Ron Winchell and David Fiske know what it’s like to see a young sire start from modest beginnings and raise his game in meteoric fashion. After all, the Winchell colorbearer Tapit entered stud for a $15,000 fee in 2005, and is now one of the nation’s perennial leading sires and influential classic sires.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When the colt Justify came to the Kentucky Derby in 2018, one might have mistaken the racing pages for tales of classical mythology or reports on the late-60s space program.

“Apollo.” You couldn’t walk down the hall for a drink of water without hearing that name. It was 1882 when a colt named Apollo won the Kentucky Derby, and 136 years later he still was the only Derby winner who hadn’t raced as a 2-year-old.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The gang’s all here!

All 20 starters for this year’s Kentucky Derby were on the grounds before dawn Monday, with the final arrival of Florida Derby winner White Abarrio, whose long van ride from Gulfstream Park ended at the Churchill Downs stable gate at 4:30 a.m. He joined recent arrivals Messier and Taiba from Santa Anita, fellow Floridian Simplification, and Happy Jack, who vanned over from Keeneland on Sunday.

Eclipse Award champions Arrogate and Gun Runner were rivals on the racetrack, both taking their turn in the spotlight, with Arrogate starting a streak of momentous performances in the summer of their 3-year-old season, and Gun Runner nearly unbeatable from that fall onward – only defeated by Arrogate.

GEORGETOWN, Ky. – The paved road on which visitors make their entrance bisects paddocks that this time of year – having been fed by rain in preceding months – are a shade of green that make your eyes hurt. Inside those prominent paddocks are horses who won major stakes and millions of dollars. There are many horses like that here at Old Friends Farm, many too who weren’t famous at all.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Tim Yakteen had been to the Kentucky Derby before, back when he was an assistant trainer to Charlie Whittingham, but never before like this, with two top contenders who only came to his barn weeks ago owing to the suspension of six-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert.

As would often happen in years past with Baffert upon his initial arrival here Derby Week, Yakteen was the center of attention on Monday morning in the Churchill Downs stable area, his first day here after Messier and Taiba arrived on Sunday from California.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Brian Lynch suspects Classic Causeway might have displaced his palate in his last race, perhaps accounting for the colt’s poor performance, so the trainer is tweaking a couple of things.

“We’ve always kept things very, very simple with him by running him in a snaffle [bridle],” said Lynch, who on Saturday will saddle Classic Causeway for owner-breeders Clarke Cooper and Patrick O’Keefe in the 148th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A little after 8:30 Monday morning, trainer D. Wayne Lukas was sitting in his office at Churchill Downs talking about Ethereal Road, whom Lukas the day before had been contemplating entering in either the Kentucky Derby or Pat Day Mile on Saturday.

Lukas said owners Aaron Sones and Julie Gilbert had decided they wanted to enter the Kentucky Derby, even it meant being on the also-eligible list.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It was heartbreak on Kentucky Derby entry morning for the one-eyed New York-bred gelding Un Ojo, who was not entered for Saturday's classic after emerging from his final work with a bruised hoof.

Trainer Ricky Courville characterized the issue as a minor one with terrible timing.

"He'll live to fight another day," said Courville, who would have been saddling his first Kentucky Derby starter.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Much has been made of Tim Yakteen, a former assistant to trainer Bob Baffert, saddling his first Kentucky Derby horses this year in Taiba and Messier, both of whom were transferred to Yakteen due to a Baffert suspension.

But flying far under the radar is another former Baffert employee, Bhupat Seemar, who will also saddle his first Derby starter in Summer Is Tomorrow, the runner-up in the Group 2 UAE Derby.