LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The cameras and tape recorders were waiting, and Bob Baffert was ready. His last horse scheduled to train Monday morning, Charlatan, returned from the track, clomped back into the shed row, and Baffert framed himself in front of the cameras, setting a backdrop of six plaques hung on the barn wall bearing the names of the Kentucky Derby winners he has trained.

The racing action in Louisiana gets a little spicy this week, with Evangeline Downs opening Wednesday night, Louisiana Downs launching its meet Saturday, and native son Gerard Melancon nearing 5,000 career riding wins in North America.

Evangeline will pop the top on its meet with new announcer Rob Tuel calling an eight-race card. Evangeline is scheduled to run 84 dates on a Wednesday-through-Saturday basis through Sept. 18. First post is 5:50 p.m. Central.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “The Kentucky Derby is a more difficult race to win than I first believed,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum mused to ESPN in 2001.

The ruler of Dubai, whose Godolphin operation has won many of the major events the world over and has earned multiple Eclipse Awards in the U.S., couldn’t have known how right he was. Two decades later, he is still looking for his first Kentucky Derby win, despite the amount of effort and resources committed to the goal. Godolphin has sent 11 horses to the Derby since 1999, with none finishing in the top three.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Justify did it in 2018. So, too, did Big Brown a decade before him. They’re among just three horses who have worn Kentucky Derby roses following only three prior starts, with the legendary filly Regret being the first to do it way back in 1915.

When the Phipps family decided to sell all their yearling colts at the 2019 Keeneland September auction, it wasn’t because they were intending to leave the business they had been involved in for nearly a century.

The decision to sell came three years after Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps had passed and his children Daisy Phipps-Pulito and Ogden Phipps were certainly planning to keep the stable going.

“This was just one of the ways we can sort of spread our risk a little bit,” Phipps-Pulito said.

This Saturday, after a one-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Kentucky Derby will be held on its traditional date. Tens of thousands of rowdy fans will once again gather under the famed twin spires of Churchill Downs in Louisville to celebrate the first Saturday in May and the rough-and-tumble 1 1/4-mile race that is synonymous with it.

But don’t call it “normal.”

Almost normal, maybe.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On his march to becoming Thoroughbred racing’s all-time winningest trainer – a goal he will likely achieve this fall – the one race that has eluded Steve Asmussen is the Kentucky Derby.

Asmussen, whose 9,299 victories through Sunday put him within 146 of Dale Baird’s all-time record, is winless with 21 starters over 14 Derbies. Saturday, Asmussen will take another crack at the coveted prize when he sends out Super Stock, the Arkansas Derby winner, and Midnight Bourbon, the Louisiana Derby runner-up, in the 146th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tyler Gaffalione finally took a leg up on Soup and Sandwich for the colt’s penultimate Kentucky Derby breeze on April 17 at Churchill Downs. It was the moment he’d been waiting for since Jan. 28, when he watched the gray colt win his debut by 7 1/4 lengths under Irad Ortiz Jr. at Gulfstream Park.

“I’ve been following this horse since his first race,” Gaffalione said. “I texted [trainer Mark Casse] after the race that day, and said, ‘If it ever comes up, I’d love a chance to ride this horse.’ ”

Among those who welcomed the elevation of the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby at Turfway into a 100-point Kentucky Derby prep after Churchill Downs’s acquisition of the track was Kentucky trainer Wesley Ward, who would rather stay home than chase points on the road. Ward did just that with Like the King, who won the Jeff Ruby and goes next in the Kentucky Derby.

“Them buying the track certainly is great for me, because it’s my winter home track,” Ward said. “I’ll keep them right here and under my thumb rather than going to another jurisdiction.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Overshadowed by the Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses, champions Monomoy Girl and Swiss Skydiver were relatively unnoticed as they turned in light training sessions Monday morning at Churchill Downs as their connections begin to consider their next target. They met in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap on April 17 at Oaklawn Park and were upset by Letruska, with Monomoy Girl second by a nose and Swiss Skydiver another 6 1/2 lengths back in third.