[bc_video_id:322803:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first time Art Sherman came to the Kentucky Derby, in 1955, it was as a stable hand for trainer Mesh Tenney, and he traveled from California by railcar, sleeping on straw, next to the horse who brought him here, Swaps.
Sherman was a bit player in the story of Swaps, who won that Derby. But when he left California on Monday, Sherman did so as the trainer of the horse acknowledged as the favorite for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, California Chrome.
Derby Angles features DRF handicappers looking at individual handicapping factors and how they may play out in this year’s Kentucky Derby. The five-part series begins with Dan Illman’s take on pedigree and continues with Dick Jerardi on Beyer Speed Figure Patterns, Dave Litfin’s look at “trips,” Marcus Hersh on the impact of post position, and Brad Free’s pace projection.
Dosage index. Center of distribution. Dual qualifiers. Crosses and nicks. Paternal sire lines. Female families. Average winning distance statistics. Tomlinson Distance Ratings. The Rasmussen Factor.
[bc_video_id:322796:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In racing, the big fish often eat the small fish. That explains why Billy Gowan’s cellphone started blowing up just a few minutes after Ride On Curlin made his career debut last summer at Churchill Downs.
“We had a lot of tire-kickers but only two serious offers,” Gowan said. “They wanted to tell me everything that was wrong with the horse, and I wanted to tell them everything that was right with him.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainers tend to follow the same routine with their horses, morning after morning, at most any racetrack, whether a half-mile bush track or Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby Week. But there was nothing routine about training hours under the Twin Spires on Monday morning, with torrential downpours and severe lightning interfering with the plans of a couple of top Derby contenders. Ultimately, however, it did not deter either Tapiture or Hoppertunity from getting in key workouts over the sloppy Churchill strip.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – By the end of the week, at the end of the long prep season toward the Kentucky Derby, handicappers and horsemen alike often simply look to the heavens for some sort of inspiration or intervention, but this year they needed to look earlier, for on Monday, the heavens opened, the rains came, and then, after a dramatic morning, this year’s chosen one dropped from the sky.
In a sport amply populated by rogues and cheaters, trainer Steve Asmussen has become Public Enemy No. 1. He has shamed Thoroughbred racing so badly that the chairman of The Jockey Club, Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps, declared that there is “a dark cloud hovering over our sport” and that Asmussen ought to stay away from the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.
Twenty-three horses ran in a rough-and-tumble edition of the Kentucky Derby in 1974, and that was too many, track officials decided before the 1975 Derby, capping the maximum number of starters at 20, though a court injunction permitted a 21st runner in 1981.
It wasn’t until 1999 that the Derby drew more than 20 entrants again and the 20-horse maximum, determined by graded-stakes earnings, had to be invoked, but since 2004, a full Derby entry box of 20 horses has become the rule.
Trainer Todd Pletcher was candid following We Miss Artie’s workout Sunday, describing it as poor for a horse who usually works well on dirt, even though his best races have been on turf and synthetic.
On Monday, upon more reflection, Pletcher said he still wasn’t happy with the way he worked but did offer a few reasons why We Miss Artie wasn’t as sharp as he had hoped.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Four-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer D. Wayne Lukas won’t have a starter this year, but there are a few story lines he will be watching with interest. Among them is Medal Count, set to make his third start in 30 days after winning the Transylvania Stakes on April 4 and finishing second in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 12.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
