Join Daily Racing Form's Brad Free and Andrew Beyer as they discuss the 2024 Kentucky Derby, providing selections and analysis.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Encino, the Lexington Stakes winner, has been withdrawn from the Kentucky Derby due to a soft tissue strain in his right front leg, trainer Brad Cox said Tuesday afternoon.
The scratch of Encino allows Epic Ride into the field and leaves Mugatu one deep on the also-eligible list. Encino drew post 9. Horses that were drawn in posts 10 through 20 will now move in one spot. Mugatu would need a scratch by 9 a.m. Friday to get into the race.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jockey Kazushi Kimura has gotten acquainted with his Kentucky Derby mount T O Password the last couple of mornings at Churchill Downs. Tuesday was a better experience than Monday.
After nearly being unseated by T O Password during a routine gallop Monday morning when the horse spooked from something in the stretch, Kimura got a much better feeling from his Derby longshot when he guided him through a five-furlong move in 1:00.06 over Churchill’s main track.
A place in the Kentucky Derby starting gate is a coveted dream. It also is one of the hardest places in racing to get into, despite a larger gate, literally, than other prestigious American races.
It’s a sad song.
It’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy.
It’s a sad song.
We’re gonna sing it anyway.
– 2019 Tony Award-winning musical “Hadestown”
Black Gold’s story is tragic. The game little black horse died at Fair Grounds after breaking down in January 1928, racing through lameness and past his prime. It was a failure on the part of the humans in his life – and a coda to the tragedy in their own lives.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Clear
Temperature: 67 degrees
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Monday proved to be a pretty quiet morning on the Kentucky Derby and Oaks watch with perhaps the most eventful moment taking place about 100 yards from the finish line where T O Password shied from a shadow on the track, nearly unseating his rider in the process while in the latter stages of his routine gallop.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A year after he experienced the worst week of his professional life, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. is back at Churchill Downs with a longshot chance in the Kentucky Derby.
Joseph is here with Catalytic, who earned his way into the Kentucky Derby by finishing second, albeit beaten 13 1/2 lengths by Fierceness, in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.
Even a last-place finish in the Derby would be better for Joseph than what he experienced in 2023.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Just about all the major workouts have been completed. The post positions have been assigned. For the connections of the 22 horses entered in Saturday’s 150th Kentucky Derby the waiting becomes the hardest part.
Adding to the anxiety and anticipation this week are the daily examinations of the horses being conducted by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission veterinarians led by Dr. Nick Smith, the commission’s chief veterinarian.
ALBANY, Calif. - When the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile was run at Golden Gate Fields in April 2023, jockey Irving Orozco was in a nearby hospital being treated for a punctured lung and bruised ribs sustained in a spill earlier that afternoon.
He did not ride again for four months.
When the San Francisco Mile was run for the final time on Saturday, Orozco was very much part of the action. He rode local hope Lammas to a well-timed upset from off the pace.
