Kentucky Derby
I participate in a group called "Thoroughbred Horse Racing Discussion" on Facebook and I conduct polls with a large sampling rate. On Mar. 20, I put up a poll responded to by 176 people--a statistically significant pool of people very interested in the horse racing industry. Of these, 113 supported the current plan to have the Kentucky Derby Sept. 5. Only 40 supported having the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, but without a live audience, as the Louisiana Derby was run last Saturday. Two people said the...
A few weeks ago, I felt like a lone wolf howling in the wind (not the first time). I was calling for Keeneland to call off its April meet and for Churchill Downs to go ahead and announce the cancellation of the Kentucky Derby. Based on what I knew of the coronavirus spread in other countries and that it had reached our shores, it seemed obvious to me that within days we would begin cancelling events at a rapid pace. The first sports leader to acknowledge such was NBA Commissioner...
George Hall's Max Player (Honor Code), winner of the Feb. 12 GIII Withers S., worked seven furlongs in 1:27.20 (1/1) at Belmont Park last Wednesday. The sophomore had been expected to make his next start in the Apr. 4 GII Wood Memorial S. before racing was suspended in New York. "He worked really well," said trainer Linda Rice. "We had planned on shooting towards the Wood Memorial and he had been training really nicely into that race." Rice said the recent announcement moving the GI Kentucky Derby to Sept. 5...
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 - Last Week's Results - Invader (+$170) just got run down in the Jeff Ruby, while No Parole faded to last. Bankroll: $1565. GII TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby - When it comes to Brisnet Speed Ratings, one horse...
Oaklawn has announced that it is moving its signature race--the GI Arkansas Derby--from Saturday, Apr. 11 to Saturday, May 2, closing day of the 2020 live meet. Due to the closing of the casino and racetrack to the public, Oaklawn could have raced with purses intact through Apr. 18, but, upon discussions with the HBPA, decided instead to reduce purses across the board and "stay until May." As a result, the Arkansas Derby purse will be reduced to $750,000. "Churchill Downs understands the circumstances created by the current health crisis,...
The TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented each week by Keeneland, was a strange affair this week, conducted in an otherwise empty TDN office, with Bill Finley and Jon Green sitting six feet apart, and host Joe Bianca calling in from home. "We need to march on, just like the world does," said Jon Green. "We're just a small part of what's going on out there, but I've been implementing social distancing for just about all of my 50 years." That led Bianca to crack, "All of those nights without a...
With the abrupt cancellation of racing indefinitely at Aqueduct and the announcement earlier this week that Keeneland has canceled its Spring Meeting, Saturday's GII Louisiana Derby offers one of the final few springtime opportunities at amassing points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, now tentatively scheduled to be contested on the first Saturday of September. The centerpiece of the meet in New Orleans, the Louisiana Derby will be run over a mile and three-sixteenths for the first time and is one of four races scheduled to be run over...
"Only fools, liars and charlatans predict earthquakes." So said the man who instead gave us a means of measuring tremors once they have actually happened, Charles Richter. But how about when an earthquake announces a Charlatan? Because on the equivalent of the Richter scale, for those who try to quantify a horse's talent against the clock, a 105 debut Beyer for 'TDN Rising Star' Charlatan (Speightstown) at Santa Anita last month represented a convulsion that brought every other member of his crop crumbling to the ground. Some even whispered the...
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) unanimously voted at a special meeting Thursday to allow Churchill Downs to shift five "optional" Wednesday race dates from its spring meet to Sept. 1-5 to accommodate the track's coronavirus-related rescheduling of the entire Tuesday-through-Saturday GI Kentucky Derby race week. The KHRC's approval came after two other Kentucky tracks that have already been granted traditional race dates during that September time block indicated they would be amenable to working out a compromise for the betterment of the entire circuit. That means Ellis Park will...
Following the rescheduling of the Kentucky Derby Week in September, the Kentucky Derby Museum has rescheduled its Derby Week museum events. Big Brims and Fancy Trims Hat Sale - Aug. 6 Fan Fest - Aug. 16 (Official Kentucky Derby Festival Event) Kentucky Derby Museum Gala - Aug. 28 Biscuits and Bourbon - Sept. 2 Thurby VIP Lounge - Sept. 3 Originally slated to open Apr. 19, Kentucky Derby Museum's new exhibit, "Right to Ride"-paying tribute to female jockeys and their journey in Thoroughbred racing--is currently under construction and an alternate...
Perhaps this will neatly fall in line, with the GI Preakness S. being run two weeks after the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Belmont S. three weeks after that. That would mean a Sept. 5 Derby, a Sept. 19 Preakness and an Oct. 10 Belmont. Four weeks later, Keeneland would host the Breeders' Cup. That may be the best thing when it comes to restoring some order to a Triple Crown that has been turned upside down by the coronavirus, but it doesn't come without its own set of...
The GI Kentucky Derby has been moved from May 2 to Sept. 5 as a result of the coronavirus, Churchill Downs officials announced Tuesday. "Throughout the rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic, our first priority has been how to best protect the safety and health of our guests, team members and community," Churchill Downs CEO Bill Carstanjen said in a statement. "As the situation evolved, we reached the difficult conclusion that we needed to reschedule. At no point did we ever consider canceling the Kentucky Derby." In the aftermath of...