LOUISVILLE, Ky. – How do you deal with the nerves of your first Kentucky Derby? The answer for this year’s class: stay busy.

“Every day is day by day,” said Vicki Oliver, putting her head down to do the work of saddling horses on a weekday afternoon at Keeneland just hours after sending out Hidden Stash for his final Derby breeze.

There are five trainers and four jockeys contesting their first Derby this year. Brad Cox is especially busy in his debut, saddling favored Essential Quality as well as Mandaloun.

World heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury will attend Saturday's Kentucky Derby to watch his namesake, King Fury, run for the roses.

Trainer Ken McPeek named the colt, who races for Fern Circle Stables, Three Chimneys Farm, and Magdalena Racing, in honor of the boxer. He tweeted at Fury this week inviting him to attend the Derby as a guest of the connections. Plans were quickly made for Fury, who is training in Las Vegas, to fly in on Saturday morning.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dirt bits tracked in from the shed row, scattered strands of straw bedding, a small pool of water moating a table leg – decorative touches laid out in the Churchill Downs barn office of trainer Brad Cox after a morning of Derby Week training had ended and before anyone went through the room with a broom.

Churchill is Cox’s home base. Some trainers at the top of Thoroughbred racing sport barn offices fit for a king. The man who would be king of this sport has neither time nor need for such appurtenances.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Todd Pletcher’s presence in the Kentucky Derby is as much a rite of spring as baseball, taxes, and the Masters.

Starting in 2000, Pletcher has participated in 19 of 20 Kentucky Derbies. Ten times in that span, Pletcher has had three or more runners, including in 2010, when he started four horses and won his first Derby with Super Saver. In 2017, Always Dreaming, one of three starters Pletcher had that year, gave him his second blanket of roses.

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Showers
Temp. 68
Track: Sloppy

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Although the weather should be clear and the track fast on Kentucky Derby Day, such was not the case just 48 hours in advance of the main event, with rain showers and a sloppy racetrack greeting the 20 Derby contenders when they came out to train Thursday morning at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Danny Velazquez was happy to be at Churchill Downs Thursday on a damp, humid morning. Quite frankly, Velazquez is happy to be anywhere.

Velazquez, who is making his Kentucky Derby debut Saturday with longshot Brooklyn Strong, was involved in a freak accident at Parx in March. During training hours, a horse unseated its rider and ran right into Velazquez, who was aboard his stable pony. Velazquez was thrown hard off the pony.

All the O’Neills had gathered at the hospital in Honolulu in support of David. Doug and Dennis, his brothers, were in from California. David’s son, Patrick, Doug and Dennis’s nephew, arrived from Hong Kong, where he had an internship. David’s wife, daughters, all there, anxiously awaiting word.

The doctor emerged from surgery, approached the waiting family.

“It went well,” he said. Hearts began to soar, if only for a second. “He has another six months.”

“We just sat there in stunned silence,” Patrick remembered.

Will a Derby horse be 99-1?

Horses sent off in the Kentucky Derby at 99-1 or higher have seemingly become extinct despite an expansion from 14 to 20 betting interests in 2001 – which also happened to be the last time any horse was sent away at triple-digit odds. Startac was 10th at 102-1 and Arctic Boy was 12th at 101-1 behind the victorious Monarchos that year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bettors sharp enough to back Hot Rod Charlie in some of the earlier pools in the 2021 Kentucky Derby Future Wager bought themselves wagering value ahead of the 147th Derby.

As a separately listed interest in all five futures pools offered by Churchill Downs, Hot Rod Charlie had closing odds of 34-1, 40-1, 35-1, and 53-1 before he won the March 20 Louisiana Derby, after which he was 12-1 in the final pool. He figures as no worse than fourth choice Saturday and is 8-1 on the morning line.

Golden Gate Fields will offer special seating for Saturday's Kentucky Derby simulcast at its Rose Runner VIP Derby Party.

Tickets are $75 and including seating at private tables for four, six or eight guests on the Clubhouse Level Players Patio and Trackside Court. Tickets must be purchased online at goldengatefields.com.