2012 Kentucky Derby: Union Rags early favorite; Oaks/Derby daily double will pays
At 6-1, Union Rags is a slight favorite for Saturday’s 138th Kentucky Derby through 7:20 p.m. Eastern on Friday.
David GreningMay 04, 2012
At 6-1, Union Rags is a slight favorite for Saturday’s 138th Kentucky Derby through 7:20 p.m. Eastern on Friday.
On the day before last year’s Kentucky Derby, trainer Todd Pletcher somberly announced the scratch of Uncle Mo from the world’s most famous horse race. On the day before this year’s year Kentucky Derby, Pletcher was in much better spirits as he gets set to run Gemologist and El Padrino in Saturday’s Derby.
Daddy Long Legs sweated profusely on the Churchill Downs track on Friday morning, but that is typical of Aidan O'Brien-trained horses.
At age 46, jockey Mike Smith finds himself in a good place both on and off the track and will ride Bodemeister in Saturday's Kentucky Derby. They could go favored, even in the face of the formidable Union Rags and the unbeaten Wood Memorial winner Gemologist, not to mention the fact that Bodemeister will attempt to become the first Derby winner since 1882 without racing experience as a 2-year-old.
All 20 prospective starters in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby visited the racetrack on Friday morning for a variety of training activity that ranged from a very easy jog by Creative Cause to two-mile gallops from Optimizer and Done Talking.
There were no scratches by scratch time Friday morning from the main body of the field for the 138th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, so My Adonis, the lone also-eligible in the race, was officially scratched.
Countdown to the Crown returns for a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class.
I have no quarrel with those who say this is an unusually wide-open Kentucky Derby, with a dozen legitimate candidates to win the roses and a history of extremely close finishes among them. Two of them, however, stand out to me, and while I'd like to be more imaginative than ending up with the two favorites, that's who I've got.
Once on top of the racing world, trainer Patrick Byrne fell into obscurity for a decade. Now he returns to the spotlight with Take Charge Indy in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
With two Breeders' Cups and a Preakness win to his name, trainer Dale Romans has built one of the most successful racing operations in the nation, and in Dullahan he has his best Derby shot yet.