Flatter: Ky. Derby rumor mill becomes semi-reliable source

Louisville, Ky.

It had to be the most turbulent 24 hours of build-up in the century and a half of the Kentucky Derby. And as this was being written Friday around 5 a.m. EDT, it did not feel like it was over.

At some point after sun-up, the rumor mill said there would be yet one more horse scratched out of Kentucky Derby 2023. A biggie. Clues may have come from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s veterinarians list. Suddenly Thursday, it included Forte and Kingsbarns.

As they ask on “Pardon the Interruption,” big deal, little deal or no deal? Trainer Todd Pletcher told reporters outside his barn Friday morning it was no deal. The horses looked fine on the track minutes earlier, and they are still a go for a Saturday.That was the first big piece of scuttlebutt that was wrong this week.

Normally I pay little heed to the rumor mill. I have stored in my phone screenshots of some of the wildest ones that did not come true. If I spent time chasing all the gossip that flies around backsides of racetracks, there would be no time left to report real, tangible news.

But this week has been different. Until Friday, the grapevine had been like TMZ, which always seems to be first and never seems to be wrong.

First there was the noise about Saffie Joseph Jr., who lost two horses to racetrack deaths since the Churchill Downs meet began. The buzz was that veterinarians were said to have been giving his barn the once-over more than once this week.

Like another trainer of some repute two years ago this week, Joseph spoke to reporters who waited for him Thursday at his barn. Perhaps mindful of Bob Baffert’s contentious statements after Medina Spirit’s drug positive, Joseph seemed to say all the right things about how gut-wrenching it was to lose two precious animals and how he was cooperating with the investigation to figure out what went wrong with Parents Pride and Chasing Artie.

This was the day after Churchill Downs Inc. made a statement about how it was “completely unacceptable” that four horses had died in racing or training since the day the current meet began last Saturday. It was a remarkable broadside, really, since CDI almost never acknowledges the deaths of racehorses. I think we went over this last week, right?

Move forward to Thursday afternoon, and Joseph was told unceremoniously to pack up and get out. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission’s scratching of Lord Miles from the Derby and all his horses who were entered this week was followed swiftly by CDI’s indefinite suspension of him. It had a 2021 ring to it.

Around the same time as Joseph was losing a tenuous grasp on his stalls in barn 41, Tim Yakteen was discovering a feed tub that was still full of oats in barn 27. Practical Move did not eat his breakfast. By around lunchtime for humans, he was out of the Derby.

He had a fever resonated at Churchill like Gay Talese declaring Frank Sinatra has a cold. Yakteen told reporters what happened, one by one. He called no fewer than six of us, patiently taking the time with each call to explain what happened. As a side note to this treacherous Thursday, Yakteen deserves a round of applause from media folks like me who are loathe to put our hands together for anything other than someone else picking up a bar tab.

Yes, “spiked a fever” seems like racing’s answer to the NBA’s “load management.” This time, though, it felt real.

The rumblings about Continuar began with his lousy workout last week. They continued with his lousier luck in the post-position draw. And then they reached a palpable buzz Wednesday afternoon, when a couple trainers heard he would be scratched.

Kate Hunter, Japan’s Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup liaison who may be the most versatile professional in racing, only would say there would be a statement Thursday night. Why so late? Because of the time difference between Kentucky and Japan, where Continuar’s owners had to be told first.

Come to think of it, if those owners were still in Japan instead of making the trip over here for this rather large race, that should have been a sign.

Now Mandarin Hero, also from Japan, is in the Derby. That is great news for those of us who feel like he should have qualified just on the eye test of his narrow loss to Practical Move last month at Santa Anita. Cyclone Mischief is in, and that is good just because that brings trainer Dale Romans in to spice things up. And with King Russell getting his call, that offers hope to everyone who has found himself at the bottom of any standby list.

And so we wait on Friday morning for perhaps one more big horseshoe to drop. It has to happen by 9 a.m. EDT, when there will be an announcement blasted over the speakers on the Churchill Downs backside. A booming voice will make formal the exits of Lord Miles and Practical Move and Continuar and maybe a name bigger than all of them.

We have been through the ritual of having a late scratch of the Derby favorite. Just four years ago it happened with Omaha Beach. A trapped epiglottis provided the big story that Wednesday. It was nothing, though, compared with the disqualification that Saturday of Maximum Security. Give us 22 minutes, and we’ll give you a drama.

Ten years before that, I Want Revenge was scratched on Derby morning itself. That led to a lawsuit between the partners. That misadventure was overshadowed hours later when Mine That Bird paddled through the slop for a 50-1 payoff.

No matter how the rest of Friday unfolds or unravels, Saturday brings the hope that the Kentucky Derby itself will assume its rightful position as the real headline. The two minutes will be more memorable than all the stage-left exits that happened since Thursday morning.

The moral to this story: We cannot get to Saturday at 6:57 p.m. EDT soon enough.