LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Winning the Kentucky Derby is extremely difficult. Just getting one to the starting gate on the first Saturday in May is nearly as hard. Whether the defection happens in January, such as with champion Ted Noffey, or late March as was the case with Paladin, a horse isn’t in the Derby until he’s actually in the starting gate. On Wednesday morning, just 81 hours before Kentucky Derby 152 was to go to post, trainer Mark Casse revealed that Silent Tactic will have to scratch from the race due to a bruised foot. Silent Tactic, listed at 20-1 on the morning line, won the Grade 3 Southwest and had finished second in three other Kentucky Derby points-scoring races at Oaklawn Park this season, including a runner-up finish to Renegade in the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby. Casse said the issue is with Silent Tactic’s left front foot. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on Past Performances, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. “It’s a bruise that he’s dealt with for a long time,” Casse said. “Just not 100 percent happy with it. It’s very slight, but you can’t run in the Derby and not be 100 percent. So, we’re going to work on it and hope to try to make the Preakness.” Silent Tactic, owned by John Oxley, was to have been the first Kentucky Derby mount for jockey Cristian Torres. Silent Tactic was drawn in post 13, so horses from posts 14-20 will move down one slot. For now, that puts potential Derby favorite Further Ado in post 17, a post that oddly has never produced a Kentucky Derby winner (0 for 46). Great White, first on the also-eligible list, draws into the field. He was cross-entered in Saturday’s Grade 2 Pat Day Mile but will run in the Kentucky Derby, trainer John Ennis said. “He has been doing great since he shipped here,” Ennis said. “Very happy to get in, let’s see what we can do.” Great White, who won the John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park, finished fifth in the Blue Grass after setting the pace. “Didn’t want to be on the lead in the Blue Grass, and we won’t be on the lead this time,” Ennis said. Three horses remain on the also-eligible list. In order, they are Ocelli, Robusta, and Corona de Oro. They would need additional scratches before 9 a.m. Friday to get into the race. Unlike some of his colleagues who lost Derby contenders along the way, Casse didn’t have a secondary runner who qualified for this year’s race. Trainers Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown had the good fortune of having multiple 3-year-olds to point to the Derby when some of their top contenders were forced to the sidelines earlier in the year. Pletcher will send out Renegade as the possible favorite in Saturday’s Derby. Pletcher came into the year hoping to get champion 2-year-old male Ted Noffey to the race. Ted Noffey won three Grade 1 stakes at age 2, including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. He was declared off the Triple Crown trail in January with what was diagnosed as bone bruising. :: Get DRF Kentucky Oaks & Derby Clocker Reports by Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team “You’d always like the 2-year-old champ to go on and perform well at 3, and we still think he’s going to have the opportunity to do that,” Pletcher said on a rainy Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. “Unfortunately, he needed some time off after a solid 2-year-old campaign, felt like we had to make that decision early enough to give him time to have hopefully, a productive summer and fall campaign.” Renegade, who finished second in the Remsen last December at Aqueduct, hadn’t made his 3-year-old debut by the time the decision was made to stop on Ted Noffey. Renegade has established himself as the favorite or second choice in the Derby with strong winning performances in the Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. “We had high hopes for him,” Pletcher said. “After the Remsen, he’d pretty much stamped himself as a legitimate contender. To finish up the way he did [in the Remsen] after the traffic he encountered going into the first turn and the way he had run before that and the way he trained, we went into the winter thinking he’s a legitimate candidate.” Spendthrift Farm owns Ted Noffey. Spendthrift will still have a top-flight contender in the Derby in Further Ado, whose résumé includes a victory in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill at 2 and a powerful 11-length victory in the Grade 1 Blue Grass at Keeneland last month. Ned Toffey, the general manager of Spendthrift for whom Ted Noffey is named, said given what Ted Noffey accomplished at 2 he can’t be disappointed with missing the Derby. However, the emergence of Further Ado certainly makes it easier to feel that way. “This colt has done nothing but improve, and I’m really excited about his chances,” Toffey said after watching Further Ado gallop Wednesday morning. “For everyone, it’s an unknown. Right now, it’s just the anticipation of, is he as good we think he is? Is he going to get a good trip?” Further Ado is trained by Brad Cox, who has two other horses in the race, and will be ridden by three-time Kentucky Derby winner John Velazquez, who had been the regular rider of Ted Noffey. Toffey said that Ted Noffey is currently doing light exercise at Ian Brennan’s farm in Ocala, Fla. He could start galloping next week, Toffey said. “We’re very much on track for the schedule we hoped to be on for a latter part of the year,” Toffey said. “He’s doing a little bit of light cross-training right now.” :: Get DRF Kentucky Oaks & Derby Betting Strategies by Marcus Hersh and David Aragona. Full analysis and wager recommendations! Chad Brown came into the year with one of the favorites after Paladin won the Grade 2 Remsen, which followed a maiden victory, gained by disqualification, in his debut. While excited to run Emerging Market, a horse who is 2 for 2, including a victory in the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby, Brown would have liked to have come in double-fisted. “It’s always going to be disappointing no matter what the outcome of the race is Saturday,” Brown said. “Meaning, if Emerging Market were to win, if Renegade were to win, anything associated with either my barn or the horses that Paladin beat. No matter the outcome I’ll always wonder what if? “I’ll never quite get over that one, but you got to turn the page and move on and just hope he has a good career going forward,” added Brown, who said Paladin could return to him at Saratoga around July 1. “Look, I’d love to have both of them here and two good chances at it. Tough race to win.” Equally tough race to make. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.