A financial success on Wall Street, Vinnie Viola has built a powerful racing stable over the last few years. Saturday, Viola, his wife, Teresa, and myriad friends will seek the ultimate racing prize when they run Always Dreaming in the 143rd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
The TimeformUS Pace Projector attempts to predict how a race will unfold early.
Dominick Schettino will watch Saturday's 143rd Kentucky Derby with mixed emotions.
On Friday, Flavien Prat will be riding Santa Anita Oaks winner Paradise Woods in the Kentucky Oaks – she is the morning line favorite – then on Saturday the young Frenchman will make his Kentucky Derby debut aboard Battle of Midway, runner-up last time out in the Santa Anita Derby. Jerry Hollendorfer, who trains Battle of Midway, has no qualms about hitching his fortunes to a Derby rookie, while Dan Ward, Hollendorfer's assistant, calls Prat “a difference-maker.”
Last year, Florent Geroux had the lead aboard Gun Runner turning into the stretch of the Kentucky Derby. This time around, Geroux figures to be near the back of the pack with Hence.
Classic Empire landed post 14 and McCraken post 15 as part of a full field of 20 – plus two also-eligibles – who were entered Wednesday in the Kentucky Derby.
Classic Empire entered this year as the juvenile champion and Kentucky Derby winter-book favorite. He's right back where he started, tabbed as the morning-line favorite when post positions for the Derby were drawn Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs.
He has had about seven years to regularly practice his English, but after he speaks for a while outside his native tongue, Spanish, you can hear Antonio Sano wearying. He sprinkles in a “si” here, a “pero” there, casts for the right word, but continues on gamely, trying to describe how he came to Churchill Downs last week from Florida with a horse named Gunnevera. It is quite a tale.
Weather will be a major topic of conversation as the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby draw closer. It is likely to play a determining factor in where trainer Ian Kruljac runs his reigning champion female sprinter Finest City this week at Churchill Downs.
For Thunder Snow's exercise rider Daragh O’Donohoe, Tuesday's training session at Churchill Downs was a trip down memory lane.
