Justify, the Kentucky Derby winner, jogged fine at the barn on Monday morning at Churchill Downs, one day after his reaction to walking over gravel in the stable area with some minor irritation on his left hind leg caused social media to go into a tizzy.

"He's so much better today," trainer Bob Baffert said Monday via telephone from Santa Anita while watching his horses train. “Believe me, half those horses who ran on that track had something. It’s from running in the mud. It's like diaper rash.

When Scat Daddy retired to stud in 2008, he exemplified four of the five characteristics most commercial breeders look for first in a prospective stallion. He had been precocious enough to win a Grade 1 at 2, showed two-turn ability by winning a Grade 1 at 3, he came from an excellent female family, and he was an outstanding physical specimen - a big, powerful, correct horse with lots of muscle and polish. The one negative was that his sire, Johannesburg, was an unfashionable horse who was not in any way considered a likely sire of sires.

Kentucky Oaks runner-up Wonder Gadot will target the Queen’s Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, on June 30 at Woodbine, trainer Mark Casse said as he makes plans for his 3-year-olds.

Wonder Gadot dueled the length of the stretch with Monomoy Girl in the Kentucky Oaks before Monomoy Girl prevailed by a half-length, surviving a claim of foul. Casse said Wonder Gadot, who won the Mazarine Stakes at Woodbine and the Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct last year, emerged in good order. 

“She is amazing. She’s bouncing around,” Casse said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bolt d’Oro is done chasing Justify for now.

Second to him in the Santa Anita Derby and then 12th in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday after being spurned on the far turn by Justify, Bolt d’Oro will return to California on Tuesday and will not run in either the Preakness or the Belmont Stakes, the next two legs of the Triple Crown, according to owner and trainer Mick Ruis.

“It’s not in his best interest,” Ruis said Sunday of continuing on the Triple Crown trail.

“Bob,” Ruis said, referring to Bob Baffert, the trainer of Justify, “has a monster.”

The Kentucky Derby broadcast on NBC on Saturday posted a 9.1 overnight rating and a 21 share, according to the television network, with both figures representing significant declines from last year.

The 9.1 overnight rating was a 13 percent decline from the 10.5 rating posted last year, while the 21 share was an 8.7 percent decline from the 23 share posted last year. While the overnight rating is a numerical measure of the number of people watching a broadcast, share is a measure of the percentage of televisions in use that are tuned into a broadcast.

The following is a list of DRF resources and content related to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 5.

KENTUCKY DERBY FOLLOW-UPS

Equibase corrects 2018 Kentucky Derby chart

Hovdey: A Derby account dripping with detail

And so, with a bang, and not a whimper, the 136-year Kentucky Derby run against horses who were unraced at 2 was obliterated Saturday by Justify, as deserving a Derby winner as one could ever hope to see.

I mean, seriously. What Justify did was absurdly impressive. He went out and pressed an early pace that was nothing short of blistering set by the sacrificial no-hoper Promises Fulfilled, sitting right on top of fractions of 22.24 seconds and 45.77.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Bob Baffert realized Justify was something special after his debut race, the Hall of Fame trainer didn’t hesitate in seeking a more experienced rider for what he had planned for the freakishly talented 3-year-old colt.

So, even though young Drayden Van Dyke had ridden Justify to a 9 1/2-length victory on Feb. 18, Baffert called Mike Smith and told him he would be riding Justify in his next start. Baffert had already started dreaming of the Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE,  Ky. – Chad Brown said there was a point in the stretch on a rain-soaked Saturday afternoon at Churchill Downs that he thought Good Magic had “a really, really good chance” to give him his first Kentucky Derby victory.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The eagle has landed.

The moon shot of trying to win the Kentucky Derby with a horse who never raced at 2, which hadn’t been done since Apollo in 1882, finally ended on Saturday on a rainy, dreary day at Churchill Downs that was in contrast to the ray of sunshine on the racetrack.