Kentucky Derby Blog

Rain pummeled Churchill Downs early Saturday, turning the historic track into a soggy mess for the Kentucky Derby, the latest wild card in a week full of them.

Heavy rains postponed early morning workouts Saturday, but all 20 Kentucky Derby horses were still expected to start. Trainers opted to trot their Derby hopefuls inside their barns instead.

Though the weather is wreaking havoc on the Derby undercard, it’s unlikely any of the top 3-year-olds will be scratched.

Light rainfall is expected throughout the afternoon, a reprieve of sorts after projections earlier in the week suggested the track could get hit with 3-6 inches of rain.

By post time for the first race around 10:30 a.m., the dirt looked something more like peanut butter, only a whole lot messier.

Experience in the muck is hard to find in the field, and trainer Bob Baffert says it’s impossible to tell how the top 3-year-olds will react when the starting gate opens for the 1 1/4-mile test.

The wettest Derby day was May 11, 1918, when 2.31 inches of rain fell, according to National Weather Service records.

The last horse before Mine That Bird to win in the mud was Smarty Jones, who splashed to victory in 2004. His son, Backtalk, is in the field Saturday and he’s 2 for 2 on a wet track.

Diane Lane is attending the Kentucky Deryb for the first time in her life. The 45-year-old former Oscar nominee plays horse owner Penny Chenery in the movie “Secretariat,” due out Oct. 8 and co-starring John Malkovich. Some of the filming was done at Churchill Downs racetrack.

The movie about the 1973 Triple Crown winner follows the story of how Chenery took over her ailing father’s racing stable despite her limited knowledge of the sport. Against the odds, she succeeded in the male-dominated sport as Secretariat swept the Derby, Preakness and Belmont stakes.

“I was very impacted by the heroism of Secretariat’s performance,” Lane said at the Kentucky Derby Museum. “I feel so humbled and hopeful to honor everything that’s involved in the story.”

Lane and Chenery served as grand marshals of Thursday’s Pegasus Parade through the streets of downtown Louisville.

The 2010 Kentucky Derby took a huge blow this past weekend when trainer Todd Pletcher, who had roughly 6 to 7 possible starters in the race, announced that because of swelling in his left front leg, Eskendereya, who would have been a huge favorite, had been pulled from the race.

Eskendereya’s departure wasn’t the only news this past weekend from the Pletcher barn.

Another one of their Derby contenders, Rule, came out of his work not looking his best leading Pletcher to announce that he was on the fence regarding Rule’s entry into the Kentucky Derby.

This is the 2010 Derby Wager and morning lines posted on kentuckyderby.com.
Last Updated on April 25, 2010 12:40pm EST
Pool Total: $224,358.43

2010 Kentucky Derby is only 5 days away.  NBC will broadcast the activities, which begin on May 1st 2010 at 5:00 EDT. The post positions to be announced several days beforehand on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 and the post time is set at approx. 6:15 PM. EST.

If you can’t wait until May 1 for a race, the Kentucky Oaks race will take place on April 30, 2010 at Churchill Downs – one day before the historic race begins.  This is a great race with a great purpose, as the traditions have morphed into more of a Charity event.  The official color of the Kentucky Oaks race  is Pink and the charity partner is the Susan G Komen for the Cure organization.

SIDNEY’S CANDY is trained by John Sadler and will be mounted by Joe Talamo in the 2010 Kentucky Derby. SIDNEY’S CANDY is coming off a hard fought 1st place finish with a win over Interactif or Caracortado in the grade 1 2010 Santa Anita Derby. Expect to see Interactif or Caracortado again as both of these colts will be looking to earn a better finishing position over SIDNEY’S CANDY in the 2010 Kentucky Derby.

Sired by Candy Ride, SIDNEY’S CANDY is listed at 7/1 to win the Kentucky Derby 2010 and is posted with 60/1 odds to take the 2010 Triple Crown.

Noble’s Promise is a classic pace presser/stalker; the furthest behind the leaders that this colt has been in any of his career wins is just three lengths. His race in the Arkansas Derby saw him eight lengths back after a half but that was primarily due to a little bit of a rough trip leaving the gate.

Despite the fact that his running lines always show him up near the lead early on, Noble’s Promise doesn’t display a tremendously quick burst from the gate and has generally found himself near the lead due to a slow early pace. Given the prospects of several speed horses in the Derby field, this colt looks like a horse that is going to find himself in the middle of the pack instead of a length or two off of the lead.

How he got to the Derby: Noble’s Promise put together an excellent juvenile campaign that saw him win a listed stake at Presque Isle Downs, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland, followed up by a third place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita and a second place finish to Lookin At Lucky in the Grade 1 Cash Call Futurity at Hollywood Park.

Lookin At Lucky, trained by three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert, came into the Derby prep season as the No. 1 contender off his 2-year-old championship season. The colt then won the Rebel Stakes in his lone race on dirt — the same surface as the Derby is run on and finished third behind Sidney’s Candy and Setsuko in the Santa Anita Derby.

Lookin At Lucky Past Performance

The following is career earnings in graded stakes races for contenders for the Kentucky Derby as of 4/21/2010. The field for the Kentucky Derby is limited to 20 starters with preference given to horses with the highest career earnings in graded stakes races.

Churchill Downs has announced a series of groundbreaking new rules and policies designed to enhance the safety and welfare of jockeys and horses. These measures will be in place at Churchill Downs racetrack in advance of the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on Saturday, May 2, and will include unprecedented standardized third-party testing of track surfaces and comprehensive testing of all winning horses for more than 100 prohibited drugs.

The key safety initiatives that will be in place at Churchill Downs prior to Kentucky Derby 135 are as follows:
- Independent, standardized third-party testing and monitoring of track surfaces;
- “Supertesting” of all winning horses for more than 100 performance-enhancing drugs;
- Age restrictions requiring Thoroughbreds to be at least 24 calendar months of age before becoming eligible to race;
- The freezing and storage of equine blood and urine samples to allow for retrospective testing;
- The banning of steroids;
- Limits on the number of horses allowed to compete in certain races;
- The prohibition of “milkshaking”, which results in excessive levels of total carbon dioxide in Thoroughbred racehorses;
- Prohibiting the transport of horses from CDI facilities for slaughter;
- The banning of unsafe horseshoes, including front shoe toe grabs longer than two millimeters;
- The use of low-impact riding whips with limited usage rules;
- The presence of on-site medical personnel, equipment, and state-of-the-art equine ambulances;
- Immediate online access to jockey medical histories for emergency medical personnel;
- $1 million in catastrophic injury insurance coverage for jockeys;
- Mandatory and uniform reporting of equine injuries to the Equine Injury Database System, thereby assisting in the compilation of statistics and trends to improve safety conditions around the country;
- A professionally designed and installed safety rail on the inside of the dirt course;
- Mandatory usage by all jockeys, exercise riders and other on-track personnel of safety vests and safety helmets that meet internationally acknowledged quality standards;
- 3/8-inch foam padding on all parts of the starting gates;
- Significant financial support for equine retirement programs;
- Inspection of all horses by regulatory veterinarians prior to and following all races;
- Review of security procedures around barns and other racetrack backstretch areas;
- Continued maintenance of protocols for the treatment of horses that have been injured during racing or training, to ensure the most humane treatment possible; and
- Mandatory, independent, and complete necropsies of any horse that dies as a result of an injury sustained while racing or training at Churchill Downs.

For more information about the Churchill Downs “Safety from Start to Finish” initiative, please visit the Safety Center at Gate 17 at Churchill Downs racetrack, or go to www.churchilldowns.com/safety.