Jerardi: Dortmund still looks good, but no cinch
I still like Dortmund to win the Kentucky Derby, but there is no way I can be as confident as I was with California Chrome last year.
Dick JerardiApr 22, 2015
I still like Dortmund to win the Kentucky Derby, but there is no way I can be as confident as I was with California Chrome last year.
After the final scoring race for the Kentucky Derby is run, the Derby Watch top 20 becomes entirely points driven, and any horse who works his way into the top 20 must be included, even if the Derby Watch committee doesn’t think much of his chances or even if his starting status is in doubt.
Far from the slowly swelling hubbub at Churchill Downs, Kentucky Derby hopeful Mubtaahij worked three furlongs Tuesday morning at Arlington in a reported 36.20 seconds.
Bob Baffert came to Churchill Downs on Tuesday to watch American Pharoah gallop and one of his two possible Oaks contenders, Maybellene, breeze during the 15-minute Derby-Oaks training session, which began at 8:30 a.m.
John Velazquez will ride Carpe Diem and Javier Castellano will ride Materiality in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Todd Pletcher announced late Monday afternoon.
WinStar Farm announced Monday that it has acquired a minority interest in leading Kentucky Derby contender Upstart from his principal owner, Ralph Evans.
Photos tell stories. This one, in muted gray, depicts two men flanking a dark Thoroughbred with an irregular splash of white sliding down her sweat-streaked face, eye rolling wildly in an afterburn of fatigued nerves. The figure on the left gazes off into space, a shadow of a smile playing across his lips. The other stares intently at the horse, his horse, who has just accomplished what many thought impossible.
What figured to be a far from noteworthy Kentucky Derby-Oaks training session Monday got an unexpected boost when reigning female sprint champion Judy the Beauty worked six furlongs after the renovation break at 8:30 a.m. Judy the Beauty is scheduled to make her 2015 debut in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff here a week from Saturday.
The first fallout from the injury to One Lucky Dane occurred on Sunday, when Keith Brackpool, a co-owner of Bolo, announced via Twitter that Rafael Bejarano would ride Bolo in the Kentucky Derby on May 2, the first of several jockey assignments that are expected to be made in the next 48 hours.
Only five potential Kentucky Derby starters galloped here at Churchill Downs on a bleary Sunday morning which featured intermittent showers and a racetrack downgraded from fast to sloppy following the renovation break.