LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When not wearing his old-school protective helmet while atop his stable pony, trainer Bill Mott can usually be seen sporting a New York Yankees baseball cap. On a recent morning on the Churchill Downs backstretch, Mott had a grayish cap emblazoned with a double-bordered green and white diamond, the stable symbol of his son Riley.

“I’m very proud of him,” said the elder Mott, whose own stable symbol is a singular bordered green and white diamond.

The $1.25 million Iowa Festival of Racing in July and the $1.25 million Iowa Classic card in September will again anchor the Prairie Meadows meet that opens on Saturday. There will be 76 days of racing through Sept. 26.

The Iowa Festival of Racing features eight stakes over two days, with the $225,000 Iowa Oaks leading four stakes for fillies or mares on July 10, and the Grade 3, $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap and $250,000 Iowa Derby the focus of four stakes on July 11.

Unbeaten on turf last year, Deterministic will get back to business with high expectations in the Fort Marcy on Saturday at Aqueduct. The 5-year-old will tackle the Grade 3 stakes without a prep, but trainer Miguel Clement is confident in his preparation.

“He’s doing great,” Clement said. “I’m very bullish. It’s just time to bring him back.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Workout watching has become an increasingly popular pastime in the age-old quest to sort out the top contenders and ultimately pick the winner of the Kentucky Derby. This year’s talented crop of 3-year-olds has done its very best to make that task a lot more challenging than usual, with so many impressive performances to choose from during training hours in the weeks leading up to the big event.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Racing, perhaps more than any other sport, is about family. Working with horses isn’t as much a job as it is a way of life. The 24/7, 365-day nature of the profession makes it this way.

The theme of family, shared experiences or sense of loss, permeates throughout Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, the annual two-minute highlight for this industry that plays out for the 152nd time beneath the twin spires at Churchill Downs.

Bill Mott took a look at the prospective field for the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, a one-mile race with a $1 million purse. To hell with the second-level allowance he had circled for the French import Temptable. Why not go for the gold?

Temptable and eight others are going for it. Solid horses populate this field, no doubt, but million-dollar-purse horses? Not exactly.

What a difference a year makes.

Prior to the start of the 2025 meet at Emerald Downs, in an interview with the Seattle Times, Emerald Downs president Phil Ziegler cited a lack of financial support from the Washington State Legislature and untenable fees levied by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority as factors that could prevent the Auburn, Wash., track from hosting live racing in 2026.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Kentucky Derby will command center stage as always on the first Saturday of May at Churchill Downs, although die-hard racing fans and hardcore horseplayers might agree the event they are most clamoring to see on the 14-race program is the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs Stakes.

The seven-furlong showdown lured a stellar field led by Knightsbridge that also includes an intriguing mix of top-class sprinters and one-turn milers such as Imagination, Cornucopian, Disruptor, Disco Time, Hall of Fame, Banishing, and Japanese invader T O Elvis, among others.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seven of the 10 entrants in Saturday’s Grade 2, $600,000 Twin Spires Turf Sprint are exiting the Shakertown Stakes. But the one you want in the Twin Spires isn’t necessarily the Shakertown winner.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It is not a particularly strong field for a Grade 2, and so what? The defection of Gold Phoenix from the Charles Whittingham Stakes gives the longest shot in the field a better chance to spring an upset Saturday at Santa Anita.

Seven were entered the $200,000 Whittingham, a 1 1/4-mile turf race that would have featured a nine-time graded winner. However, Gold Phoenix scratched from the Whittingham to run Saturday at Churchill Downs in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Turf Classic.