Churchill Downs
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Temperature: 65  
Track: Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Saturday was the busiest morning yet on the Kentucky Derby/Oaks workout front at Churchill Downs. The majority of the action took place during a very hectic special training session that happens daily beginning at 7:30 a.m. and is restricted to horses competing in the two big events here next weekend.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Seems like all you hear about Kentucky Derby-wise a week out from the race is Zandon this, Zandon that. Okay, fair enough. Zandon won the Blue Grass Stakes with aplomb and has since trained with verve, culminating in an excellent Friday workout, his final Derby breeze.

This might be a good time to page back through our information-buzzing brains and try to recall a colt named Epicenter. Remember him?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Crown Pride, Japan’s hope for the Kentucky Derby, had, by his standards, a relatively sedate morning of training Saturday. Crown Pride did his usual assortment of figure-eights and circles in the Churchill Downs chute before venturing onto the main dirt oval, where he galloped about 1 1/2 miles, according to rider and assistant trainer Masa Matsuda.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After firing off a brisk work last weekend, Un Ojo did so again Saturday morning at Churchill Downs in his final half-mile work in advance of the Kentucky Derby.

Un Ojo, working on his own during the training period reserved for Derby and Oaks horses following the first harrow break on the fast main track, went a half-mile in 47.60 seconds under Colby Hernandez, according to Churchill Downs clockers. It was the 13th-fastest of 121 works at the distance on a busy morning.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Arkansas Derby runner-up Barber Road turned in his final serious piece of work for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday morning at Churchill Downs, breezing a half-mile in 48.80 seconds, according to track clockers.

“We’re not trying to do any speed drills here,” trainer John Ortiz said. “We know what he wants.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cyberknife and Zozos, two of the three horses trainer Brad Cox plans to run in the Kentucky Derby one week hence, were the first two Derby runners to drill Saturday morning here at Churchill Downs, beginning a parade of works that will pick up after the break at 7:30 a.m.

A minority interest in Wood Memorial winner Mo Donegal has been sold to Mike Repole in advance of the colt's run in next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, majority owner Donegal Racing announced Friday.

Repole, whose racing silks feature the blue and orange colors of his beloved New York Mets, campaigned Mo Donegal's sire, 2010 Eclipse Award champion juvenile Uncle Mo. That Coolmore stallion has already sired a Kentucky Derby winner in Nyquist. Uncle Mo was trained by Todd Pletcher, who also handles Mo Donegal.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.- – It was Ladies Day at Churchill Downs on Friday morning, although with a little wrinkle thrown in during the special Derby-Oaks training session, which takes place from 7:30 to 7:45 a.m. daily. Six likely Oaks starters and a seventh hoping to draw into the race here next Friday turned in their final works, although all were overshadowed somewhat by the appearance of potential Derby favorite Zandon, who made his way onto the work tab 24 hours earlier than expected.

MIDWAY, Ky. – Less than a day old, the dark gray filly tottered beside her mother on stilt-like legs, a near carbon copy of her half-brother Zandon at that age in these paddocks at Airdrie Stud. Looking at Memories Prevail and her newest foal on an April morning less than three weeks before Zandon’s Kentucky Derby run, Airdrie vice president Bret Jones couldn’t help reminiscing.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Notwithstanding drama that preceded the workout and the noise he made during the work, Messier posted a visually impressive drill on an eventful Friday morning at Santa Anita.

Runner-up in the Santa Anita Derby and among the top contenders for the Kentucky Derby, Messier was about to commence his six-furlong workout following the 6:30 a.m. track renovation when another horse lost its rider and ran loose into the far turn.