LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One of the most important elements to focus on during training hours in the final days leading up to the 2008 Kentucky Derby will be how horses who have had the bulk if not all of their success over artificial surfaces handle the conventional dirt track at Churchill Downs.
Much of the attention in this area will be focused on the Santa Anita Derby winner, Colonel John, who has yet to race over dirt. He had not even trained over it before his arrival here earlier this week.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Kent Desormeaux said he remembers his first Kentucky Derby ride "like it was yesterday." Eighteen years old and riding a longshot named Purdue King in the 1988 running, Desormeaux was in danger of finishing last before he took drastic action.
"I almost dropped somebody," he recalled. "If you go back and watch the tape, way in the back, I'm coming over on another horse coming up the rail. It was horrible, but I sure didn't want to get embarrassed by running last in my first Derby."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rick Dutrow has said all along he would listen to what Big Brown tells him. After his penultimate work for the May 3 Kentucky Derby on Thursday, Big Brown must have told Dutrow to go jump out of a plane.
Dutrow said he was so amped up after watching Big Brown work that "I've got to get this anxiety out of me."
How so?
"I think I'll jump out of a plane today," he said via telephone from Florida. "I'm going tandem jumping."
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rick Porter tried to get to the Kentucky Derby in 2005 with Rockport Harbor, but had to abandon ship when the colt's feet failed him. Porter got there last year and came tantalizingly close to winning with Hard Spun, who outran everyone but Street Sense. This year, Porter is back for more, with both caveats and a chance to make history.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Calvin Borel is on the outside looking in - although not in the way he once did.
Borel will only ride in the 134th Kentucky Derby if his scheduled mount, Denis of Cork, can crack the top 20 by graded earnings. And a little more than a week before entries are to be taken for the May 3 Derby, the field was still in flux, with Denis of Cork right on the earnings bubble.
ARCADIA, Calif. - With the final prep for the May 3 Kentucky Derby having been run last Saturday, graded stakes earnings are set, and all that remains is to determine the starting field. That's probably going to be in flux right up until entry time Wednesday, April 30. Far more than 20 horses are still under consideration for the Derby, but with the field capped at 20 based on earnings in graded stakes races, some horses are in danger of being left out.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Early Kentucky Derby favorite Big Brown worked five furlongs in 1:00.75 at Palm Meadows on Friday, his second breeze since winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 29.
With regular exercise rider Michelle Nevin aboard, Big Brown came out on the track shortly after dawn and went along without any encouragement, posting fractions of 12.39, 24.72, 36.79 and 48.58, according to Daily Racing Form. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:14.31.
"It was beautiful," said trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. "Everything couldnt be better."
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Saying "I don't know if we'd go" before the race is one thing. Saying it amid a euphoric winner's circle celebration is quite another.
This same scene has been played out year after year with the Coolmore Lexington Stakes. Beforehand, horsemen tend to be nonchalant about whether winning the Lexington would mean going on to the Kentucky Derby, but afterward, in the flush of victory, they rarely have the will to resist temptation.
There was a time when most people ran a horse in the Kentucky Derby not because they could, but because they should. But the rule that caps the Derby field at 20 runners, hatched following the overzealousness of trainers and owners who entered 22 horses in the race in 1981, has seemingly had the opposite effect to which it was intended. Now the prevailing attitude is, if there's room for my horse, why not run?
With the exception of Big Brown and Colonel John, there is a good chance that not one 3-year-old will be coming into this year's Kentucky Derby on May 3 off consecutive winning races. Form, in many cases, has been inconsistent or inscrutable this spring, and has led - even at this late date less than three weeks from Derby Day - to an overflow number of horses still seeking berths in the race.
