Each year a new group of well-bred horses aim to take home the first leg of the challenging Triple Crown—quickly followed by the hopes of being the next Triple Crown winner, a post still standing vacant since Affirmed won it in 1978 with Steve Cauthen in the irons. That’s a 33-year gap since it was last captured.
Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby has been hit by a torrent of rain. The track is sloppy but the horses seem to be working well on it. Still, everyone is keeping an eye on the weather!
Large and Varied Field
As of now there is a large field of horses set to run the Derby, 20 to be exact, including an international entry from Ireland, Master of Hounds, with Garret Gomez riding, trained by Aidan O'Brien. This horse seems to be adjusting nicely after the trip over.
Todd Pletcher’s barn brings two prospects, Uncle Mo and Stay Thirsty. Bob Baffert’s horse Midnight Interlude is working well on the very sloppy track, according to bloodhorse.com.
Jockey Calvin Borel, who has ridden three Derby winners since 2007, is up on Twice the Appeal. Edward “Rusty” Brown, Victor Flores, and Henry Hernandez co-own Twice the Appeal. He is the first major runner the group has owned, according to kentuckyderby.com.
Mucho Macho Man could well be a big surprise to the field. He’s a late foal, born in June rather than close to January 1, which is the official birthday for all thoroughbred race horses. He is big, at 17 hands and still growing, with a very large stride.
In his bio on bloodhorse.com his owners John and Carole Rios said they thought he was a stillborn foal, but as they stood there dismayed something unusual happened:
“Just then this sucker jumped up and started running. He didn’t just stand up—he jumped up and then ran off from the mare. It was bizarre.”
Derby Time Is an Excuse for Parties!
The Kentucky Derby is celebrated both in Kentucky and around the nation. A major event this year is the Second Annual Taste of Derby party at Churchill Downs. This party is a high-profile party complete with a Red Carpet event, which is billed on the Derby website as “a celebration of cuisine, racing, and style.”
The Taste of Derby is a charity fundraiser as well as a great party, raising funds for hunger-relief organizations. The inaugural event in 2010 hosted 1000 guests and donated $75,000 locally to Dare to Care Food Bank and globally to the World Food Programme.
Derby parties crop up in other places too. At the Santa Anita Race Track in California, TROTT USA presents their 2011 Annual Charity Fundraiser, Kentucky Derby Day. TROTT (Training Racehorses Off The Track) was launched January 2010, and is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit to which horse owners can donate their retiring steeds.
The outlook for racehorses which cannot make good as a runner is often bleak, the last stop being the slaughter house or slow starvation in a field. TROTT instead provides re-schooling for the horses to give them new careers and works to make the best horse–owner matches so the horses can transition into new lives with great new owners.
TROTT partners with Teddy Cole Foundation, whose mission is to help all horses who directly leave the track with no sponsorship. The two organizations support one another in fulfilling a mission of seeing that no horse is forgotten.
The Racing Field
Quite a line up in this year’s Run for the Roses:
Mount | Jockey | Trainer |
Animal Kingdom | Robby Alkarado | H. Graham Motion |
UncleMo | John Velazquez | Todd Pletcher |
Dialed In | Julien Leproux | Nick Zito |
Archarcharch | Jon Court | William H. Fires |
Comma to the Top | J. Patrick Valenzuela | Peter Miller |
Toby’s Corner | Eddie Castro | H. Graham Motion |
Pants on Fire | Anna Napravnik | Kelly Breen |
Midnight Interlude | Victor Espinoza | Bob Baffert |
Soldat | Alan Garcia | Kiaran McLaughlin |
Brilliant Speed | Joel Rosario | Tom Albertrani |
Master of Hounds | Garret Gomez | Aidan O'Brian |
Nehro | Corey Nakatani | Steve Asmussen |
Twice the Appeal | Calvin Borel | Jeff Bonde |
Mucho Macho Man | Rajiv Maragh | Kathy Ritvo |
Decisive Moment | Kerwin Clark | Juan Arias |
Stay Thirsty | Ramon Domingquez | Todd Pletcher |
Santiva | Shaun Bridgmohan | Eddie Kenneally |
Watch Me Go | Rafael Bejarano | Kathleen O'Connell |
Shackleford | Jesus Castanon | Dale Romans |
Twinspired | Mike Smith | Mike Maker |
An interesting race is shaping up at Churchill Downs this year. |
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