Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said there were a lot of reasons that led him to choose New York-based Jose Lezcano to ride Rousing Sermon in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
Following his Monday arrival, Wood Memorial runner-up Alpha was on the track Tuesday morning for a 1 3/8-mile gallop. Though a routine exercise, it was significant in the fact that his presence here made the Derby seem more of a reality to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
Join The Wizard for a live Kentucky Derby handicapping chat tonight, Tuesday May 1, at 5 p.m. Eastern.
D. Wayne Lukas has trained four winners of the Kentucky Derby, and three of his former assistants have horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Now they can have a reunion in the saddling paddock on Saturday afternoon, because on Tuesday morning, Lukas got the word he so desperately craved for days, that enough horses above Optimizer on the graded earnings list had come out to allow him in.
Rousing Sermon worked five furlongs in 1:00.13 at Churchill Downs on Tuesday, the only potential Kentucky Derby starter to work over a racetrack upgraded from good to fast following the renovation break.
Trinniberg is going to have a significant impact on the 138th Derby. It just may not be the type of impact that the owner imagines.
The field is in the home stretch as far as Kentucky Derby workouts are concerned. Five more prospective Derby runners turned in their final major preps on Monday, including Santa Anita Derby runner-up Creative Cause and Mark Valeski, a horse who has yet to be confirmed a definite Derby starter by his trainer, Larry Jones
Evidently there exists, at some obscure black market or on a forgotten dusty shelf of an ancient pharmacy, an antitdote to the illness that strikes the Thoroughbred world each spring -- Derby fever. And the Joneses, former Kentucky governor Brereton and trainer Larry, have procured a dose of it.
More than the maximum of 20 want to run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, with Optimizer's fate hinging on whether trainer Larry Jones decides whether or not to run Mark Valeski.,
Each day during Derby Week, Steven Crist will answer a Kentucky Derby Handicapping Question of the Day. Crist will select questions from Facebook, Twitter, his blog, or the comments on this answer page to tackle on DRF.com Monday through Friday.
