Racing after Kentucky Derby begins Thursday at Churchill
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Churchill Downs begins its post-Kentucky Derby season with an eight-race “Twilight Thursday” card with a first post of 5 p.m.
There are a pair of allowance-level events on the card, including a $127,000 conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds and up going 1 3/16 miles on the main track. Giant Game, who first got notice when third in the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile for Dale Romans, comes in off back-to-back runner-up efforts at Gulfstream. He is stretching out after both those efforts came at a mile.
Principe d’Oro was second by a neck to Barber Road after setting the pace in a Keeneland allowance race last out for Todd Pletcher.
The Thursday card also includes a $141,000 allowance/optional-claiming race for older horses on the turf; and a pair of maiden special weights for 2-year-olds.
The Churchill Downs spring-summer meet runs through July 3. After the star-studded opening week, there are still 28 stakes races left on the meet schedule, highlighted by the Grade 1, $1 million Stephen Foster and five supporting stakes on July 1. There are six stakes races set for a Stephen Foster preview day card on June 3.
◗ With the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks, both of which hosted massive crowds, now complete, Churchill Downs will soon resume front-side construction, including work on the $200 million redesign of the paddock.
The new paddock, which includes saddling stalls on either side of the tunnel to the track, a larger walking ring, and a sweeping view of the twin spires, still requires additional work, including on the permanent saddling stalls and spectator viewing locations. The construction time line included a stopping point in order to be ready to host fans for the opening of the current meet on April 29. The renovation will be complete in time for next year’s 150th anniversary Derby.
As construction progresses, pre-race activity will take place in another temporary paddock, set up on the inside of the backstretch chute near the stable area and adjacent to Churchill’s new first-turn seating.
◗ Through the first six cards of the spring-summer meet, Luis Saez rode 12 winners, including a pair of graded stakes winners, to hold an early lead in the rider standings. Tyler Gaffalione has ridden four winners, including Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous.
Brad Cox saddled seven winners, including four stakes winners. Todd Pletcher and Brendan Walsh – who trains Pretty Mischievous – won four races each.
◗ Longtime Kentucky horseman Steve Penrod retired from Churchill Downs at the conclusion of the Kentucky Derby card.
Penrod, a former trainer who retired in 2011, has been visible in a variety of roles, including as a seasonal racing official at both Churchill Downs and Keeneland and as a paddock judge.
Highlights of his training career, in which he handled a division for Claiborne Farm, included winning the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Sintra in 1984 at Keeneland, for which the late monarch presented the trophy.
“She was very cordial and asked me a couple of questions,” Penrod recalled in a 2016 interview at Keeneland. “It is kind of vague now about what exactly we said, but I do remember she was very cordial.”
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