LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There has been much wringing of hooves and gnashing of bridles this week at Churchill Downs about the state of pace in the Kentucky Derby.

The notion that Churchill Downs’s points system to determine the 20 Derby starters has shoved out many of the truly fast front-runners of Derbies past has for the most part become accepted narrative – and it definitely appears to be the case this year.

When Victor Espinoza rides Gormley in the post parade of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, he will sneak a glance at the jammed grandstand at Churchill Downs.

“The thing you see are the colors,” Espinoza recalled last weekend. “It never gets old. This is what we work for.”

There will be little time for sightseeing. Gormley will need a warm-up.

“Everybody is having fun, and I have to work,” Espinoza said with a laugh.

Five of the nine races at Belmont Park on Thursday are scheduled for turf, and with rain expected sometime in the afternoon or evening, most people will be hoping the weather holds off.

Linda Rice is not among them.

Rice has Gypsum Johnny in race 8, a second-level optional claimer at seven furlongs. Gypsum Johnny has been knocking on the door at this condition level the past few months and has finished second in his last three starts.

“He moves way up in the mud,” Rice said. “He just loves it.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Girls against boys – the trainer Mark Casse sees nothing wrong with it.

The recently retired Tepin made her mark beating males in major turf races, and the Casse-trained turf filly Catch a Glimpse has done the same. Now, it’s La Coronel’s turn.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Venice, the 2-year-old filly who starts for the first time in Thursday’s second race at Santa Anita, was a backyard horse for owner and trainer Kristin Mulhall.

Mulhall bred Venice, who drew the rail in an eight-runner maiden race at 4 1/2 furlongs for juvenile California-bred fillies.

“She’s huge,” Mulhall said. “You wouldn’t know she’s a 2-year-old.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Hence won the Grade 3 Sunland Derby in his last race and has started to feel like a live horse in the Kentucky Derby here on Saturday, but if for some reason things don’t work out on the racetrack, Hence can always turn to a career as a cutting horse.

Making his 3-year-old debut over a sloppy track in a Jan. 16 maiden race at Oaklawn Park, Hence rallied from midpack, was going best with a quarter-mile to run, made the lead a furlong out, and was on his way to an easy victory. Then, suddenly, he was not.

While everyone everywhere will be focused on Churchill Downs on Saturday, you also might want to keep tabs on Belmont Park, where the day’s three stakes are coming up strong, especially the Grade 3 Westchester.

The one-mile race for 4-year-olds and up is expected to feature the return of Mohaymen, the best 3-year-old in the East early in 2016, and Connect, who blossomed in the fall by winning the Pennsylvania Derby and Cigar Mile.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Steve Asmussen checked off a couple more boxes last year when he won the Belmont Stakes with Creator and was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame.

They were the latest among the major feats and honors accumulated by Asmussen in 30-plus years as a Thoroughbred trainer. Now 51, he has pretty much done it all – except for one little something.

“Oh, I’m well aware of what’s missing,” Asmussen said with a big laugh in a recent interview. “I’ve got one major vacancy on my résumé.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas announced Sunday at the popular Fan Fest Day event at the Kentucky Derby Museum that he is donating his vast collection of racing memorabilia to the museum.

The collection includes trophies from his four wins in both the Derby and Kentucky Oaks; his Eclipse Awards as top trainer; artwork and photos; and many more items from his fabulous career.

Lukas, 81, said the museum “is an ideal fit to protect and showcase my legacy for many years to come.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Whitmore would have seemed like a prime candidate for the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Stakes on the Derby card after emerging as one of the top sprinters in North America over the winter at Oaklawn Park. But trainer Ron Moquett said Monday he was very unlikely to enter him in the seven-furlong race.