LOUISVILLE, Ky. - King Fury will be scratched from Saturday’s Kentucky Derby after spiking a fever, trainer Ken McPeek said on Friday afternoon.

King Fury, winner of the Lexington Stakes on April 10, was 20-1 on the morning line for the Derby. The colt galloped 1 1/2 miles early Friday morning, but later, did not clean up his feed and was found to have a high temperature and an elevated white cell count.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – How do you deal with the nerves of your first Kentucky Derby? The answer for this year’s class: stay busy.

“Every day is day by day,” said Vicki Oliver, putting her head down to do the work of saddling horses on a weekday afternoon at Keeneland just hours after sending out Hidden Stash for his final Derby breeze.

There are five trainers and four jockeys contesting their first Derby this year. Brad Cox is especially busy in his debut, saddling favored Essential Quality as well as Mandaloun.

World heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury will attend Saturday's Kentucky Derby to watch his namesake, King Fury, run for the roses.

Trainer Ken McPeek named the colt, who races for Fern Circle Stables, Three Chimneys Farm, and Magdalena Racing, in honor of the boxer. He tweeted at Fury this week inviting him to attend the Derby as a guest of the connections. Plans were quickly made for Fury, who is training in Las Vegas, to fly in on Saturday morning.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dirt bits tracked in from the shed row, scattered strands of straw bedding, a small pool of water moating a table leg – decorative touches laid out in the Churchill Downs barn office of trainer Brad Cox after a morning of Derby Week training had ended and before anyone went through the room with a broom.

Churchill is Cox’s home base. Some trainers at the top of Thoroughbred racing sport barn offices fit for a king. The man who would be king of this sport has neither time nor need for such appurtenances.

On paper, Essential Quality is the best horse going into this year’s Kentucky Derby. But when betting a race like the Derby, with a 20-horse field and all the other uncertainties that go with it, value is the key with the question being is Essential Quality worth the short price he figures to be, somewhere in the vicinity of 2-1, after the last of Mattress Mack’s win bets have gone through the windows?

ESSENTIAL QUALITY’s tactical speed and versatility might be key in this year’s Kentucky Derby. Assuming a clean break, the undefeated colt can adapt to any sort of pace scenario. If they go fast up front, as in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he can succeed from eight to 10 lengths off the lead. If they slow down the pace such as in the recent Blue Grass, he can sit right up close. I don’t think he squeezed the lemon dry when scoring at Keeneland last month, and he should be right in the thick of things when the real racing starts on the second turn.

If ESSENTIAL QUALITY had won the Blue Grass by a neck under moderate urging, looking like a horse going through a two-race progression to the Kentucky Derby with his connections ensuring they were leaving something in the tank, I would just eat his relatively short price (made shorter by the intended multi-million wager from Jim McIngvale).

There are lots of ways to lose the Kentucky Derby, including a bad trip from an inside post. But if KNOWN AGENDA gets beat from the rail, the likely reason is he simply was not good enough. Much improved when he added blinkers two back, he employs a versatile style and is comfortable eating dirt inside and behind traffic. He is bred for 1 1/4 miles and established his class scoring a decisive Grade 1 victory last out in the Florida Derby.

KING FURY may be a bit behind the eight ball with just one start as a 3-year-old, even with that race being a career-best effort. The silver lining for this well-bred son of Curlin lies in that he had a solid foundation last year with five juvenile starts, including a stakes win over Churchill Downs dirt, leaving him open to further improvement now that he has had a race.