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.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – There has been much wringing of hooves and gnashing of bridles this week at Churchill Downs about the state of pace in the Kentucky Derby.

The notion that Churchill Downs’s points system to determine the 20 Derby starters has shoved out many of the truly fast front-runners of Derbies past has for the most part become accepted narrative – and it definitely appears to be the case this year.

Churchill Downs

Weather: Clear

Fast/firm

Temp. 53

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All the works are in the books, but there is still plenty of work left to do as horsemen put the key, final touches preparing their horses for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Considering that a race is often won by the swift, here is a look at the Kentucky Derby contenders in an attempt to isolate the fastest horses, as well as those that exhibit favorable figure patterns leading into the race.

Louisiana Derby winner Girvin, troubled by a quarter crack in his right front hoof during the early part of last week, galloped Tuesday at Keeneland and remains on track to start in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, trainer Joe Sharp said.

The Tuesday gallop came under Sharp’s wife, former jokey Rosie Napravnik, and followed a five-furlong workout in 59.60 seconds Saturday at Keeneland. Girvin had a walk day on Sunday, and then a day of swimming at the KESMARC rehabilitation facility near Keeneland on Monday.

Irish War Cry, a multiple Grade 2 winner and Kentucky Derby hopeful, will stand at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Lexington, Ky., upon his retirement from racing.

The breeding rights for the 3-year-old son of Curlin were purchased by a diverse group including John G. Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale, Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm, SF Bloodstock, Colts Neck Stables, China Horse Club, Bobby Flay, Sol Kumin, and Vincent Viola.

When Victor Espinoza rides Gormley in the post parade of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, he will sneak a glance at the jammed grandstand at Churchill Downs.

“The thing you see are the colors,” Espinoza recalled last weekend. “It never gets old. This is what we work for.”

There will be little time for sightseeing. Gormley will need a warm-up.

“Everybody is having fun, and I have to work,” Espinoza said with a laugh.