ARCADIA, Calif. – Everyone knows Bolt d’Oro is an outstanding colt, a three-time graded winner who finished a creditable second last out in the Santa Anita Derby.
What is less clear is how much chance Bolt d’Oro has to win the Kentucky Derby. After his final workout Saturday at Santa Anita, the issue is unresolved.
Owner-trainer Mick Ruis said the half-mile workout by Bolt d’Oro was “perfect.”
The colt’s rider, Victor Espinoza, said the work was “just a little maintenance, nothing crazy.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The third start was the charm for Good Magic as a 2-year-old, and the way he trained Saturday morning at Churchill Downs, it looks as though the third start as a 3-year-old for last year’s champion juvenile male will be his best this year.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Track: Fast
Weather: Sunny
Temperature: 49
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Following almost a week of relative inactivity, the action picked up appreciably Friday on the Kentucky Derby/Oaks watch at Churchill Downs. Eleven prospective starters – five for the Derby and six for the Oaks – worked on a clear, crisp morning, beginning shortly after the racetrack opened at 5:15 and continuing until after the second renovation break nearly four hours later.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After months of flying all over the country to ride top prospects for the Kentucky Derby, jockey Javier Castellano has wound up right where he started, choosing to ride Audible, whom he rode to victory in the Holy Bull back in January, as Castellano tries to win the Derby for the first time in his highly decorated career.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Justify, the unbeaten early-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby, will ship to Churchill Downs in peak condition after a strong seven-furlong workout Friday at Santa Anita.
Working at 6:30 over a freshly renovated surface on a cool, overcast morning, Justify broke off at the 5 1/2-furlong marker, three to four lengths behind a workmate. Justify caught his rival at the finish, completed his seven-furlong drill on the clubhouse turn, and galloped out a mile. He did it easily.
Trivia question: Who owned the winner of the 2017 Kentucky Derby, Always Dreaming?
If you guessed Anthony Bonomo and Vincent Viola, the two Brooklyn-born friends who were usually in front of the television cameras in the lead-up to the race last year, you are only partially right.
Here’s the actual list: MeB Racing Stables, Brooklyn Boyz Stables, Teresa Viola Racing Stables, St. Elias Stables, Siena Farm, and West Point Thoroughbreds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the first time in four days, the main track was listed as fast at Churchill Downs, with the most noteworthy name on Thursday’s rather extensive work tab not that of a potential Kentucky Derby winner, but that of a past one.
The Kentucky Derby is not only a test of speed and stamina – it is a test of mental fortitude for a young horse, with the pressure cooker culminating in the “wall of sound” as the field turns for home in front of more than 160,000 at Churchill Downs. Mendelssohn has shown the speed and stamina, and his breeders think he has the mental fortitude to handle the stress of the May 5 Derby.
If the horse had been named Fish Cakes or Jabbering Jack, everything might be different.
“The curse of Fish Cakes” or “the curse of Jabbering Jack” – no one is saying that.
But no, his name was Apollo, and “the curse of Apollo,” well, that’s got a ring to it, and for decades now it’s been ringing through every Kentucky Derby that includes a starter who didn’t race at age 2.
Apollo, an unheralded underdog in the Derby of 1882, remains the only Derby winner who didn’t race as a 2-year-old. That is the factual part. “Curse” is just a matter of branding.
CHURCHILL DOWNS
Wednesday, April 25
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 55
Track: Muddy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The weather remains the main story this week at Churchill Downs, where rain has put a damper on training hours since Sunday. The main track was listed as sloppy on Tuesday and muddy on Wednesday for the special Oaks/Derby training sessions, with no workers either morning.
