LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The four first-time trainers with a horse expected to start in this year's Kentucky Derby have sent out well over 20,000 starters combined in races around the globe, according to Equineline statistics. The three jockeys set to ride their first Derby have taken a leg up more than 21,000 times.

But despite all their experiences, there’s nothing quite like this.

"This is it," said trainer Larry Rivelli, who will saddle Two Phil's as his first Kentucky Derby starter. "This is what we do this for. It's a dream come true."

Churchill Downs

Monday, May 1

Weather: Showery

Temperature: 47°

Track: Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Light rain was falling and temperatures were unseasonably cold once again when the racetrack opened for business at 5:15 a.m. Monday at Churchill Downs, with the trainers of this year’s Kentucky Derby and Oaks starters now in the process of putting the finishing touches on their preparations for the two big events now just days away.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 19.1 percent of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year, while 8.4 percent had at least one major depressive episode. Those figures would represent approximately 3.8 people and 1.7 people, respectively, out of a group of 20.

Ramon Vazquez has ridden Practical Move in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs many times in his mind.

“I can be in the middle of the pack,” he said over the weekend, envisioning the first run through the stretch. “I want to be out of trouble.”

On the backstretch, Practical Move will ideally be in a stalking position.

“I would like to be three or four lengths behind the speed and start moving up,” Vazquez said. “By the stretch, I hope to be on the lead. My dream is I win the race.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After starting a Kentucky Derby horse in 2016, 2017, and 2018, trainer Keith Desormeaux had to wait five years for his next Derby runner, Confidence Game.

Desormeaux, come Derby Day, will have waited 10 weeks to run Confidence Game back after the colt won the Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park. And even with the Derby still a week away, Desormeaux couldn’t wait for people to stop asking about the unusually long break between final prep and Derby start.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen sometimes watches the replay of the 2022 Kentucky Derby, just not from start to finish.

“I don’t think I’ve sat through the opening of the gates all the way to the wire because it’s like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” Asmussen said. “It don’t bother me when I’m not thinking about it. Do I think about it? What?”

Asmussen is Thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading trainer with 10,082 wins. None have come in the Kentucky Derby, where he is winless with 24 starters in 16 runnings.

This is the first in a three-part series examining Secretariat’s influence on the Thoroughbred bloodstock industry as we mark the 50-year anniversary of his historic Triple Crown triumphs. This week, learn about Big Red’s record pre-Kentucky Derby syndication and how he flew the flag for his home state of Virginia.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It is now accepted legend that Secretariat was a freak of nature, a beast of a racehorse whose name became synonymous with greatness.

But when Secretariat was loaded into post 10 for the 99th Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1973, at Churchill Downs, he was no sure thing to win – let alone go on and become the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years and an American sports icon for all time.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Champion Good Magic, who came up just shy in his appearance in the Kentucky Derby, is making a magical Derby debut as a sire.

Good Magic, who stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Paris, Ky., has a pair of runners in the Derby from his first crop in Florida Derby runner-up Mage and graded stakes winner Reincarnate.

Good Magic stands alongside his sire, Curlin, a prominent classic sire who will himself have two runners in Lord Miles and Skinner. Curlin’s son Keen Ice sired last year’s upset Derby winner, Rich Strike.