to Louisville. “I think things are coming together really well this year for this horse,” McPeek said. “I think the best race is their third race off a layoff. If we can go Rebel and Arkansas Derby that sets him up perfectly. We got to get some points in the next two runs, but we’re going over there pretty confident.” McPeek also runs Honey’s to Blame in the Rebel. The Arkansas-bred son of Blame has won twice at Oaklawn already – a six-furlong statebred race followed by a neck victory in an open-company first-level allowance Feb. 8. Honey’s to Blame is out of the Harlan’s Holiday mare Harlee Honey. McPeek trained Harlan’s Holiday through the Triple Crown of 2002, winning the Florida Derby and Blue Grass with him. McPeek said Honey’s to Blame reminds him of Harlan’s Holiday. “Very workmanlike, very efficient, very hard-trying,” McPeek said. “That’s the Harlan’s Holiday coming out of him. He will run well, this horse. No doubt about it.” McPeek has two other fringe players in the Derby picture. Universe, fourth in the Risen Star, could come back in the Louisiana Derby or Jeff Ruby Steaks. Right to Party, a maiden winner in his second start, runs in Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct. Right to Party, a son of Constitution, finished nine lengths behind Iron Honor – the likely Gotham favorite – when both debuted at Aqueduct in December. :: Live racing action at Oaklawn Park! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Neither Honey’s to Blame nor Right to Party are nominated to the Triple Crown as of yet. Both could be nominated for a fee of $6,000 by the next deadline on April 6. ◗ Talkin, runner-up to Napoleon Solo in the Grade 1 Champagne, will most likely scratch from Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth to run in the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 7, trainer Danny Gargan said. The Fountain of Youth marks the 3-year-old debut of Grade 1 Champagne winner Napoleon Solo and includes impressive Mucho Macho Man Stakes winner Commandment, undefeated Swale Stakes winner Solitude Dude, and the unbeaten Jackson Hole. ◗ Iron Honor, a sharp debut winner of a Dec. 13 maiden race at Aqueduct, will likely be favored in the Gotham, which will scratch down to eight as Creole Chrome will remain at Fair Grounds to run in a Louisiana-bred stakes. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.