Flatter: Translating quiet noise around Kentucky Derby 2025

Louisville, Ky.

Kentucky Derby week plays out like a teenager’s diary. Wait. Stop right there. Do teenagers still keep diaries?

Start over.

Kentucky Derby week plays out like a teenager’s photo dump on IG or TikTok. It is a collage of images and moods that hopefully line up with a big finish that can be cherished for years. Substitute a winning superfecta ticket for a prom date, and we may be onto something.

The number of people who jam the Churchill Downs stable area every morning is not what it once was. The early arrivals are fewer. So are the stragglers. There still gets to be a three-deep crush along the outer rail of the backstretch around the time the Derby and Oaks horses are out on the track between 7:15 and 7:30 a.m. EDT, and the local TV talking heads accept glad handing until 8 or 9, but that is about it now.

We in the media actually are outnumbered by earthling visitors during that compressed training period. The badges we wear around our necks like spelling-bee contestants might be different, but the dialogue bridging the fourth estate and the hoi polloi is pretty much the same.

“How does the horse look?”

“What are you hearing?”

“Where is Coal Battle?”

The answers usually are “good,” “not much” and “was out before sunrise to beat the crowd.”

Nowadays, Thursday is the day for most of the rumors. That is when veterinarians are at every barn, even if the grapevine says they are at only a few. Sometimes the scuttlebutt is true, like two years ago when Forte took a wrong step, and the artist formerly known as horse-racing Twitter was on the nose with word that he would be scratched.

This year there was plenty of gossip about one horse or another who was on the verge of being given the in-the-name-of-safety red flag. I heard some buzz from some plugged-in connections and stable denizens. The horses’ names I heard did not include Rodríguez, whose exit for a bruised foot came to light right around the time a lot of racing personalities might have been reaching for that first bourbon at a downtown boîte Thursday afternoon.

As one who is loathe to chase other people’s rumors, the most noteworthy takeaway from the last two weeks making rounds in the stable area has been the absolute calm around Journalism. In two decades covering this race, it is difficult to remember a time when everyone associated with the Kentucky Derby favorite seemed so relaxed.

“What about American Pharoah?” a colleague asked this week. “Baffert was as chill as anyone.”

“The Zayats weren’t,” I said, remembering how the owners of the eventual Triple Crown champion were understandably fidgety about their prized colt.

Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy has been like the mayor around his barn, beckoning familiar media types with hellos. He even greeted John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times by asking, “Is there anything you need from me?” Seriously? For Cherwa? Talk about going above and beyond.

McCarthy is always cordial, but I have found him to be a more comfortable interview when he is on the phone, usually at times when he is not having to concern himself with horses who might do what horses do without warning. Get finicky. Get ornery. Get a fever. Whatever. Animals have been known to be distractions in the flesh.

This week McCarthy and lead owner Aron Wellman of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners might as well have been chewin’ on a piece of grass, walkin’ down the road. No teenager on TikTok is getting that reference. Wellman and McCarthy and jockey Umberto Rispoli have been the epitome of those Southern California influencers who look like they woke up on the right side of the beach and a soothingly fun time.

“Yeah,” Wellman said when that perception was run past him this week. He did pause a few seconds before admitting it.

“I refer to it as good pressure,” he said. “Michael’s been at this a long time as have I and our ownership group. While this is somewhat uncharted territory in terms of having the Derby favorite and all the hype and attention that goes along with it, I’d like to think that Michael and I have been preparing our whole lives and our whole careers for this moment.”

If there is one thing we all have learned about animals, whether they are beloved pets in our homes, menacing predators on a hike or a 3-1 morning-line favorite walking around a barn, it is that they have a better sense of the human mood than we do. If they catch a whiff of nervousness from us, they will give it back in some way.

With all the calm around him, Journalism should be so lucky that he gets to have a seat on a fold-out lawn chair, cross his legs and enjoy a cocktail.

“As long as the horse continues to thrive the way he is,” Wellman said, “we’re going to continue to do our jobs and enjoy this moment.”

Wellman then took a pause. Since this is the 21st century, it was like he was putting periods between words in a single sentence.

“Because. Where else would you want to be?”

When the barbecue starts behind barn 35, Aron, may I have mine medium rare? And does Journalism take a veggie burger with or without carrots?

The McCarthy barn at Churchill is in the middle of a stable path that ends at what is called the Baffert gap. Six-time Derby winner Bob Baffert is back in barn 33 this year, just one row away from his fellow Californians. All those placards celebrating the likes of American Pharoah and Justify have been rehung. No one is saying where all those decorations were stowed while Baffert was on double-secret probation the last three Derby years. They are back, and so is he.

Baffert arrived at Churchill Downs last Thursday, answered the requisite questions about being back and went about his business with the old loyal lieutenants like quintessential horseman Jimmy Barnes and ever-telegenic exercise rider Humberto Gómez.

Every time I have walked past his barn, Baffert is doing an interview. At this point he and his wife Jill might as well be hosting their own version of “Live with Kelly and Whoever Her Co-Host Is This Year.”

Asked last week if he still felt like he was the face of racing, Baffert was more than ready when he said, “I’m the clickbait of racing.”

Steve Asmussen is down the path from Baffert and McCarthy, and Todd Pletcher is along the same walk, too. Billionaire owner cum self-proclaimed racing commissioner Mike Repole brought a whirlwind of activity this week, turning the stroll along the strand into a purposeful walk up a Manhattan avenue. For him, it actually has been a little less frenetic, what with Grande being just a thrice-raced long shot.

“We had Forte and Fierceness the last few years,” he said during a walk ’n’ talk. “They came in with obviously a lot more hype being 2-year-old champions. Sometimes, by the time they get to this race, they’ve had like seven or eight starts. I think being lightly raced in a race like this is a real advantage.”

Asked if it felt weird being under the radar, Repole was ready, too.

“I’m not,” he said. “But the horse is, and that’s even better.”

As of this predawn writing about 36 hours before the Derby, only Rodríguez is out. Baffert still has Citizen Bull, post 1 be damned. Repole and Pletcher have Grande. Asmussen has both Tiztastic and the maiden Publisher trying to get him off his Derby schneid. And team Journalism awaits in his beachside cabana.

All the while, about a quarter-mile away from this nexus of activity, Luxor Café and Admire Daytona are in their windowless quarantine barn. Something really is wrong with that picture. Anyway, maybe there will be a beehive of activity around there when Luxor Café wins the Derby on Saturday.

Dear diary.

Ron Flatter’s column appears Friday mornings at Horse Racing Nation. Comments below and at RonFlatterRacingPod@gmail.com are welcomed, encouraged and may be used in the feedback segment of the Ron Flatter Racing Pod, which also is posted every Friday.