Kentucky Derby
A day after picking up his record-tying sixth GI Kentucky Derby win in a renewal as unorthodox as they come, trainer Bob Baffert said victor Authentic (Into Mischief) "wasn't even tired" Sunday morning after going wire to wire and turning back odds-on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in Saturday's Run for the Roses. "I couldn't believe it, I thought he might be a little tired today," Baffert said. "He came out of it well." The triumph for Baffert was plenty unorthodox as well. After appearing to have a strangehold on the...
Bob Baffert's formidable GI Kentucky Derby line-up had continued to dwindle along this extended Triple Crown trail--with one of his entries even scratching in the paddock Saturday--but the last colt standing, Authentic (Into Mischief), provided the Hall of Fame conditioner with a record-tying sixth trophy in the "Run for the Roses." Odds-on favorite Tiz the Law (Constitution) ranged up to challenge the winner, but was repelled, and settled for second, beaten 1 1/4 lengths. Huge longshot Mr. Big News (Giant's Causeway) was this year's trifecta crasher, while second choice Honor...
LOUISVILLE, KY--After a four-month delay, the world spotlight finally shines again on Churchill Downs. While Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby has certainly lost some of its luster due to a number of high-profile defections along this seemingly never-ending Triple Crown trail, tensions remain extremely high in Louisville--which at times of late has felt like the epicenter of concurrent national crises. COVID-19 cases in Kentucky have continued on an upward slope while the overall U.S. graph trends downward, and the commonwealth's largest city has remained in the headlines as the community has...
Main street? It's a two-way street. And for the one horse race that truly engages the American nation, that is literally a mixed blessing. A blessing that mixes our own enchanted way of life, culpably introspective as it can be, with the passing traffic of the wider world. Right now, between pandemic and protests, there is a lot of turmoil out there. Nobody should be surprised, then, if society's discords have been filtering through the backstretch gate in Derby week: whether through the annual migration of mainstream media, or protestors...
Arnaldo Monge and trainer Rey Hernandez's Finnick the Fierce (Dialed In), a 50-1 shot on the morning-line for the GI Kentucky Derby, has been scratched from the 1 1/4-mile classic. The one-eyed gelding, third in the GI Arkansas Derby, was seventh last out in the GII Toyota Blue Grass S. at Keeneland July 11. "Because he's blind on the right eye, he carries himself a little funny," Monge said. "And we always knew that. But ever since he arrived, the vets have been keeping an eye on the horse and...
Ed DeRosa of Brisnet.com takes on TDN's Steve Sherack and Brian DiDonato as they handicap Triple Crown prep races plus the big three races themselves. The three will make $100 Win/Place bets in the preps and $200 Win/Place bets in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont. Highest bankroll at the end wins. DeRosa - Bankroll: $5480 - Pegasus Result - Skyscanner made no impact at a big price. GI Kentucky Derby - Tiz the Law is my pick to win the GI Kentucky Derby. He is the most likely winner,...
King Guillermo (Uncle Mo), winner of this season's GII Tampa Bay Derby, will miss an intended date in this Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby because of a fever, Victoria's Ranch principle and former MLB player Victor Martinez confirmed Thursday afternoon. The GII Tampa Bay Derby hero and runner-up in the faster division of the GI Arkansas Derby, King Guillermo was trying to defy a four-month absence in the 'Run for the Roses' Saturday, but he was found to have a fever Wednesday evening. The colt did not go to the track...
King Guillermo (Uncle Mo), who would be making his first start in over four months in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, did not go to the track Thursday morning, as reported by Greg Hall, an assigned pool reporter for the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters. While refusing to reveal any specifics, trainer Juan Carlos Avila told Hall: "We have a little problem. We have to wait until afternoon." Avila told Hall there would be a meeting to speak with vets and that there "may be additional information" later...
GI Kentucky Derby favorite and Quadruple Crown hopeful Tiz the Law (Constitution) would no doubt be almost any owner's horse of a lifetime--unless you're Jack Knowlton or Lew Titterton. Of Sackatoga Stable's 35 co-owners in on Tiz the Law, they're the only two who were around for the group's first horse of a lifetime, 2003 Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Funny Cide (Distorted Humor). For some of the others, Tiz the Law is the payoff after many years of horse ownership. For several, the six-for-seven, $2-million earning sophomore was,...
As a Hall of Fame jockey and two-time winning rider of the GI Kentucky Derby, Mike Smith knows his way around Churchill Downs. After having his morning-line favored mount Omaha Beach (War Front) scratched the week of the race last year, Smith is back aboard a major contender in Saturday's Run for the Roses. Wednesday, the 55-year-old rider who's still at the top of his game joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland. Calling in via Zoom from Louisville as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Smith talked...
Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith joins this week's TDN Writers' Room days before his bid for the GI Kentucky Derby aboard Honor A.P.
Roger Sofer won't be at Churchill Downs Saturday to cheer on Tiz the Law (Constitution) in the GI Kentucky Derby, but he will be at home, watching, hoping and rooting for a horse he co-owns along with 31 other partners in the Sackatoga Stable syndicate. He's not complaining Back in mid-March, right before the GI Florida Derby, Sofer got the chilling diagnosis that he had leukemia. He vowed to beat the disease but knew the odds were against him and he didn't know what the next few months would entail....