LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There is a winner’s circle in the Churchill Downs infield that is used on one weekend a year. It is ringed by rose bushes in a horseshoe shape, calling to mind the garland of roses placed around the Kentucky Derby winner’s neck when he steps into that circle.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jason Servis is bringing more than an undefeated Grade 1 winner to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. He’s bringing the scrutiny that goes with a high rate of success and an unconventional training method.
Servis trains Maximum Security, who began his career last Dec. 20 winning a maiden $16,000 claiming race at Gulfstream Park and 100 days later became a Grade 1 winner, taking the $1 million Florida Derby in authoritative fashion.
Editor's Note: Omaha Beach was scratched on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, shortly after this story was originally published.
During 2018, the Fox Hill Farms stable of owner Rick Porter won three races from 53 starts. Porter had one graded stakes starter, who lost.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Weather: Sunny
Temp.: 71
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Wednesday literally may have been the calm before the storm at Churchill Downs, with another picture-perfect morning likely to be followed by several days of rain, according to local forecasts, with the worst of that weather expected on Derby Day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s a quirky statistic to be sure, being as there is no rhyme or reason for it, but the Wood Memorial is 0 for 15 years producing a top-three finisher in the Kentucky Derby.
Overall, the Wood Memorial has produced 20 Kentucky Derby winners, with 11 of those horses winning both races. The last to win both was Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000.
In 2003, Wood runner-up Funny Cide flipped the script on Wood winner Empire Maker in the Kentucky Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – For the past decade, the most prominent and most controversial intramural debate within the North American racing community has involved the raceday use of the diuretic furosemide to mitigate bleeding in the lungs. Prior to 2019, nearly every major racing organization had weighed in on the topic in some way, shape, or form, but that list had a notable, powerful exception – Churchill Downs Inc.
In the weeks prior to this year’s Kentucky Derby, that abruptly changed.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s been 11 years since Eight Belles died on the racetrack, but for her jockey, it may seem even longer.
Gabriel Saez, who disappeared from the public consciousness almost as soon as the Eight Belles controversy exploded in the aftermath of the filly’s tragic death following the 2008 Kentucky Derby, has traveled his own difficult path in finally returning to the Derby limelight.
IMPROBABLE may not be entering this year’s Derby the way his connections had been hoping for, having finished second in both preps. But he did not run poorly in either of those races, and there is a way to look at him as a horse set to break though Saturday, even as he takes on a distance that may push his limits more than it does some of his main rivals.
WIN WIN WIN is a confirmed closer who is dependent on a swift pace in order to run his best. Luckily for him, it appears that is what he will get in this year’s Kentucky Derby. The most recent effort from Win Win Win is better than it appears on paper, as he was stopped badly rounding the far turn before regaining his stride and finishing a strong second in the Blue Grass at Keeneland. Had he not been forced to check as sharply as he did, the final margin of defeat would have been considerably smaller than it was.