Kentucky Derby

There's a reason why Bob Baffert has won the GIII Robert B. Lewis Stakes 12 times, including the last six running. At this time of year his barn is always loaded with talented 3-year-old colts who have one eye on the Lewis and another on the GI Kentucky Derby. It will be a familiar story at Santa Anita Saturday as Baffert will send out three of the five horses entered in the Lewis. His trio is topped by 2-year-old champion and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Citizen Bull (Into Mischief),...

Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP) High School sophomore Kayci Shacklette is the grand prize winner of the 39th annual Horsing Around with Art competition, the Kentucky Derby Museum announced Monday morning via press release. Shacklette's artwork, The Final Furlong, will be professionally framed and displayed prominently at the museum, and she will receive a spring race day prize package sponsored by Churchill Downs. The PRP art department was awarded $500 to purchase art supplies. The contest attracted 255 submissions from students in grades 1-12 from 37 public, private, and parochial schools...

We're learning more every day about the relationship between horses and mankind and how people struggling with such things as PTSD so often thrive and recover when working closely with horses. But can it work the other way? Can a human have such a positive and calming effect on a horse that a bond and relationship develops that makes the horse prosper? In the case of GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and his groom Eduardo (Lalo) Diaz, it looks like that might be the case....

Speed King (Volatile), second as the favorite in the Remington Springboard Mile Stakes Dec. 13, ran them off their feet in Saturday's GIII Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, good for 20 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Overlooked at odds of 14-1 while drawn widest of all in post nine, Speed King cleared the field beneath Rafael Bejarano heading into the clubhouse turn. He set fractions of :24.11 and :47.82, gave them the slip on the far turn and kept on finding down the stretch to pull off...

With the season's signature GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes leading the way with an all-time high purse of $1.25 million, the stakes schedule for Keeneland's Spring Meet will be worth a record $9.4 million. The Blue Grass is one of 16 races on the 19-race stakes schedule to have purse increases for 2025. With an increase of $150,000, the GI Central Bank Ashland Stakes is now worth $750,000, and an increase of $200,000 will make the GIII Transylvania Stakes a $600,000 race. Contributing to the purses for the total of...

Reigning GI Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (Goldencents) breezed five furlongs in :59.98 on his own over a 'good' Gulfstream Park main track Saturday morning, his final serious piece of work ahead of next Saturday's GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes. Robby Albarado was aboard for the move. "What I'd call a happy five-eighths," trainer Ken McPeek said. "It was just a maintenance breeze. I didn't have a horse I really felt good about him being in company with, and I don't think he needed the company. But he took...

Built (Hard Spun), a 6 3/4-length, front-running winner over Magnitude (Not This Time) in the Gun Runner Stakes Dec. 21, has been tabbed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday's GIII Lecomte Stakes at Fair Grounds. The Lecomte offers 42 points (20-10-6-4-2) on the road to the GI Kentucky Derby. The Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners colorbearer was able to dictate the pace through easy fractions of :24 3/5 and :49 1/5 and drew off impressively to earn a field-best 92 Beyer Speed Figure while facing just four rivals that day. Built...

5th-Fair Grounds, $59,170, Alw (NW3$X)/Opt. Clm ($80,000), 1-16, 4yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:45.59, gd, 1 length. ENCINO (c, 4, Nyquist--Glittering Jewel, by Bernardini), a late scratch from last year's GI Kentucky Derby, was sidelined since capturing the GIII Stonestreet Lexington Stakes at Keeneland Apr. 13. He was backed as the 1-9 favorite in this return while facing just three rivals. He was sent to the front by Florent Geroux, led through fractions of :23.71 and :47.21, and, after some anxious moments in the stretch, dug down gamely to hold Accretive (Practical...

Undefeated 3-year-old colt Barnes has been tabbed as the 10-1 individual betting favorite in Pool 3 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager as it begins a three-day run on Friday, Jan. 17 at noon before closing Sunday at 6p.m. Owned by Zedan Racing and trained by Bob Baffert, the GII San Vicente winner leads the 39 individual betting interests in Pool 3, with the pari-mutuel field of "All Other 3-Year-Olds" tabbed as the 5-2 overall favorite. The pool, which features $2 Win and Exacta wagering, is available at racetracks and...

MGSW and GI Kentucky Derby runner up Two Phil's (Hard Spun) was represented by his first foal Friday. The filly, bred by Meredith Krupp and Phillip Sagan Racing LLC, is out of the mare Makin' Sense (Street Sense). "She has great bone and really good size," said co-breeder Meredith Krupp who owns Pine Branch Farm where the filly was born. "Very happy with her and thrilled for the Sagan family." Two Phil's retired to stud with five wins from 10 career starts, having amassed earnings of $1,583,450. Bred in Kentucky...

The bandwagon for Barnes was already pretty crowded heading into Saturday's GII San Vicente S. at Santa Anita. It now may be next to impossible to find a standing-room-only spot after the Bob Baffert-trained son of Into Mischief uncorked a crusher of a performance that left four rivals reeling in his 5 ½-length wake. I have no idea if the two sprint victories at the root of this $3.2 million FTSAUG colt's foundation will blossom into a blanket of roses on the first Saturday in May. I am pretty certain,...

It's been a torrid beginning to 2025 for champion freshman sire Vekoma, who racked up yet another potentially important horse when Golden Vekoma ran out a good-looking winner of Friday's UAE 2000 Guineas Trial Sponsored by Kentucky Derby, a 1400-meter contest run under allowance conditions at Meydan. Making his first start since finishing a distant third in a 1600-meter maiden Dec. 6, the bay colt broke running from a double-digit gate and parked right off the speed in a three-wide third, then dropped down into the two path when the...