LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With final pre-race workouts and new arrivals for the 145th Kentucky Derby still to come, things were inordinately quiet Thursday morning in the Churchill Downs stable area.
“It’ll pick up soon, right?” Jimmy Barnes, the longtime Bob Baffert assistant, asked rhetorically.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Kentucky Derby, no news is bad news as far as trainer Mark Hennig is concerned.
Hennig is the trainer of Bourbon War, who would need four defections to make it into the body of the Kentucky Derby field.
If the Derby isn’t the next race, the Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 11 or the Preakness at Pimlico on May 18 most likely will be, and on Thursday, Hennig sent out Bourbon War for a half-mile workout in 48.52 seconds over the Belmont main track.
Justify may have won the Kentucky Derby last year, but it was Instilled Regard who won the hearts of bettors fortunate enough to cash on the Derby superfecta. His rally to grab fourth at odds of 85-1 behind popular choices Justify, Good Magic, and Audible led to a $19,618.20 payoff for a $1 wager, exponentially higher than the $141.40 trifecta mutuel for a $1 bet.
Six years after starting in the Kentucky Derby, Goldencents will have a first-crop Kentucky Derby starter in Louisiana Derby winner By My Standards.
Despite being a European champion in his own right, Noble Mission has always lived in the shadow of his brother, the unbeaten two-time European Horse of the Year Frankel.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. has a Kentucky Derby mount to look forward to in Plus Que Parfait, but before the May 4 classic he has some business to attend to at Oaklawn Park.
Santana, who at 25 has established himself as the track’s most dominant rider since Pat Day, is chasing his seventh straight title in Arkansas. Day won 12 from 1983 through 1994.
Churchill Downs Weather: Clear Temp: 58 Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With only eight of the 20 top points earners for this year’s Kentucky Derby on the grounds, things have been relatively quiet the past couple of mornings during the special 15-minute window set aside daily at Churchill Downs for prospective Derby and Kentucky Oaks runners.
Trainer Gustavo Delgado wants to run Bodexpress in the Kentucky Derby. So too Kenny McPeek with Signalman. Over there in the corner, that’s Mark Hennig waving his hand, saying he wants in, too, with Bourbon War. Trouble is, with less than a week to go until final entries are taken and posts drawn for the 145th Derby on May 4 at Churchill Downs, they are all on the outside looking in.
Claiborne Farm has won the Kentucky Derby only once in its century-plus history, when the star-crossed Swale carried its famous gold silks beneath the twin spires. But that doesn’t mean the farm hasn’t had ties to other Derby winners – or that the Hancock family’s influence isn’t all over this year’s race despite its lack of ownership.
“We have a lot of interest,” said farm president Walker Hancock, the great-grandson of Arthur B. Hancock, who founded Claiborne in 1910.
WHO’S HOT
The hot-stove debate regards who will be favored in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, has Game Winner slightly favored at 5-1, but with both Omaha Beach and Roadster right behind at 6-1, the margin obviously is razor thin between those three. Improbable, at 8-1, is the only other horse Watchmaker has in single digits. All four of those runners were based this winter at Santa Anita, and three of the four are trained by Bob Baffert.
