SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. wanted to make sure he found someone competitive enough in his barn to work with his Kentucky Derby-bound Ny Traffic after the renovation break here Thursday. And he found the perfect mate in the older Grade 1 winner Math Wizard.

The road to the 2020 Kentucky Derby officially began with the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs on Sept. 14, 2019, the first race awarding qualifying points toward a spot in the 20-horse starting gate. Almost exactly 11 months later, prep season finishes up with the $150,000 Pegasus Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park. The race is three weeks out from the Kentucky Derby, postponed to Sept. 5 by the coronavirus pandemic.

Top jockeys and their agents often face difficult decisions when two horses the jockey has been riding end up pointing to the same race, which takes on added significance when it’s a race with the profile of the Kentucky Derby.

WHO’S HOT

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Churchill Downs has placed new restrictions on attendance for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby as coronavirus positives surge in the state, limiting total attendance to approximately 24,000 people and closing the infield, the company announced on Wednesday.

Max Player, the third-place finisher behind Tiz the Law in both the Belmont Stakes and Runhappy Travers Stakes, has been transferred from trainer Linda Rice to Steve Asmussen and will be pointed to the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5, according to majority owner George Hall.

Hall, who owns the horse along with SportBLX Thoroughbreds – a racing syndicate that sells shares in a portfolio of horses led by Max Player – did not give a specific reason as to why he removed the horse from Rice’s care.

The dominating victories last weekend by Tiz the Law and Art Collector further strengthened their position at the top of the list of candidates for the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5 at Churchill Downs, and several of those left in their wake are now seeking other options. They’ve seen enough. Combined with the attrition rate for this Derby owing to its postponement by four months, there is the very real possibility fewer than the maximum 20 horses could enter the Derby, which has not happened since 2003.

HENDERSON, Ky. – Art Collector emerged from his fourth straight victory in good order as trainer Tommy Drury starts making plans to get the colt ready for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby.

Art Collector earned a 100 Beyer Speed Figure as a front-running, 3 1/4-length winner of the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby on Sunday. It was the fourth open-lengths triumph in as many starts this year for the son of Bernardini, as well as his third straight triple-digit Beyer.

“Everything seems fine this morning,” Drury said early Monday.

HENDERSON, Ky. – Tommy Drury said he was so uptight as the Ellis Park Derby was being run Sunday that “I thought my legs were going to give out.”

Wait until the next one.

Drury, the trainer of Art Collector, ultimately had no reason for worry. Art Collector, on the lead the whole way, dominated the $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby to further confirm his status as one of the top challengers – if not the top challenger – to the clear-cut favorite, Tiz the Law, in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Following his Saturday romp in the Runhappy Travers, Tiz the Law is by far the heaviest individually listed favorite in the 21-year history of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

Tiz the Law was the 11-10 favorite when the seventh and final pool toward the 2020 Derby closed Sunday following the customary three days of betting. Those odds easily break a record set when Empire Maker was 5-2 in the final pool of 2003. The mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, has closed as low as 3-5 in prior years, but this is the lowest price ever on a separately listed interest.