LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the second year in a row, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer won a graded stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard when Hystericalady rallied to a surprisingly easy four-length victory over defending champion Pussycat Doll in the $300,000 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs. The victory was the fourth on the afternoon for jockey Rafael Bejarano.
Hollendorfer, who saddled Bwana Bull in the Kentucky Derby, won the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap last year with Trickey Trevor.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Trainer Todd Pletcher has five horses. Steve Asmussen, Bill Kaplan, Darrin Miller, and Doug O'Neill each have two. But all anyone will want to know about the 133rd Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs is who will be the one.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All the final preparations are over. Some works were better than others and one or two were quite unexpected, but all were designed with the same goal in mind - to get each of the 20 horses in the field to peak on Saturday for the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Thoroughbred auction prices have been booming in recent years, and that has prompted some racehorse owners to turn to homebreeding in their quest for a Kentucky Derby horse.
The last three Derby winners - Smarty Jones in 2004, Giacomo in 2005, and Barbaro in 2006 - were all bred by their owners rather than purchased out of the auction ring. And seven of this year's Derby contenders are homebreds: Any Given Saturday, Circular Quay, Cowtown Cat, Nobiz Like Shobiz, Stormello, Street Sense, and Tiago.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Talk about being fashionably late.
Trainer Barclay Tagg arrived in Louisville shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday evening and made it to the post position draw downtown about three minutes before he had to select a post position for Nobiz Like Shobiz for Saturday's 133rd Kentucky Derby.
Kentucky regulators have drawn blood from all 20 entrants in Saturday's Derby in order to test for the illegal use of blood-doping agents such as erythropoietin and darbepoietin, Kentucky state steward John Veitch said on Thursday.
Results from the tests will not be available until after the Derby is run, but Veitch said the testing was significant because the entire Derby field had never before been subject to the blood-doping test.
Veitch said the tests are "another tool to ensure integrity."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Calvin Borel never wanted anything more than to ride racehorses. Not play with the other kids. Not take up a sport. Not even go to school. Not nuthin', as Borel himself might say in his south-central Louisiana twang.
For Borel, a lifetime of single-minded focus has paid off beyond his fondest dreams. After having become a millionaire, he is now poised to reach the pinnacle of the racing world as the jockey for Street Sense, one of the favorites for the 133rd Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was just after 7:30 on the night of April 7, almost 90 minutes after the last race had been run at Aqueduct, and trainer Todd Pletcher was glued to a television set in the track's film theater.
He snapped his fingers vigorously and watched excitedly as Ramon Dominguez guided Icy Atlantic through horses in the Santa Anita Park stretch to get up late and win the Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap.
