Kentucky Derby clocker: Derby and Oaks candidates greeted with snow and slop
Churchill Downs
Weather: SunnyTrack: SloppyTemp: 36
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Of all the four-letter words regularly uttered around the racetrack during the course of the year, one not heard very often in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby was on everybody’s lips when the racetrack opened for training Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs. Snow!
Sure enough, just 10 days out from Derby Day the turf course was covered in snow and the main track was sloppy when it opened, as usual, at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Those conditions prevailed throughout the near five-hour training session. The only scheduled Derby or Oaks worker for the day was O Besos, and the wet track forced postponement of the work. O Besos will now have his final Derby breeze on Thursday instead.
For the second consecutive morning, jogging and galloping were the order of the day for potential Derby and Oaks starters, with some trainers seemingly altering their original schedule due to the wet track.
Like the mailman, neither snow nor rain, etc., etc. could keep Essential Quality from his appointed rounds Wednesday. He is the Derby favorite and was the first Derby sighting Wednesday morning, turning in a routine gallop while seemingly handling the sloppy going without any issue. He was followed a short while later by stablemate Mandaloun, who continues to make a very favorable impression, cruising over the off going with plenty of energy for the second straight morning subsequent to his impressive work on Saturday.
I would hazard a guess that trainer Mark Casse likely altered his plans and opted to take the more conservative route because of the wet conditions with his Derby duo, Soup and Sandwich and Helium. He allowed the pair to do little more than jog nearly twice around the one-mile oval, with Soup and Sandwich accompanied by a stable pony throughout. Both came out well before dawn, with temperatures still hovering in the mid-30s.
The special Derby/Oaks training session at 7:30 saw just moderate action, including the appearance of Known Agenda and Dynamic One, two of the four Todd Pletcher Derby hopefuls, accompanied by the highly regarded Oaks candidate Malathaat. The trio altered their usual routine just a bit, going right off upon entering the track to gallop approximately 1 1/4 miles instead of backing up to the wire and travelling 1 3/8 to 1 1/2 miles as they had the previous two mornings. The three galloped single file but while socially distanced.
Highly Motivated and his Oaks-bound stablemate Search Results had to have trainer Chad Brown smiling after another solid morning for both. Neither was seemingly bothered at all by the wet track, with Search Results particularly impressive.
Pletcher sent out his final two Derby contenders, Bourbonic and Sainthood, with the general population shortly after 8 a.m., followed closely by colleague Steve Asmussen’s Derby-bound Super Stock and Oaks candidate Pauline’s Pearl. The added traffic forced Bourbonic’s rider to alter course around a couple of slower gallopers passing through the wire. The Wood winner, Bourbonic got a bit headstrong and proved a handful to pull up once completing his slightly abbreviated routine near the half-mile pole.
Weather conditions also may play a key role in determining both the time and day for the majority of the final Derby drills scheduled locally, with as many as 10 penciled in for Saturday morning. The Louisville area forecast is calling for a 90 percent chance of rain Saturday. The exact hour the front moves through likely will be the deciding factor on whether some of those works might be advanced to Friday or postponed until Sunday.