Churchill Downs 
Weather: Cloudy 
Temperature: 61 
Tracks: Muddy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The weather was the story, both locally and around the country, when it came to training hours on Thursday for horses preparing to compete here next week in the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With final pre-race workouts and new arrivals for the 145th Kentucky Derby still to come, things were inordinately quiet Thursday morning in the Churchill Downs stable area.

“It’ll pick up soon, right?” Jimmy Barnes, the longtime Bob Baffert assistant, asked rhetorically.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer John Terranova was hoping to run Heavenly Score in the $125,000 License Fee Stakes and Broadway Run in a second-level allowance on Sunday at Belmont Park. But Heavenly Score got injured, and the allowance didn’t fill, so Broadway Run will represent Terranova and Curragh Stables in the License Fee, a six-furlong turf stakes for fillies and mares.

Broadway Run was one of seven entered in the License Fee. She will be making her first start since losing by a neck in a dirt stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in December.

ELMONT, N.Y. – In addition to working Kentucky Derby contender Tax on Thursday, trainer Danny Gargan sent out Divine Miss Grey for a half-mile work in 48.72 seconds over the Belmont Park training track.

Divine Miss Grey on Sunday will accompany Tax to Churchill Downs, where she is expected to run in the Grade 1 La Troienne on May 3.

“She looks like she’s galloping when she breezes; she goes 48 and change with her head bowed,” Gargan said. “She’s a good work horse, and she’s doing really good.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Kentucky Derby, no news is bad news as far as trainer Mark Hennig is concerned.

Hennig is the trainer of Bourbon War, who would need four defections to make it into the body of the Kentucky Derby field.

If the Derby isn’t the next race, the Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 11 or the Preakness at Pimlico on May 18 most likely will be, and on Thursday, Hennig sent out Bourbon War for a half-mile workout in 48.52 seconds over the Belmont main track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Due largely to revenues from the slots-like historical racing machines at the nearby Derby City Gaming facility owned by Churchill Downs Inc., purses at the 38-day Churchill spring meet will be at record levels.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown was at Churchill Downs during training hours Thursday, having disbanded a 32-horse stable at Keeneland, assimilating 18 horses into Churchill, and sending most everything else back to his main base at Belmont Park.

Brown said he is likely “here for the duration” through Kentucky Derby weekend (May 3-4), with the superstar turf horses Bricks and Mortar and Newspaperofrecord being among his focus.

“They both settled in really well and are coming up to their races the right way,” said Brown.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. has a Kentucky Derby mount to look forward to in Plus Que Parfait, but before the May 4 classic he has some business to attend to at Oaklawn Park.

Santana, who at 25 has established himself as the track’s most dominant rider since Pat Day, is chasing his seventh straight title in Arkansas. Day won 12 from 1983 through 1994.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Chipolata, who won a second-level allowance at Aqueduct on April 11 for trainer Christophe Clement, likely will make her next start in the Grade 2, $200,000 Sheepshead Bay at Belmont on May 4.

In her allowance win, Chipolata’s first start off a 5 1/2-month layoff, she rallied from last of five behind a slow pace to win by 1 1/4 lengths over the favored War Cabinet.

“I liked it very much,” Clement said. “I thought she was impressive. I thought the competition was fair, not great. She ran well, showed a good turn of foot.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Christophe Clement was considering using Saturday’s $125,000 Elusive Quality at Belmont Park as a prep for Disco Partner to get to the Grade 1 Jaipur here on June 8. But the combination of the race being too close to his most recent start and Friday’s forecast for rain likely making for less-than-firm turf on Saturday prompted Clement to hold him out of that race.