LEXINGTON, Ky. – The winner of the Coolmore Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland will earn 20 “wild card” points toward eligibility for the May 4 Kentucky Derby, which at this juncture looks like enough points to crack the 20-horse lineup.
Tom Proctor, who will send out Examen in the Lexington, doesn’t much care.
“I don’t need anybody or any points to tell me whether I have a Derby horse or not,” Proctor said with his usual candor. “He’s not even nominated.”
Rosie Napravnik will ride Mylute in the May 4 Kentucky Derby, according to a statement put out Tuesday by GoldMark Farm, which owns Mylute in partnership with Whisper Hill Farm.
[bc_video_id:289292:]LEXINGTON, Ky. – For a fleeting moment, Gary Contessa had visions of roses. But then Rydilluc began tiring under Edgar Prado in the final furlong of the Blue Grass Stakes, and soon it was back to reality.
That reality is turf, not dirt, as Rydilluc is out of the Kentucky Derby picture and likely will run next in the May 25 Arlington Classic or the new Penn Mile on June 1 at Penn National, Contessa said Monday.
Calvin Borel will ride Revolutionary and Mike Smith has picked up the mount on Palace Malice in the Kentucky Derby on May 4, trainer Todd Pletcher said Monday.
Revolutionary won the Louisiana Derby with Javier Castellano, who since has chosen to ride Normandy Invasion in the Derby.
Vyjack, the multiple graded stakes winning 3-year-old and Kentucky Derby candidate, has been based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland for several days, in part to take advantage of that facility’s hyperbaric chamber to aid with the gelding’s respiratory issues.
The original plan called for Vyjack to return to New York in time to catch a Sunday flight to Kentucky along with Wood Memorial 1-2 finishers Verrazano and Normandy Invasion.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A day after winning the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby, Overanalyze was settled in at Churchill Downs to begin final preparations for next month’s Kentucky Derby. Rafael Bejarano, who rode the horse for the first time in the Arkansas Derby, will have the mount, trainer Todd Pletcher said on Sunday.
A driving victory by Overanalyze in the Arkansas Derby further bolstered the broodmare resume of his dam, Unacloud, who became a multiple Grade 1 producer with the win.
A 16-year-old mare by Unaccounted For, Unacloud has produced six winners from eight foals to race. She is out of the winning Two Punch mare Cloud’s Ambre, and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Bear’s Lightning and Illusoria, who is also a stakes producer.
INDIANTOWN GAP, Fla. - The fog that still shrouded much of the racetrack shortly after sunrise Sunday morning at Payson Park proved to be more of an issue for onlookers than it did for Florida Derby winner Orb, who breezed an easy half-mile in the first of his three scheduled workouts prior to the Kentucky Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ken McPeek and Todd Pletcher swapped exactas, so to speak, in the two big Kentucky Derby prep races Saturday.
[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]
Both watched amid a bright and fading spring sun at Keeneland when Java’s War, trained by McPeek, overtook Palace Malice, trained by Pletcher, in the desperate final yards of the Blue Grass Stakes.
