[bc_video_id:290940:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The major work has been done. All that remains for the trainers of the 20 prospective Kentucky Derby starters is to maintain their horses’ form over the next several days and hope fortune smiles down upon them during Wednesday’s post-position draw.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. had his hands full simply trying to walk his Kentucky Derby hopeful Itsmyluckyday around the shed row at feed time on Monday. His exercise rider, Peter Shelton, had a similar problem trying to keep the Florida Derby runner-up from running off during training hours the following morning.
Plesa said Itsmyluckyday couldn’t have adapted any better to his new surroundings at Churchill Downs or, even more important, the racetrack itself, following his arrival from Calder on Saturday.
The city of Pleasanton seeps racing tradition. It has the oldest one-mile track in the United States, the track where 1922 Kentucky Derby winner Morvich trained before heading east. The town was known for its horse farms before urban sprawl swallowed up land.
The people of Pleasanton, naturally, are excited about the Kentucky Derby, and on Saturday they will be able to relive a season when one of their own made a big impact on the Triple Crown.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When racing programs change, some stakes disappear. It happened to the Grade 3 Inglewood Handicap, a turf route at Betfair Hollywood Park that was eliminated from the track’s spring schedule during a recent round of cuts.
But elimination of an early-season stakes does not kill the program.
Pimlico Race Course will ban duffel bags, backpacks, and all but a specific size of clear-plastic coolers for this year’s Preakness Stakes on May 18 under a new set of policies similar to those adopted by Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby this year.
The bans on the items were recommended by law-enforcement officials following a review of the track’s policies in the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon in April, Pimlico officials said. Law-enforcement officials have recommended stricter carry-in policies for all large events since the bombings.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In any other year, Sal Santoro and his stable star, Rose to Gold, might be here at Churchill Downs as major players for the Kentucky Oaks.
But in a year when the Oaks shapes up with arguably one its toughest fields in years, Santoro has a 15-1 shot on the morning line – despite Rose to Gold having won four stakes and five of seven starts overall.
“It’s all pretty darn scary from where I’m standing,” a smiling Santoro said before a field of 11 fillies was drawn Tuesday for the 139th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Oaks.
Most people’s recollections of school field trips involve museums and much yawning.
The young men and women from the North American Racing Academy were treated to something far more engaging Monday. On the Churchill Downs backstretch while awaiting the works and morning training of Kentucky Derby and Oaks competitors, they listened to retired Hall of Fame jockeys Chris McCarron and Pat Day recount their Derby experience from 1987.
Even people not in the NARA group stopped by to listen, taking in the comments of the two Derby-winning riders.
Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Fort Larned, who had been considered a possible starter in the Grade 2 Alysheba on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs on Friday, has been withdrawn from the race and will be pointed toward the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 15 at Churchill, trainer Ian Wilkes said Monday.
“The horse is fine,” he said. “I worked him a half [April 23], but he just didn’t really bounce out of it like I wanted.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Both the likely field, and perhaps even the likely favorite, for the 139th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs came into sharper focus Monday, when Code West, Govenor Charlie, Tiz a Minister, and Winning Cause all were officially taken out of consideration for the Derby, and Florida Derby winner Orb turned in an eye-catching workout that, combined with his improving form, may propel him to favoritism over the heretofore acknowledged favorite, the unbeaten Verrazano.
Officials at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., on Monday released final business figures for the 16-day spring meet that ended Friday, with the obvious high points being records for all-sources total handle ($161,990,603) and attendance (278,415).
The gross all-sources handle at a meet that began April 6 narrowly eclipsed the former record of $158,368,309 set during the 15-day spring meet in 2007. The attendance bettered the former mark of 269,292, set last spring during a 15-day meet.
