LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Six of the 20 starters are listed at 50-1 on the morning line, and of those, there seems to be a consensus that Seaside Retreat will wind up being the longest of the longshots.
"If handicappers have watched him train, I don't think they'd make us the longest price," said Mark Casse, who trains Seaside Retreat for Bill Farish. "But I still think they will."
BRAD FREE
Pace-presser Sweetnorthernsaint acts as if he can handle the likely fast pace of this year's Derby. And if he does, he can win. Sweetnorthernsaint relaxed off tepid fractions and finished strongly in his last two starts, and along with Brother Derek enters with four straight 100-plus Beyer Figures. The difference is Sweetnorthernsaint appears comfortable rallying from behind; Brother Derek does not.
Ask anyone who does it, and they will tell you that training racehorses is a full-time job on its own. But until recently, when he was done training in the morning, Michael Trombetta would put down his stopwatch, pick up a hardhat, and work construction.
Trombetta did it in part to support his growing family and in part because it was his brother Dino's company for whom he worked.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The best thing that could happen for future Kentucky Derbies would be for Saturday's renewal to produce a formful and logical result, which might restore some seriousness and encourage some restraint going forward. Horsemen and bettors alike are still reeling from Giacomo's implausible victory last year, entering and backing abjectly unqualified horses under the theory that if Giacomo could win the 131st Derby, anyone can win the 132nd.
WASHINGTON - Who is the best horse in this year's Kentucky Derby?
Handicappers across America are pondering that question, but it is probably irrelevant. The important question involving the Derby is this: Which horse will be able to finish strongly in the stretch run of the 1 1/4-mile race?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - They are kindred spirits, jockey Alex Solis and trainer Dan Hendricks, possessed of quick wit, thoroughly dedicated to their crafts, friends for more than 20 years, and now united in a quest to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday with the probable favorite, Brother Derek.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Kentucky Derby is a test of which horse can run 1 1/4 miles, yet it's the first quarter-mile that begins etching the shape of the race. The American Thoroughbred has been genetically honed to a blur, and all that pure speed can turn the Derby pace furious. Or not. There are years when the fast pace fails to appear, such as 2002, when War Emblem was a gate-to-wire winner after an opening half-mile in a room-temperature 47 seconds.
This does not look like a War Emblem year.
SUNNY/TEMP 59¦/TRACK FAST
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Thursday provided one last opportunity to see the Derby contenders before making out the final clocker's report with the focus of attention on Sweetnorthernsaint and Point Determined, both of whom did not have the smoothest of gallops the previous morning.
