LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Since winning the 1995 Kentucky Derby with Thunder Gulch, Michael Tabor's quest for a second blanket of roses has proven futile. He has run eight horses since, either by himself or in partnership, with Lion Heart's second-place finish last year his best result.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bellamy Road, the runaway winner of the Wood Memorial, landed post 16 and was installed as the morning-line favorite when the expected full field of 20 horses was entered Wednesday night for the on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form's national handicapper, made Bellamy Road the 5-2 choice. He has Afleet Alex, the Arkansas Derby winner, next at 6-1, with Bandini, the Blue Grass Stakes winner, at 8-1. Mike Battaglia, the linemaker at Churchill Downs, also has Bellamy Road at 5-2, with Afleet Alex at 9-2 and Bandini at 6-1.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the last several years, Sandy Goldfarb and about 150 of his closest friends have descended upon Churchill Downs to party and perhaps run a few horses on the undercard of the Oaks or Derby.
This year, it's more like a business trip.
Goldfarb is part-owner of Sis City, who figures to go off a prohibitive favorite in Friday's $500,000 . And while Goldfarb and friends still plan to have fun, they will let Sis City hog the spotlight.
Weather: Sunny, Temp. 38
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The final major day of Kentucky Derby preparations may have also been the coldest, with the temperature in the upper 30's when the track opened for business at 6 a.m. Barring the unexpected, Wednesday saw the last two Derby workouts, with High Limit and Greeley's Galaxy both in action following the renovation break.
Work of the day
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Last year, a trainer making his first start in the Kentucky Derby and a jockey riding in the race for the first time came out of the mid-Atlantic region by way of Oaklawn Park and won the Derby. Might another Philadelphia story be written this year?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner. Of the 20 horses who won the race from its inception in 1984 through 2003, 11 returned the following spring to race in the Kentucky Derby. None won.
The latest horse who will try to break that streak is Wilko, whose lone win in this country came in the Breeders' Cup. Three losses later, he will seek to shine again when the spotlight is brightest, in the 131st Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Weather: Sunny, Temp. 40
Track: Fast
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Only one Kentucky Derby contender worked on a cold, crisp, and clear Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs. All eyes were on Afleet Alex when he came out to drill a half-mile under jockey Jeremy Rose after the renovation break. The morning also marked the first local appearance of reigning Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Wilko, who merely jogged once around the course following a short visit to the one-mile chute.
Work of the day
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The phone rang Monday morning at 5 a.m. at the Southern California home of Bob Lewis and his wife, Beverly. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was on the line from here in Kentucky.
"The minute I heard his voice," Lewis said from California, "I knew it wasn't good."
It wasn't. Lukas was calling to report that Consolidator, one of two horses he and the Lewises intended to run in the 131st Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, had suffered a career-ending sesamoid fracture in his right front leg. He will go to stud next year, Lukas said.
LOUISVILLE - His nickname around the barn is Conejo, which in Spanish means rabbit. The connections of Spanish Chestnut, however, swear it's just a coincidence, a play on the mother's name, Baby Rabbit.
But there are some who believe Spanish Chestnut's presence in Saturday's 131st Kentucky Derby is to act as a rabbit, or pacesetter, for Bandini, who comes from off the pace. More specifically, the belief is that Spanish Chestnut will have enough speed to keep probable Derby favorite Bellamy Road from making an easy lead as he did winning the Wood Memorial.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Nobody was under more pressure at Churchill Downs on Sunday morning than exercise rider Maxine Correa, who was entrusted with the task of working three of trainer Nick Zito's Kentucky Derby hopefuls, including likely favorite Bellamy Road. High Fly, Noble Causeway, and Bellamy Road all completed their works without incident and almost exactly as Zito had mapped them out.