One of the biggest variables that can only be forecasted at this point is the ability to handle the Derby's 1 1/4-mile distance. It's a distance no horse in the field has faced, and one that many in the field will never see again in competition.
Perhaps Brown's biggest accomplishment on dirt was winning last November's Breeders' Cup Juvenile with the then-maiden Good Magic. That victory, over two-time Grade 1 winner Bolt d'Oro, earned Good Magic an Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male. Saturday, in the 144th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, Good Magic will attempt to become the third 2-year-old champion in the last four years to win this race.
Despite finishing outside the top 10 by first-crop average yearling sale price with his debut foals and being sold to stand in Korea before that group hit the track, Take Charge Indy sits atop the North American second-crop sire standings by winners, stakes winners, and earnings as the calendar rolls into Triple Crown season.
After Justify won the Santa Anita Derby and posted his third consecutive triple-digit Beyer, Santa Anita morning-line maker Jon White asked me if I knew how many horses had started their careers with three triple-digit Beyers. I did not know the answer, but was thinking it could not be many.
Trainer Chad Brown will have plenty to keep him busy Saturday before he runs Good Magic in the $2 million Kentucky Derby.
Seventeen of the 20 members of this year’s Kentucky Derby field went to the track at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs, but there was no doubt who the center of attention was during the special Derby-Oaks training session.
The unbeaten and lightly raced Justify landed post 7 and was installed as the favorite for the 144th Kentucky Derby on Saturday when posts were drawn on Tuesday at Churchill Downs.
Over a 15-year career than has encompassed over 17,000 rides, jockey James Graham has experienced most everything on horseback – except riding in the Kentucky Derby. That gap in his resume will come to the end Saturday when he pilots longshot Lone Sailor.
Unbeaten Justify's quest to win the Kentucky Derby and defy more than a century of racing history will begin from post 7 as he faces what is considered a highly competitive field for the Run for the Roses.
Horse racing stepped up to rattle the nation's fragile sensibilities in 1968, when two days after the May 4 Kentucky Derby, the victorious Dancer's Image became the first winner in the race's history to be disqualified, after a post-race urine sample identified as his turned up positive for the analgesic phenylbutazone, street name Bute.
