LOUISVILLE, Ky. – That ear-to-ear smile that can light up a room belies what jockey Tyler Gaffalione is really feeling. For even when he wins, Gaffalione isn’t completely satisfied.

“I’m never happy with where I’m at. I always want to get better, want to improve,” Gaffalione, 29, said this week. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.

“I can’t tell you how many races I’ve won where I don’t want to watch it just because it was not pretty,” Gaffalione added. “Some of my biggest wins.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Law Professor will make his first start for new connections on Sunday when he meets fellow Grade 2-winning millionaire Silver Prospector in the $200,000 Lake Ouachita at Oaklawn Park.

The 1 1/16-mile race for 4-year-olds and up closes out the meet. It’s part of an 11-race card capped by the $125,000 Trail’s End, a tradition-rich starter allowance at 1 3/4 miles.

The Lake Ouachita field of eight includes defending winner Ain’t Life Grand, wire-to-wire threat Frosted Departure, and four-time stakes winner Strong Tide.

Fallen Angel was deliberately given a brief four-race campaign as a 2-year-old in Europe last year, a season that ended with a Group 1 win in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at The Curragh in Ireland last September.

She did not start in the major stakes at Newmarket, England, last fall, or at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in November despite holding a fees-paid berth. Instead, the long-range focus was Sunday’s Group 1 English 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at a mile at Newmarket.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Mike Repole last Saturday stood outside trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn to talk about his Kentucky Derby favorite Fierceness after he came off the track following a training session. The mood was much more jovial than when Repole stood in a similar spot 51 weeks earlier.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Several of Woodbine’s top sprinters will meet in Sunday’s $100,000 Thorncliffe Stakes, including Rockcrest, who could be peaking in the 5 1/2-furlong overnight stakes on Tapeta.

Owned and trained by Nigel Burke, Rockcrest was the divisional leader last spring, during which he won a conditioned allowance/optional claimer and the Pink Lloyd Stakes. He tailed off late in the fall and got a break over the winter before starting twice at Gulfstream.

The nine-race card at Gulfstream Park on Sunday concludes with an intriguing pick four. If things fall the right way, the multi-race wager could pay a decent price. Likely favorites trained by Christophe Clement in the sixth and last race will have a big impact on the payoff, though.

1875 – Hal Price McGrath’s Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby with Oliver Lewis aboard for trainer Ansel Williamson. The first Derby is run at 1 1/2 miles.

1882 – Apollo wins the Derby without having run as a 2-year-old. No other horse would accomplish that feat – “the curse of Apollo” – until Justify 136 years later.

1913 – Donerail takes the Derby at a shocking 91-1, to this day the longest odds ever for a Kentucky Derby winner.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Can one really, truly know what it might feel like to participate in their first Kentucky Derby? Trainer Larry Demeritte, who has chased the Derby dream all the way from the Bahamas, has been doing his best for many years to be prepared when that call comes to make the walkover from the stable area.

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 67°
Track: Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The final special training session for Kentucky Derby and Oaks participants went off without incident Thursday at Churchill Downs. However, Domestic Product, who came out to train nearly 30 minutes later with the general population, did have to delay his gallop briefly due to a horse who lost its rider and got loose in his vicinity while he stood calmly along the outside rail about 100 yards from the finish line.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – At one end of the stable area there is Sierra Leone, a well-bred, magnificent-looking specimen who cost $2.3 million and hails from some of the most powerful connections in the sport. At the other, there is West Saratoga, a modestly bred, ordinary-looking gray who cost $11,000 and hails from connections with humble beginnings.