King Guillermo will be scratched from Saturday's Kentucky Derby after developing a fever on Wednesday afternoon, his trainer, Juan Carlos Avila, said on Thursday.

King Guillermo turned in a regular gallop on Wednesday morning, but did not train on Thursday morning. Avila said that the colt had developed “a little problem” and would be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian. He posted on his Twitter account just after 4:30 p.m. on Thursday that the colt would indeed need to withdraw from the race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s finally here, although not as we know it. The Kentucky Derby will be run for the 146th time Saturday at historic Churchill Downs, its shape and form tainted by a four-month postponement, an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, widespread social unrest, and the disappointment of tens of thousands of would-be revelers being told not to bother coming.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Seventeen years later and Jack Knowlton is still asked about the yellow school bus that took him, his partners in Sackatoga Stable, their family, and friends from a downtown Louisville hotel to Churchill Downs for the 2003 Kentucky Derby.

As Knowlton, the managing partner of Sackatoga, tells it, fellow partner Dave Mahan asked a manager at the Galt House hotel how to transport 53 people to the track. Mahan was quoted a price of $3,600 for a luxury bus.

Perhaps the 2020 Kentucky Derby is a foregone conclusion after all. TIZ THE LAW won six of seven including four Grade 1s with a crushing victory at the 1 1/4-mile Derby distance. He adapts to any pace scenario, consistently earns high figures, and has trained forwardly all season. It’s all good – condition, class, pace, speed.

Can’t say I was especially tempted to try and beat heavily favored TIZ THE LAW. Five weeks ago, I’d have taken HONOR A. P. to win, and with Art Collector still in the mix, Honor A. P.’s price might really have held appeal. Then Honor A. P. ran in the Shared Belief, and Tiz the Law ran in the Runhappy Travers, two roads diverging, leaving me on the one more traveled.

TIZ THE LAW was always going to be the shortest price in the 2020 Kentucky Derby following four straight major wins as a 3-year-old, including commanding victories in the Belmont Stakes and the Travers. But the late defections of talented rivals Caracaro and Art Collector, two colts possessing similar forward running styles, help the favorite more than anyone else in this field.

There is certainly never any percentage in backing odds-on favorites in 18-horse fields as will be the case with TIZ THE LAW in this year’s Kentucky Derby. But after watching up close and personal his body of work throughout this crazy 3-year-old campaign and the manner in which he has continued to flourish in the weeks since his eye-popping effort in the Runhappy Travers, it’s hard to side against the clear-cut leader of the division. Tiz the Law appears only to need a clean run to assert his dominance once again.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice said she will have mixed emotions Saturday watching the Kentucky Derby on television from Saratoga. She would much rather be in Louisville, putting the saddle on Max Player in what would have been her first Kentucky Derby.

But following Max Player’s third-place finish to Tiz the Law in the Travers Stakes on Aug. 8, owners George Hall and the SportBLX Thoroughbreds syndicate transferred the horse to Steve Amsussen, saying publicly they wanted a locally based trainer to prepare the horse for the Derby.​

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – No, your eyes did not deceive you – that was a colt galloping in a D. Wayne Lukas saddle towel during the reserved training window for Kentucky Derby entrants.

Hall of Fame trainer Lukas, who has started 49 horses in the Kentucky Derby and won the classic four times, is squiring around Money Moves this week for his former assistant Todd Pletcher, the only trainer who has started more horses in the race than his mentor, with 54.

Kentucky Derby entrant King Guillermo did not train Thursday morning at Churchill Downs and, in a developing story, trainer Juan Carlos Avila said the colt has "a little problem."

Avila declined to elaborate on the nature of the issue, but indicated that the colt would be thoroughly examined by a veterinarian that day, and that more information on his status would be forthcoming later Thursday.

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