Kentucky Derby: Journalism’s team feels ready for the test

Louisville, Ky.

Scratch has turned into a four-letter word at Kentucky Derby 2025. And 2024. And every year since 2019, when post-entry attrition became the annual norm.

So far so good for Journalism. With four wins in a row including last month’s Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby, he has not set a foot wrong. That literally has become even more important as Kentucky veterinarians have given horses more than just a once over this week at Churchill Downs.

“I’ve been waiting days for the Derby to get here,” Journalism’s trainer Michael McCarthy said Friday, less than 36 hours before the biggest race of his career. “Really, the way I feel is like it’s a 20-horse field. You want everybody to get post-ward on Saturday in the best shape they can and let the horses fight it out on the racetrack. Everybody’s worked too hard. The horses have gone through too much. So let’s just let everybody get in there.”

McCarthy’s wish was not the command of the racing gods this week. Rival colts Rodríguez and Grande were diagnosed with foot bruises Thursday and Friday that led to their being scratched, leaving a field of 19 horses to run for the roses Saturday.

“You hate to see that,” McCarthy said, “because you never want it to be you.”

In the main, Journalism has lived a blessed existence in the three years and three months since he was foaled as a Don Alberto-bred colt in Kentucky. After he graduated from a third-place sprint debut to two-turn route tests, the Curlin colt out of Uncle Mo mare Mopotism is undefeated.

Beyond wildest dreams, right?

“I wouldn’t say beyond,” said Aron Wellman, whose Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners are the lead owners of Journalism. “If things go the way we hope they do on Saturday, I think that’ll be beyond. Certainly he is a dream horse, as talented, as smart, as classy and as cool as a horse can be. He’s representing himself exceptionally well out here at Churchill.”

Until last week, Journalism had not been back east since Eclipse bought him for $850,000. That was at the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale at Saratoga in August 2023. He eventually headed to California to be paired for all but one of his races with Umberto Rispoli, the jockey who will be aboard again Saturday.

“It’s a privilege to ride a horse like him,” Rispoli said. “He’s a horse that does his job. He puts his feet on the track. He’s really smart.”

Rispoli had that reaction after Journalism’s one and only breeze on Churchill’s main track, a five-furlong maintenance work Sunday that was clocked at 1:01.4.

“He really likes the surface,” Rispoli said. “When he goes around by himself, he’s a little bit lazy, and I like that.”

Journalism certainly will not be by himself Saturday. Wearing saddle cloth 8 with six horses inside him, he will be in a field which is bigger than his last three races combined. Horseplayers who are skeptical or hunting value or both are quick to say that is a concern.

“Sure, but I think that it’s everybody’s concern,” Wellman said. “Even though other horses in the race have competed in larger fields in terms of volume, this horse has faced some adversity even in smallish fields. He’s spotted weight to very good horses. He’s had different kinds of trips where he’s been up close. He’s tucked in. He’s taken dirt. He’s overcome trouble and had to maintain his psychological composure and regain his momentum.”

Oh, yes. The trouble. That showed up going into the second turn last month in the Santa Anita Derby. Racing along the rail in last place with only 3 1/2 lengths covering the field, Journalism cocked his head to the right as he had to reset himself behind 44-1 long shot Westwood. Just as he did that, he and Barnes made contact. If it had been the nearby 210 freeway, Journalism would have been forgiven for showing someone the finger. But he stayed focused on the task at hand.

“I was trapped on the fence, and I thought, wow, this isn’t looking good,” Rispoli said that day. “I knew my only way out was to push Barnes a little bit. I got through.”

First to the inside and then tipped out in the turn, Journalism made like the driver who decided the speed-limit types crawling in the fast lane were not worth the trouble. He found his way around and into the homestretch, powered to the front and finished three-quarters of a length ahead of late-closing Baeza.

“He had me worried for a jump or two,” McCarthy said.

“That’s such a good animal to be able to get out of there,” Rispoli said. “It’s rare for a horse to get held up at the three-eighths pole and to get back in the race in that way. It’s always difficult, especially for such a big horse. But he has such an amazing style and is just an amazing horse.”

If there is any trouble Saturday, it might arrive sooner when Journalism faces that long run to the first turn racing on the Churchill Downs main track for the first time.

“He has no problem so far,” Rispoli said. “To be honest, I don’t want to find any excuse. He looks like he moves very well, but obviously on the race day, the track is going to be different. No lies about that. If the track is going to be this way, I don’t think we’re going to have any problem about the track.”

Then again, everyone might. The National Weather Service said rain is certain Saturday with up to three-quarters of an inch possible and maybe even a thunderstorm before the listed 6:57 p.m. EDT post time.

Even though he has yet to race on anything but Southern California’s fast dirt, Journalism has the breeding to withstand an off track. His sire Curlin won the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic and his damsire Uncle Mo the 2011 Kelso Handicap on sloppy and muddy tracks.

The way Journalism’s connections have reacted to the trappings of Kentucky Derby week at barn 35, rainwater may roll right off them. This is Wellman’s fifth Derby as an owner dating to Danza’s third-place result in 2014. Italy native Rispoli is in his third and McCarthy in his second with the two of them teaming last year for Endlessly’s ninth-place finish.

McCarthy has been credited with setting the tone not just for the barn vibe but for what has been a successful start to Journalism’s racing career.

“He’s very instinctive,” Wellman said. “He’s got great gut instincts about his horses. He understands them. He reads them very well. Part and parcel to that, he is one of the most diligent, hard-working guys at this trade. That stems from the Wayne Lukas school of training filtering through Todd Pletcher. ... You take natural talent as a horseman and combine that with hard work ethic, and usually good things are going to happen.”

And yes, there is the horse. Like Thorpedo Anna became trainer Kenny McPeek’s grizzly bear in her championship campaign last year, Journalism has a nickname. It came from Rispoli.

“He labeled him King Kong a long time ago,” Wellman said.