LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Just before 8:30 Tuesday morning on the Churchill Downs backstretch, Daragh O’Donohoe got a leg up on Thunder Snow and headed toward the main gap near the five-furlong marker and out onto Churchill’s racing oval. For Thunder Snow, who won the UAE Derby at Meydan Racecourse in his most-recent start and traveled here after a short stop in England, it was his first time stepping onto the Churchill surface as he prepares for the Kentucky Derby. For O’Donohoe, it was a trip down memory lane.
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John Piesen, a longtime public handicapper who had a 10-year stint at Daily Racing Form, died on Tuesday at Haven Hospice in Edison, N.J., according to family members. Piesen was 80.
Piesen, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., worked for nearly two decades at the New York Post as a public handicapper. While at the Post, Piesen made picks for a variety of tracks and wrote a trip-handicapping column called “Through the Binoculars,” and was known to press box colleagues as "Binocs."
Churchill Downs
Weather: Clear
Fast/firm
Temp. 53
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All the works are in the books, but there is still plenty of work left to do as horsemen put the key, final touches preparing their horses for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An oversubscribed field was entered Tuesday morning for the Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Oaks, the 3-year-old filly classic to be run Friday for the 143rd time at Churchill Downs.
Paradise Woods, an 11 3/4-length winner of the Santa Anita Oaks in just her third start, is the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/8-mile Oaks. Flavien Prat will be aboard from post 4 for trainer Richard Mandella.
“She’s come a long way fast with only three races,” said Mandella.
Louisiana Derby winner Girvin, troubled by a quarter crack in his right front hoof during the early part of last week, galloped Tuesday at Keeneland and remains on track to start in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, trainer Joe Sharp said.
The Tuesday gallop came under Sharp’s wife, former jokey Rosie Napravnik, and followed a five-furlong workout in 59.60 seconds Saturday at Keeneland. Girvin had a walk day on Sunday, and then a day of swimming at the KESMARC rehabilitation facility near Keeneland on Monday.
CHURCHILL DOWNS Weather: Cloudy
Track: Sloppy/good
Temp.: 57
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen was a busy man Monday morning at Churchill Downs, where all his hard work was rewarded by spot-on breezes from his three Kentucky Derby contenders, highlighted by a razor-sharp half-mile drill by Hence during the Oaks-Derby training session.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer John Shirreffs arrived at Churchill Downs on Monday knowing he had one horse in this year’s Kentucky Derby and hoping he’d end up with two. The window was closing but not quite shut just yet.
Shirreffs trains Gormley, the Santa Anita Derby winner, and Royal Mo, who finished third in the race. Gormley is safely in the field for the 143rd Derby on Saturday, but the number of points earned by Royal Mo has him sitting 21st in a race that has a maximum of 20 runners.
He is the four-time reigning champion jockey, is closing in on 100 Grade 1 stakes victories, and just two weeks ago was elected into Thoroughbred racing’s Hall of Fame.
When it comes to the sport’s Triple Crown races, however, Javier Castellano has not been nearly as successful. Castellano has just one win from 25 mounts in the Triple Crown series comprised of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. The win came in the 2006 Preakness on Bernardini, a victory largely overshadowed by the breakdown of Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro early in the race.
Farrell, one of the favorites for the 143rd Kentucky Oaks on Friday, could have gotten her name from most anywhere. There’s the actor (Colin Farrell), a town (Farrell, Pa.), a soccer player (Andrew Farrell), and an ice cream (Farrell’s) – and if you’re just being phonetic, there’s the comedian (Will Ferrell) and the rapper (Pharrell Williams).
LOUISVILLE. Ky. - Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg had hoped for a joyous celebration of the 30-year anniversary of his 1987 Kentucky Derby victory with Alysheba by having a starter in the Derby this year.
Instead, Van Berg is back at Churchill Downs with a heavy heart – and not because none of his 3-year-olds panned out. His oldest son and former longtime assistant, Tim Van Berg, died suddenly April 19 at his California home at age 59.