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Who appeared to be doing best in the weeks leading up this year's Kentucky Derby? The following is a brief rundown of the field, with observations made during training hours on a daily basis at Churchill Downs over the past 12 mornings.
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At one end of the stable area there is Sierra Leone, a well-bred, magnificent-looking specimen who cost $2.3 million and hails from some of the most powerful connections in the sport. At the other, there is West Saratoga, a modestly bred, ordinary-looking gray who cost $11,000 and hails from connections with humble beginnings. In the middle there is Fierceness, the probable Derby favorite.
Join Daily Racing Form's Brad Free and Andrew Beyer as they discuss the 2024 Kentucky Derby, providing selections and analysis.
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The acquisition of Sunday Silence, a Kentucky Derby winner, raised the stature of a relatively modest Japanese breeding industry, but no one could have imagined the heights to which Sunday Silence would take Japanese bloodstock nor the arc of influence the horse would have geographically and through time.
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Sunday offered a picture-perfect morning at Churchill Downs to pretty much close the book on the final major preparations for this year’s Kentucky Derby, with only the two Japanese invaders, Forever Young and T O Password, likely to record an official work in the days ahead.
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Trainer Steve Asmussen arrived in Kentucky around 3:30 a.m. Sunday and two hours later was at Churchill to watch Track Phantom put in his final workout before Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
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Aside from the fact that a horse has never won the race from post 17, trainer Todd Pletcher seemed relatively happy with that post position after Fierceness drew it for Kentucky Derby 150 to be run May 4 at Churchill Downs.
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Any doubts about whether the connections of Encino would decide to enter their lightly raced, but rapidly improving colt, in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday were answered in a mere 59.44 seconds early that morning. That was the time it took the Lexington Stakes winner to work five furlongs in company with his more heralded and also Derby-bound stablemate Catching Freedom over a very fast and almost totally deserted Churchill Downs racetrack within minutes of its opening at 5:15 a.m.
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Encino, just two weeks after winning the Lexington Stakes to earn enough points to make the field, sealed his connections’ decision to run in next week’s Kentucky Derby with a superb five-furlong workout shortly after 5:15 a.m. Saturday.
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The trainer-jockey team of Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez was arguably the most successful in racing for much of the last 25 years. In recent years, the two have found more of their success with other partners. But for Kentucky Derby 150, the band is back together.
