LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Omaha Beach, the morning-line favorite for the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, will be scratched owing to an entrapped epiglottis, trainer Richard Mandella said Wednesday.
“He was coughing, which made us suspicious, and we scoped him,” Mandella said.
“It's not anything we can fix to have him run on Saturday, so we’re going to have to scratch him.”
Mandella said the issue is “fixable,” but the timing is terrible.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jason Servis is bringing more than an undefeated Grade 1 winner to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. He’s bringing the scrutiny that goes with a high rate of success and an unconventional training method.
Servis trains Maximum Security, who began his career last Dec. 20 winning a maiden $16,000 claiming race at Gulfstream Park and 100 days later became a Grade 1 winner, taking the $1 million Florida Derby in authoritative fashion.
Editor's Note: Omaha Beach was scratched on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, shortly after this story was originally published.
During 2018, the Fox Hill Farms stable of owner Rick Porter won three races from 53 starts. Porter had one graded stakes starter, who lost.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Sunny
Temp.: 71
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Wednesday literally may have been the calm before the storm at Churchill Downs, with another picture-perfect morning likely to be followed by several days of rain, according to local forecasts, with the worst of that weather expected on Derby Day.
Bettors who had the foresight to back Champagne Anyone when the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager was held March 8-10 seem to have acquired the greatest wagering leverage toward the filly classic. The Ian Wilkes-trained filly was dismissed at 51-1 and figures to be among the top three or four favorites Friday in the 145th Oaks.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Midnight Bisou, the leading older female in the country, will make her next start in the Grade 1, $700,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park on June 8, trainer Steve Asmussen said Tuesday.
“I think it’s the right spot,” he said.
Midnight Bisou won the Grade 2 Mother Goose, also at Belmont, going 1 1/16 miles, last June in what was her first start for Asmussen. Midnight Bisou won the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx (via disqualification of Monomoy Girl) before finishing third behind Monomoy Girl in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff to complete her 3-year-old campaign.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a quirky statistic to be sure, being as there is no rhyme or reason for it, but the Wood Memorial is 0 for 15 years producing a top-three finisher in the Kentucky Derby.
Overall, the Wood Memorial has produced 20 Kentucky Derby winners, with 11 of those horses winning both races. The last to win both was Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000.
In 2003, Wood runner-up Funny Cide flipped the script on Wood winner Empire Maker in the Kentucky Derby.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If Bellafina wins Friday’s Kentucky Oaks, trainer Simon Callaghan may need assistance hoisting the trophy.
Callaghan dislocated his right shoulder early Wednesday morning, slipping as he walked down the stairs of the apartment he has rented as he was getting ready to head to Churchill Downs for morning training.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the past decade, the most prominent and most controversial intramural debate within the North American racing community has involved the raceday use of the diuretic furosemide to mitigate bleeding in the lungs. Prior to 2019, nearly every major racing organization had weighed in on the topic in some way, shape, or form, but that list had a notable, powerful exception – Churchill Downs Inc.
In the weeks prior to this year’s Kentucky Derby, that abruptly changed.
