On March 29 at Gulfstream Park, Dr Post returned from a layoff of nearly 10 months, made his second career start, and beat maidens. The day before, Tiz the Law won the Florida Derby.

Bob Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby five times, and the Haskell Invitational a record eight times. American Pharoah, the 2015 Triple Crown winner, and War Emblem are the only two of his who have won both. Authentic will be the latest to give it a try, but the first to do so in reverse order from the norm, which is becoming the norm in this abnormal year.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seven new names are among the 22 separately listed interests in Pool 6 of the 2020 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern.

Pool 6 coincides with a second futures pool toward the 2020 Kentucky Oaks, with an Oaks-Derby double future wager also being offered again.

Tiz the Law, winner of the June 20 Belmont Stakes, is listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Pool 6, followed by Art Collector at 9-2 and Honor A. P. at 5-1. Tiz the Law closed as the 2-1 favorite in Pool 5, which ran June 26-28.

WHO’S HOT

There are five newcomers to the Derby Watch top 20, but the most significant move was made by Art Collector, whose Blue Grass victory last Saturday propelled him to the third choice, at 5-1, on the Kentucky Derby line of Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form. Art Collector was 30-1 a week ago. New to the list are Rushie, who is 30-1, and a quartet of 50-1 shots – Dean Martini, Major Fed, Mystic Guide, and Shared Sense – not all of whom are certain to even run in the Derby, raising the possibility that there might not be a full field of 20 this year.

Art Collector

Bernardini – Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor

Bred in Kentucky by W. Bruce Lunsford

Blue Grass Stakes winner Art Collector had more than enough skill to paint himself into this year’s classics picture, as his pedigree is rife with stamina influences on both sides of the frame.

Nearly three weeks after the June 27 Ohio Derby became his first meaningful victory, Dean Martini has cracked both Daily Racing Form’s Derby Watch Top 20 and the Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 6 roster of 22 individual betting interests.

Don’t read too deep into that, said trainer Tom Amoss. “He’s going to have to run extremely well in his next race for us to consider moving on to the Derby.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Michael Stidham was far from discouraged by Mystic Guide’s second-place finish as the favorite in a first-level allowance race June 4 at Belmont Park. Instead of looking to run him back in the same condition, Stidham has opted to run Mystic Guide in Thursday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Peter Pan Stakes on Saratoga’s 10-race opening-day card.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Uncle Chuck has bounced out of his Los Alamitos Derby win in good order and is preparing for his crucial next race, which will determine whether he goes on to the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.

He’s 2 for 2, and now will run in either the Shared Belief Stakes on Aug. 1 at Del Mar or, more likely, the Travers Stakes on Aug. 8 at Saratoga as a final prep for the Derby.

Art Collector is back in the quiet environs of the Skylight training center just east of Louisville, Ky., as his hometown connections ponder what will come next for a colt whose emphatic triumph Saturday in the Blue Grass Stakes has made him a major contender for the 146th Kentucky Derby.

It appears unlikely that a horse representing Japan will be in this year’s Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.

Neither Cafe Pharoah, the points leader on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby series, nor Danon Pharaoh, who was second on the list, will travel to Churchill Downs for the Derby, according to Kate Hunter, a Japanese-based racing journalist who is a liaison between Japanese racing and Churchill Downs.