Ramon Vazquez has ridden Practical Move in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs many times in his mind.

“I can be in the middle of the pack,” he said over the weekend, envisioning the first run through the stretch. “I want to be out of trouble.”

On the backstretch, Practical Move will ideally be in a stalking position.

“I would like to be three or four lengths behind the speed and start moving up,” Vazquez said. “By the stretch, I hope to be on the lead. My dream is I win the race.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park moves into the final three dates of its meet Thursday with an excellent betting race, the $150,000 Natural State Breeders’ Stakes.

The field of 14 fillies and mares bred in Arkansas is a mix of stakes winners, route winners, and accomplished sprinters moving to two turns for the first time.

“Some of these girls can run,” said trainer Randy Morse, who has entered stakes winner Connie K and the undefeated Kantex. “The race is much deeper than typical.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After starting a Kentucky Derby horse in 2016, 2017, and 2018, trainer Keith Desormeaux had to wait five years for his next Derby runner, Confidence Game.

Desormeaux, come Derby Day, will have waited 10 weeks to run Confidence Game back after the colt won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. And even with the Derby still a week away, Desormeaux couldn’t wait for people to stop asking about the unusually long break between final prep and Derby start.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen sometimes watches the replay of the 2022 Kentucky Derby, just not from start to finish.

“I don’t think I’ve sat through the opening of the gates all the way to the wire because it’s like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Asmussen said. “It don’t bother me when I’m not thinking about it. Do I think about it? What?”

Asmussen is Thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading trainer with 10,082 wins. None have come in the Kentucky Derby, where he is winless with 24 starters in 16 runnings.

This is the first in a three-part series examining Secretariat’s influence on the Thoroughbred bloodstock industry as we mark the 50-year anniversary of his historic Triple Crown triumphs. This week, learn about Big Red’s record pre-Kentucky Derby syndication and how he flew the flag for his home state of Virginia.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It is now accepted legend that Secretariat was a freak of nature, a beast of a racehorse whose name became synonymous with greatness.

But when Secretariat was loaded into post 10 for the 99th Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1973, at Churchill Downs, he was no sure thing to win – let alone go on and become the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and an American sports icon for all time.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Doug Cowans is in unknown territory, and that might well be a good thing.

“I’ve never had a marathon horse like this before,” Cowans said, referring to the 5-year-old gelding Next, a romping winner of the Grade 2 Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance on Breeders’ Cup weekend last November at Keeneland.

The late pick four on Thursday at Gulfstream Park features four interesting races, beginning with a $40,000 optional maiden claimer in race 5 at 2:38 p.m.

Race 5: Sterling Harmony should be favored in the five-furlong dash on Tapeta. The 4-year-old son of Orb is coming off back-to-back runner-up finishes at the same level and distance for trainer Steven Dwoskin, who is having a strong meet. Sterling Harmony, who owns the best Beyer Speed Figures, could be sitting on a big effort in his third start as an older horse.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s not all that often you see a Grade 1 winner dropping down just two races later to compete in a non-graded stakes, but that’s the caliber of racing being staged these days on the Kentucky circuit.

Annapolis, the War Front colt who defeated older rivals last fall in winning the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile, will make his 4-year-old debut Thursday at Churchill Downs in the $300,000 Opening Verse, the richest of three stakes on an 11-race “Thurby” card that starts at 12:45 p.m. Eastern.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Champion Good Magic, who came up just shy in his appearance in the Kentucky Derby, is making a magical Derby debut as a sire.

Good Magic, who stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Paris, Ky., has a pair of runners in the Derby from his first crop in Florida Derby runner-up Mage and graded stakes winner Reincarnate.

Good Magic stands alongside his sire, Curlin, a prominent classic sire who will himself have two runners in Lord Miles and Skinner. Curlin’s son Keen Ice sired last year’s upset Derby winner, Rich Strike.