Right to Party, runner-up in last Saturday's Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, was one of five 3-year-olds who were made late nominees to the Triple Crown for a fee of $6,000, it was announced Tuesday.

Right to Party, a son of Constitution trained by Kenny McPeek for owner Chester Broman, has enough points (65) to make it into the field for the May 2 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. He earned 50 points for his effort in the Wood and had 15 for his third-place finish in the Gotham.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park’s meet will start in late November next season and revert to a Friday-through-Sunday format most weeks if the Arkansas Racing Commission approves plans Oaklawn Park and the Arkansas Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association have agreed to, according to track president Lou Cella.

Cella said the track also is having discussions about moving the Arkansas Derby back to three weeks before the Kentucky Derby. It currently is being run five weeks out.

Further Ado, the runaway winner of the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland who figures to be one of the favorites in the May 2 Kentucky Derby, closed at 17-1 in the final Kentucky Derby Future Wager pool, according to a list of odds released by Churchill Downs, the administrator of the pool.

The final Future Wager pool closed at 6 p.m. on Saturday, prior to the running of three major Derby preps, including the Blue Grass Stakes. Further Ado won the Blue Grass by 11 lengths and was assigned a 106 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest figure for any 3-year-old this year.

ARCADIA, Calif. – This has already been a record-breaking spring for Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith in the buildup to the Triple Crown.

Smith is bound for the Kentucky Derby on May 2 with So Happy, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby. The victory made Smith, 59, the oldest rider to win the track’s marquee race for 3-year-olds. Bill Shoemaker was 55 when he won his eighth Santa Anita Derby on Temperate Sil in 1987.

“I’ll take it,” Smith said of his latest milestone.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Fusaichi Pegasus, in 2000, won the Wood Memorial and three weeks later came back to win the Kentucky Derby. Monarchos (2001) and Funny Cide (2003) came out of runner-up finishes in the Wood to also bring home the roses in Louisville.

Since then, however, the Wood has produced 43 Kentucky Derby starters, not one able to cross the wire better than fourth, though Tacitus was elevated to third via the disqualification of Maximum Security in 2019. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – He hit the mark in the Blue Grass Stakes, winning his first Grade 1 for owner Spendthrift Farm, which, not coincidentally, is in the business of standing stallions. He posted the widest margin of victory in any major Kentucky Derby prep, and no Derby starter will bring to the race a speed figure higher than the 106 Beyer he earned here Saturday.

All that, and, obviously, trainer Brad Cox hopes Further Ado is not done yet.

Mike Battaglia, the morning-line maker at Churchill Downs in Louisville since 1974, a span of 51 Kentucky Derbies, will retire prior to the opening of Churchill’s spring meet on April 26, according to an announcement released by Churchill on Friday.

Battaglia, whose morning line has identified the favorite in 39 of his 51 Derbies, will hand the reins over to Nick Tammaro, a veteran handicapper and linemaker, Churchill said. The April 26 card will include a ceremony honoring Battglia, who was also the announcer at Churchill from 1977-1997.