LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The turf course was open for training and attracted eight workers on Tuesday morning. Many of them are expected to run on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks and Saturday’s Kentucky Derby undercards.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The five undercard stakes were drawn Tuesday for Friday’s stakes-laden Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs.

Callback, the Grade 1 Las Virgenes winner, had been considered a Kentucky Oaks prospect earlier this year but was entered in the Grade 3, $200,000 Eight Belles at seven furlongs. After being disqualified from first and placed fourth for interference in the Sunland Park Oaks, she lacked the necessary Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to make the field.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Even after all these years, the sight of trainer Larry Jones galloping a horse arrests the eye.

His long legs extended well below his mount’s barrel thanks to stirrups let down lower than any other exercise rider on the track, Jones, nearly twice the heft of a jockey, cuts a striking figure.

CHURCHILL DOWNS

WEATHER: Clear

TEMPERATURE: 48

TRACK: Fast/firm

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With the majority of the Kentucky Derby starters finally on the grounds, Tuesday was a busy morning during an Oaks/Derby session dominated by gallopers, many of whom were stretching their legs for the first time over the Churchill Downs main track.

:: KENTUCKY DERBY WORKOUTS: Purchase Mike Welsch's Derby/Oaks Clocker Report

At a certain point this spring, a particular chorus arose from the growing pile of pre-Kentucky Derby speculation:

“This is the best crop of Derby horses the game has seen in a very long time.”

That’s quite a load to dump on the shoulders of the headline names primed for the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Nevertheless, such things can be fun to say out loud with people listening. It’s the kind of sentiment usually expressed most effectively with a deep conviction unburdened by the messy necessities of provable facts.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – As a poker player, Kiaran McLaughlin appreciates the feeling of having a strong hand. As a horse trainer – with the goal of winning a Kentucky Derby – McLaughlin knows it’s better to have more than one ace in the hole. A pair is better, three of kind even more so, and so on.

McLaughlin, the horse trainer, entered 2015 with a full house of Derby prospects. But a flop here, a bad turn there, and well, McLaughlin was close to having to fold.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His two best 3-year-olds have combined to win all their races save one, and both come off victories in important final preps for the Kentucky Derby. Yes, that outline obviously applies to American Pharoah and Dortmund, the Bob Baffert-trained duo that has dominated the talk of this year’s Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Carl Nafzger has won the Kentucky Derby twice and was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame, but he might be best known, both in racing and outside it, for one of the greatest unscripted moments in sports history, his impromptu narration to owner Frances Genter of Unbridled’s charge to victory in the Kentucky Derby.

It happened 25 years ago.

LOUISVILLE, KY. – Wayne Catalano is just happy to be here at Churchill Downs – and not in the usual sense that the trainer of a Kentucky Oaks filly feels fortunate.

Catalano, the trainer of Oaks contender Oceanwave, was hospitalized for several weeks last summer in suburban Chicago with a severe bout of influenza and pneumonia. He eventually recovered, but the scare gave him a renewed appreciation for life.

“Makes ya think,” he said Tuesday on the Churchill backside.

LOUISVILLE, KY. – Assistant trainer Norman Casse doesn’t like using the word “mean” to describe strong-willed Derby hopeful Danzig Moon. The colt’s exploits around the barn have been well documented on social media, with various members of the barn staff sharing photos of their “war wounds.” But Casse smiles when discussing the topic.