Quip, who won the Tampa Bay Derby and most recently was second in the Arkansas Derby, will bypass the Kentucky Derby on May 5 at Churchill Downs and instead be pointed to the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown.
According to a press release put out by his majority owner, Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Gronkowski has a slight infection and will miss the May 5 Kentucky Derby.
West Point Thoroughbreds has purchased an interest in multiple graded stakes winner My Boy Jack, chasing the Kentucky Derby in partnership for the second straight year.
With slight urging in the stretch, Bolt d’Oro worked seven furlongs in 1:24.20 at Santa Anita on Sunday, his second-to-last major exercise before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 5.
As the spring classics approach, the big differences this year between the 3-year-old male and 3-year-old female divisions come into sharp focus.
The smile that has been a seemingly permanent fixture on trainer Chad Brown’s face throughout April at Keeneland, as his barn continues a strong meet and he prepares juvenile champion Good Magic for the Kentucky Derby, slipped for just an instant.
The unbeaten and lightly raced Justify, the current favorite for the Kentucky Derby on May 5, turned in his penultimate drill for the race early Saturday morning at Santa Anita, officially going six furlongs in 1:13 after breaking off at the five-furlong pole.
It seems appropriate that the Kentucky Derby, a race unlike any other, is approached that way by many bettors. For some, Derby opinions are formulated days or even weeks in advance, not by the usual method of analyzing past performances but instead by story lines or obscure historical statistics that captured their attention.
Keith Desormeaux's Derby horse, My Boy Jack, a stakes winner on grass at 2, won the Southwest Stakes in February and finished a close third in the subsequent Louisiana Derby. The Kentucky Derby will be his 10th start, more than anything else in the likely field.
It was 73 degrees, the wind was calm, the sky was sunny, and the racetrack in perfect condition when Kentucky Derby contender Enticed and his multiple Grade 2-placed workmate, Take Charge Paula, came out to breeze shortly after the renovation break Thursday at Palm Meadows. Conditions were so perfect that trainer Kiaran McLaughlin may never want to leave South Florida this spring.
