Hozier declared out of Kentucky Derby
Hozier was declared out of the Kentucky Derby as the field continues to shift with one week remaining before the May 1 classic.
Nicole RussoApr 23, 2021
Hozier was declared out of the Kentucky Derby as the field continues to shift with one week remaining before the May 1 classic.
In sharp contrast to the previous several days, action was fast and furious on the Kentucky Derby/Oaks front Friday morning at Churchill Downs, with 10 potential Derby starters and seven Oaks candidates, including three of the likely top five betting choices, getting in their final serious preps.
Dream Shake, third in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 3, will start in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile on May 1 at Churchill Downs and not the Kentucky Derby on the same day, trainer Peter Eurton said Friday.
On Saturday, McAnally will attempt to add “Kentucky Derby-winning breeder” to his overflowing résumé, and add another chapter to an improbable story that reads as though it was penned by Charles Dickens.
You had to get up early to see the highlight of Thursday’s training session, which was turned in by O Besos, the lone Kentucky Derby worker of the morning, who came out to breeze under the lights shortly after 5:30 a.m. The work was designated as four furlongs from the three-eighths pole by trainer Greg Foley, but it turned out to be so much more.
Medina Spirit has been a constant presence in 3-year-old stakes at Santa Anita since the beginning of the year, and consistent enough to merit a start in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 1. Thursday at Santa Anita, Medina Spirit worked six furlongs in 1:12.20, a day before his scheduled departure to Kentucky.
Kentucky Derby 147 is all set for May 1, less than eight months after 146 was run last September, marking the shortest span between renewals of America's greatest race. That's a dubious record everyone would just as soon forget – so it's onward and upward as the Churchill Downs spring meet gets underway Saturday evening with a 10-race card.
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!
Dream Shake, third in the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, and Get Her Number, fourth in the Arkansas Derby on April 10 at Oaklawn Park, remain in consideration for the Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs, their California-based trainers said Wednesday.
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