Something new is on the wagering menu for Oaks and Derby Days at Churchill Downs: a two-day pick six that covers all the Grade 1 action. Friday’s races are the La Troienne and Kentucky Oaks, followed by the Humana Distaff, Churchill Downs, Old Forester, and Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

The wager, with a $250,000-guaranteed pool, has a 15 percent takeout and mandatory payout, though the $2 minimum is unkind to budget-minded players, making spreading in contentious races rather expensive. I’ll take a stab with a small ticket, singling a couple of runners to keep the cost down.

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Thursday, May 2
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 63
Track: Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The complexion of this year’s Kentucky Derby may have changed immensely overnight with the news that likely favorite Omaha Beach was out of the race, but it was still business as usual for the rest of the field during training hours Thursday morning at Churchill Downs.

Assessing the pace situation in any race is a critical element of the puzzle known as handicapping, but it’s especially important in a race like the Kentucky Derby. Over the years, many horses with tactical speed have put themselves in ideal positions to sit and pounce before prevailing against their 3-year-old counterparts, but a stalking running style isn’t a prerequisite for Derby glory.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unless Gray Magician, Master Fencer, or Bodexpress achieve such a dubious distinction, this will be the 18th straight year that a Derby starter fails to reach as high as 99-1 on the toteboard – and there’s no way any of them will approach the Derby record for the highest odds.

Gray Magician and Master Fencer are the only two horses as high as 50-1 on the morning line. Bodexpress, a maiden who drew in as the lone also-eligible, is one of seven horses listed at 30-1 on the revised line.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As always, there are overlays and underlays for bettors who took a shot in any of the four pools in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

The most obvious bargain came in Pool 2, where Tacitus – still nothing more than a maiden winner at that point – was 96-1. The eventual winner of the Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial, he is 10-1 on the Churchill Downs morning line Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Racing, as those associated with Omaha Beach found out this week, can be awfully cruel. His trainer, Richard Mandella, is the kind of person who is acknowledged as deserving of a Kentucky Derby victory, the most glaring blank spot on a glittering résumé that has led him to the Hall of Fame.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Omaha Beach, scratched Wednesday from the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday because of an entrapped epiglottis, will have surgery Thursday afternoon but should be back in action by the summer, trainer Richard Mandella said at Churchill Downs on Thursday morning.

“We’ll wait a few days until after the surgery to make sure he’s good, then we’ll get him home,” Mandella said.

Mandella is currently based at Santa Anita. He spends the summer at Del Mar.

Well, that’s one way to make history.

Richard Mandella already had his name in the books as the only trainer to win four Breeders’ Cup races in a single day, to finish in a dead heat with two of his horses in a Grade 1 event, and to train the only female in the history of the sport to win championships in four separate campaigns.

If allowed only one word to describe the 2019 Kentucky Derby, that word could be “parity.” Bob Baffert, who trains the three favorites for this Derby – Game Winner, Roadster, and Improbable – used that descriptor in a recent media teleconference. And by many measures, the term fits.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Omaha Beach, the morning-line favorite for the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, will be scratched owing to an entrapped epiglottis, trainer Richard Mandella said Wednesday.

“He was coughing, which made us suspicious, and we scoped him,” Mandella said.

“It's not anything we can fix to have him run on Saturday, so we’re going to have to scratch him.”

Mandella said the issue is “fixable,” but the timing is terrible.