It’s Derby Day! No, not in the traditional sense, what with racing suspended in much of the country owing to the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in, among other things, the Kentucky Derby being postponed from Saturday until Sept. 5. For the first time since 1945, when the Kentucky Derby was run on June 9, horses won’t be competing in the shadow of the twin spires on the first Saturday in May.
Splitting a race into two divisions is first done by blindly dividing horses with common ownership, then blindly dividing horses with the same trainer, then blindly splitting the rest. It’s like a series of coin flips, only with entry slips. For the Arkansas Derby on Saturday, those coin flips resulted a second division that appears on paper to have come up far stronger than the first division.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The latest weather forecast for the first Saturday in May in Louisville calls for highs in the upper 70s and abundant sunshine. In any other year, such a prediction would send giddy ripples throughout the city of Louisville, reverberating especially strongly in the management suites beneath the two green-and-white spires at 700 Central Avenue, the address of Churchill Downs.
But this is not any other year.
Tiz the Law has worked three times since his resounding victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby while trainer Barclay Tagg awaits the opportunity to run the horse next.
Tiz the Law’s most recent workout came Sunday at Palm Meadows, where he went a half-mile in 49.60 seconds by himself.
:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2020: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more
“He’s doing great, I’m just scared to death of not having a goal,” Tagg said Wednesday.
WHO’S HOT
Farmington Road, who most recently finished second in the Oaklawn Stakes on April 11 and is in the second division of the Arkansas Derby on Saturday, is the newest member of the Derby Watch top 20. He is 50-1 on the future line set by Marty McGee of Daily Racing Form for the Kentucky Derby, now on Sept. 5. Tiz the Law remains McGee’s favorite, at 3-1.
:: KENTUCKY DERBY 2020: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more
The migratory patterns are well-known. Every winter the gray whales make their way to Baja California. The swallows return to the mission at San Juan Capistrano every April. And the first weekend in May, trainer Todd Pletcher is in Louisville.
Gouverneur Morris
Constitution – Addison Run, by Unbridled’s Song
Bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden, Craig Brogden, and James F. Miller ($200,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Phoenix Thoroughbreds; $600,000 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream juvenile purchase by Team Valor International)
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park will put an exclamation point on an unprecedented meet Saturday when it closes its season with two $500,000 divisions of the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby.
There were 22 horses entered in the 1 1/8-mile race Sunday, at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of the spring meet at Keeneland, the suspension of racing at Santa Anita, and the postponement of the Kentucky Derby to Sept. 5.
