Kentucky Derby

The Ocala Breeders Sales Company's Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, featuring a catalogue of over 1,200 horses, opens its four-day run Tuesday in Central Florida with bidding beginning at 10:30 a.m. "I think it is the 2-year-old sale of the world," OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said of the Spring sale. "That's what it is looked at as. The amount of international traffic, the amount of domestic traffic, has just been tremendous and continues to branch out." Carrying on from last fall's record-setting yearling auctions, the juvenile sales season...

Tickets for the 10th annual National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame's Kentucky Derby Party on Saturday, May 2 are now available for purchase. Set to begin at 4:00p.m. and run until 7:30p.m., the Derby-themed fundraiser will feature samplings of local brews and spirits as well as food from local restaurants in Saratoga Springs, New York. While exploring the Museum and its exhibits, guests will enjoy entertainment in the Hall of Fame before a live airing of the running of the Kentucky Derby. Guests are encouraged to dress in...

OGMA Investments LLC, JR Ranch and High Step Racing LLC's The Puma (Essential Quality) tuned up for a scheduled start in the May 2 GI Kentucky Derby Saturday morning at Gulfstream Park during a maintenance-style half-mile breeze. "It was getting him back into his routine two weeks after a race. It was pretty easy. Maybe the exercise rider got a little too comfortable, but next week is when he'll have his important work," trainer Gustavo Delgado's son and assistant Gustavo Delgado Jr. said. "We're planning to do that Friday or...

Nitrogen (Medaglia d'Oro), fresh off an Eclipse Award-winning season in 2025, opened her 4-year-old campaign with a win in the Feb. 7 GIII Bayakoa Stakes--a victory trainer Mark Casse called "the best race she's ever run." Things didn't go quite as well when the filly faded to third in the Mar. 7 over a sloppy Oaklawn surface in the GII Azeri Stakes, but she will look to get back on track when she returns in the GI Apple Blossom Handicap Saturday at Oaklawn Park. She is the 9-5 morning-line favorite...

Trainer Brad Cox had a pair of horses work Friday ahead of a projected next start in the GI Kentucky Derby. Both Wathnan Racing's GI Florida Derby winner Commandment (Into Mischief) (:48.40 {14/44}) and St. Elias Stable and Starlight Racing's GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks winner Fulleffort (Liam's Map) (:48.40 {14/44}) recorded published four-furlong workouts Friday morning. Commandment was the first of the two Cox trainees to breeze and worked in company with George Messina's Louisiana-bred stakes winner He's Late Again (Aurelius Maximus). The duo completed an opening quarter-mile in :24.40...

Class President (Uncle Mo), who scratched from last week's GI Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, is off the Kentucky Derby trail with bone bruising, WinStar's Elliott Walden announced Friday. The GII Rebel Stakes winner, who is owned in partnership by WinStar Farm, First Go Racing and the China Horse Club, will be given 60 days off according to Walden but will not require surgery. In a post to the social media site X, Walden said, "Class President will get 60 days off for bone bruising. He had all diagnostics (pet,ct, X-rays)...

Amerman Racing's Stark Contrast (Caravaggio), runner-up in both the GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks Mar. 21 and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, is more likely to target the GI American Turf S. than the GI Kentucky Derby. Both races are run at Churchill Downs May 2. He currently has 50 qualifying points for the Derby. "He may win on the first Saturday in May, I don't think it'll be in the Kentucky Derby," trainer Michael McCarthy said on At the Races with Steve Byk. "Being by Caravaggio out...

An exclusive Kentucky Derby and Oaks Package donated by racehorse owner Ken Freirich will be auctioned off to support Thoroughbred Charities of America and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. The package is being offered via an online auction through Apr. 17 at 5 p.m. EST. Bidding is open and available here. The proceeds will be split evenly between the two non-profit organizations. The package includes: a behind-the-scenes barn visit with a top trainer on Kentucky Oaks Day, front row reserved outdoor table for four in the exclusive Woodford Reserve Paddock Club...

Churchill Downs Racetrack has announced a multi-year partnership with CAFE Appliances to help fans create the ultimate home-watch parties for the Kentucky Derby. CAFE and Churchill Downs have also partnered with Caroline Chambers, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author, to curate a 'Kentucky Derby At-home' menu. Also joining the team are content creators like recipe and drink creator Miguel Buencamino, and hospitality expert Xandy Sutherland Nickel. "We want viewers around the globe to be able to experience the spirit of the Kentucky Derby beyond the race itself, and food...

As we acknowledged a week ago, the contributions made by these horses to what we can turn into a narrative are wholly random. But it has meanwhile felt almost as though Gun Runner wanted to prove otherwise, after watching Into Mischief's feisty response to the spectacle of Not This Time stealing an early march in the general sires' table. Gun Runner's role in that exchange was to retreat sulkily to the wings, lamenting the injury to his top Classic prospect Paladin. Well, he's obviously too good for that. On the...

The non-profit equine adoption program Second Stride, based in Prospect, Kentucky, is conducting a series of three fundraisers with Kentucky Derby themes designed to support retired Thoroughbred racehorses as they transition to second careers beyond the track. "Derby season is when the world falls in love with the Thoroughbred," said Second Stride founder Kim Smith. "What many people don't see is what comes next for these horses. As more horses enter aftercare and require longer, more individualized support, our work--and the community's role in it--has never been more important. These...

Trainer Riley Mott knew it would be a big ask for Albus (Yaupon) to go from a one-mile and 40-yard maiden victory to the nine-furlong GII Wood Memorial, but the colt responded with aplomb to win from well off-the-pace on Saturday at Aqueduct and punch his ticket to Louisville for the GI Kentucky Derby. "He came back covered in mud, and Jaime [Torres] said he wasn't fazed at all by the kickback--going around horses, splitting horses in a big field," Mott said. "It showed a lot of professionalism. I don't...