Weather was the story on Tuesday at Churchill Downs, with rain, heavy at times, beginning just as the track opened for training and continuing right up to the first renovation break nearly two hours later.
The homework now begins in earnest for the jockeys of the 148th Kentucky Derby following Monday afternoon's post position draw. "[A lot] depends on me and studying my race," said Reylu Gutierrez, who will ride the late-running Barber Road as his first Derby mount.
After 18 years of trials and tribulations, Al Gold scored his first Grade 1 victory when Cyberknife won the $1.25 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. Saturday, Cyberknife will be Gold's first starter in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
Summer Is Tomorrow had a quiet Tuesday morning, walking at the quarantine barn that houses the international candidates for the Kentucky Derby a day after turning in his final breeze toward the race, and a day after drawing a post position that will make his early moves key in the run to the first turn.
Epicenter, no worse than second choice for the Kentucky Derby, galloped one mile just after the Churchill Downs track opened for training on a rainy Tuesday morning. The Louisiana Derby winner came out of a five-furlong workout Sunday in good shape and after tack-walking on Monday quickly returned to galloping, a good sign for his Derby chances.
Zandon drew post 10 and was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite, and Epicenter landed post 3 and was installed the second choice at 7-2, as a full field of 20, plus two also-eligibles, had posts assigned Monday afternoon at Churchill Downs for the 148th Kentucky Derby on Saturday.
The Albaugh Family Stables’ Not This Time debuted for a $15,000 stud fee in 2017 at Taylor Made Stallions in Nicholasville, Ky., after injury curtailed his promising career. He has since been on a breakout ascent in the stallion ranks. From just his second crop, the stallion will have two runners in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby - Epicenter and Simplification.
When the colt Justify came to the Kentucky Derby in 2018, one might have mistaken the racing pages for tales of classical mythology or reports on the late-60s space program.
Although the majority of this year's Derby field completed their final serious preps over the weekend at various venues around the country, there was still a little unfinished business to take care of workout-wise, the first of which took place during the special Derby-Oaks training session this morning, with Summer Is Tomorrow breezing an easy half-mile in 49.23 seconds.
Gun Runner and Arrogate were later-blooming, distance-loving runners who were both expected to sire classic-type horses. Both will be represented with first-crop fillies in Friday's Kentucky Oaks – but the two arrived at the classic via different paths.
