LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Some of Vinnie Viola’s earliest memories as a child are of going to Aqueduct and Belmont Park with his father, who would put his son right in front of the tote board with specific instructions to watch the fluctuation of odds.

“My father handicapped and bet every day,” Viola said. “He would tell me to try to memorize every change in the last two minutes before post time of every horse. I think it greatly helped me when I got to Wall Street. It made it a lot slower for me as I got comfortable with the movement of numbers to risk.”

How does the Projector work? The TimeformUS Pace Projector attempts to predict how a race will unfold early. It displays the horses ranked by the TimeformUS Early Speed Rating – fastest in the front, slowest in the rear. The image shows where the horses are projected to be after the first half-mile of a route race. The front is displayed to the right. It also attempts to determine if the pace of the race is likely to be fast, average, or slow.

Dominick Schettino will watch Saturday’s 143rd Kentucky Derby with mixed emotions.

As the original trainer and co-owner of Always Dreaming, Schettino can’t help but feel some remorse about no longer having a stake in a horse who has a very live chance to win the world’s most famous horse race.

Flavien Prat was acting like a kid at Christmas. No, check that. He was acting like a kid the week before Christmas, dizzy with anticipation.

“He kept saying, ‘Let’s get to the big stuff,’ ” said his agent, Derek Lawson, as last Saturday’s Santa Anita program began. “I told him to be patient. Do his job, and then we would be heading for Kentucky. It would be here before he knew it.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On the first Saturday in May 2016, the jockey Florent Geroux angled for home in his first Kentucky Derby with not a single horse between his mount, Gun Runner, and the distant finish line.

Gun Runner had been third at the first call behind runaway pacesetter Danzing Candy and eventual winner Nyquist, but he took up a position in front of Nyquist and was the first to attack a fading Danzing Candy.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Midway through the draw on Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, neither Classic Empire nor McCraken had a post, and the 1 hole was still unoccupied, a situation that was growing increasingly unnerving to those associated with both highly ranked colts.

But both wound up in advantageous posts. The 1 post was called for Lookin At Lee – a late runner for whom post should not matter – with Classic Empire landing post 14 and McCraken 15. They are part of a full field of 20, plus two also-eligibles, entered in the 143rd Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Classic Empire entered this year as the juvenile champion and Kentucky Derby winter-book favorite. After a tumultuous spring for himself and other contenders, he's right back where he started, tabbed as the morning-line favorite when post positions for the $2 million spring classic were drawn Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – He has had about seven years to regularly practice his English, but after he speaks for a while outside his native tongue, Spanish, you can hear Antonio Sano wearying. He sprinkles in a “si” here, a “pero” there, casts for the right word, but continues on gamely, trying to describe how he came to Churchill Downs last week from Florida with a horse named Gunnevera.

It is quite a tale.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Weather will be a major topic of conversation as the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby draw closer. It is likely to play a determining factor in where trainer Ian Kruljac runs his reigning champion female sprinter Finest City this week at Churchill Downs.

On Tuesday, Kruljac entered Finest City in Friday’s Grade 1, $300,000 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill Downs. The La Troienne is run at 1 1/16 miles. Kruljac also planned to enter Finest City Wednesday for Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Humana Distaff at seven furlongs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Just before 8:30 Tuesday morning on the Churchill Downs backstretch, Daragh O’Donohoe got a leg up on Thunder Snow and headed toward the main gap near the five-furlong marker and out onto Churchill’s racing oval. For Thunder Snow, who won the UAE Derby at Meydan Racecourse in his most-recent start and traveled here after a short stop in England, it was his first time stepping onto the Churchill surface as he prepares for the Kentucky Derby. For O’Donohoe, it was a trip down memory lane.