Kentucky Derby update: Contenders tune up 3 days out

Just three days remain until the first Saturday in May and the contenders for the $5 million Kentucky Derby are completing their final training sessions.

As of Wednesday morning, Fierceness was the 3-1 favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Here's the latest on each contender from Churchill Downs.

Catalytic. Catalytic was back on the track Wednesday at 7:30 a.m. EDT, with regular exercise rider Olaf Hernandez aboard.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. had the Florida Derby (G1) runner-up gallop 1 1/2 miles. Later Wednesday, “He’s going to school in the paddock during race two this afternoon,” Joseph said. “Tomorrow, he’ll gallop again and maybe school in the paddock, depending on how today goes.”

“All is well with him,” said Joseph, who will give a leg up to Jose Ortiz in the Derby. He’ll leave from post 5. “He’s been handling everything very well so far.”

Catching Freedom, Just a Touch. It was a lively morning at Brad Cox’s Barn 22 as several ownership interests from Catching Freedom and Just a Touch watched their Derby contenders train.

The two are scheduled to school in the paddock during the races Thursday.

Domestic Product, Sierra Leone. It was another routine morning for the Chad Brown-trained duo of Blue Grass Stakes (G1) winner Sierra Leone and Domestic Product. Sierra Leone came out at his customary time during the 7:30 a.m. training period, galloping twice around over the Churchill Downs track.

Tampa Bay Derby (G3) winner Domestic Product put in his training just after 8 a.m., galloping with good energy and giving Brown an anxious moment when he reared coming off the track.

“The horses look super,” Brown said. “(Domestic Product) actually came off on his hind legs and had me a little scared. He seems to conserve his energy so much. He’s really coming into the race the right way.”

Among the many onlookers at the Brown barn Wednesday morning was Brook Smith, whose happy visage has been a constant presence whenever Sierra Leone, whom he co-owns, goes to the track. The Louisville resident has been a popular spokesperson as he enjoys his first venture as a Kentucky Derby owner. Smith has a 16 percent stake in the Gun Runner colt in partnership with Peter Brant, Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith and Westerberg.

Through a business investment with a sports-entertainment insurance company in London, England, Smith was able to connect with the principles of Coolmore Stud. That relationship grew to the point where Smith was asked if he would be willing to partner with the group on a couple of purchases. He was on a plane when the bidding for Sierra Leone was taking place during the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, and when the final price hammered down at $2.3 million, the entrepreneur had no idea how massive the dividends would be coming at him.

“I got to know the (Coolmore) folks here in Kentucky and then I went to Ireland and had a lunch and spent a day at the farm there, which was unbelievable,” Smith said. "They asked if I wanted to partner with them on some high-end yearlings, and I wasn’t going to miss that opportunity. They’ve been incredible, just lots of fun.

“I’m just kind of soaking it in still. I know waking up on Derby Day and heading to the track will be a lot different than it’s ever been before. I’m excited. I’m anxious but at the same time I’m more excited because if he runs his race, it’s going to be exciting.”

Quick with a grin and welcoming word, Smith has had his already ebullient nature cranked into overdrive since Sierra Leone cemented himself among the Derby favorites on the strength of his victory in the Blue Grass Stakes. He is determined to share the moment literally and figuratively as he has pledged 10 percent of the colt’s earnings to Churchill Downs’ Backside Learning Center with plans to contribute an additional $100,000 to the center if Sierra Leone prevails.

“You have horses who are winning and if you just give a small percentage of the purse to the backside, it’s that simple,” Smith said. “A little bit moves the needle significantly.”

Smith has been generous with both his intentions and his time in the leadup to the 150th Kentucky Derby. He admits to being awestruck by the entire experience, one that already ranks among his significant involvements personally and professionally.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen next week. I guess if (Sierra Leone) gets there, the high will continue,” Smith said. “And even if it doesn’t, if he runs a big race and doesn’t win, it’s still going to be one of the most memorable things of my life.”

Dornoch, Society Man. Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) winner Dornoch and Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) runner-up Society Man switched things up Wednesday morning, with Dornoch coming out before 6 o’clock to train this time and his stablemate hitting the track for a gallop and gate schooling during the 7:30-7:45 training window for Derby and Oaks horses.

“I wanted to school at the gate and I only have one rider, so one will train early,” trainer Danny Gargan said. “Society Man did the gate today and I don’t know if I’ll take him again tomorrow. He trained really well today at that time and Dornoch looked good. I’m pleased with how my horses are doing. I think I have two super sound horses, and they’re both training good. Just have to take it day by day.”

Gargan often has given Dornoch two walk days leading into some of his races, saying it hones the son of Good Magic’s early speed. That may be the plan again heading into Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, although Gargan said he is still deciding whether to send the bay colt to the track Thursday.

“Dornoch sometimes walks a couple days going into a race. It makes him sharper out of the gate,” Gargan explained. "I don’t know exactly what I’m doing with him. He could walk and he could train. I’ll think about it tonight. But all the races that he’s broke good and come out of the gate on the lead, we’ve walked him two days into it. So there is a big chance he’ll walk. Society Man we want to break and settle, so he’ll train every day. He’ll train through Friday.”

Endlessly. Trainer Michael McCarthy will be saddling “his” first Kentucky Derby starter this Saturday in Endlessly.

But, as the saying goes, this won’t be his first rodeo.

For nearly 10 years, the California native came east to work as the chief assistant to Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher and was on board for the barn’s extensive run of Kentucky Derby starters. Between 2006 and 2012, McCarthy helped Pletcher saddle 19 runners for the run for the roses, including the stable’s first score with Super Saver in 2010.

In 2014, wanting to be with his wife and young daughter in California, McCarthy took a huge gamble and stepped away from the Pletcher operation to condition two horses of his own on the West Coast.

Through a lot of hard work “and a bit of luck,” he now oversees a stable of about 100 horses, including more than a few stakes types, and will have his own Derby runner in Endlessly.

Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs he was trackside at 7:30 to watch his Oscar Performance colt go through a 1 3/8-mile gallop with Walter Davila in the tack.

“He looks good,” a fan offered as the four-time stakes winner cruised by.

“That’s him,” McCarthy offered back. “If he didn’t look good, I’d be worried. But he’s looking good.”

West Coast rider Umberto Rispoli will get a leg up from McCarthy Saturday, then break from post 14 in the 20-horse Derby lineup.

Epic Ride. Epic Ride visited the starting gate and then jogged in the mile chute under Sophie Doyle for trainer John Ennis.

“We will probably do all of our work down there the rest of the week,” Ennis said. “He’s sharp now, and he stood in the gate quiet as a church mouse this morning.”

Epic Ride drew into the main body of the race Tuesday when Encino was scratched from the Derby. Epic Ride will exit post 20, the same spot Rich Strike came out of when he registered his 80-1 shocker two years ago.

Adam Beschizza, who has ridden Epic Ride in all five of his starts, has the mount in Derby 150. It will be the second Derby ride for Beschizza, who piloted Enforceable to a seventh-place finish in the 2020 run for the roses.

“He will get him to where he is comfortable,” Ennis said of coming out of the 20 hole.

Epic Ride was scheduled to school in the paddock Wednesday afternoon with horses in the third race.

Fierceness. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has eight Eclipse Awards as the nation’s top trainer, Hall of Fame credentials and two Kentucky Derby victories, will saddle Kentucky Derby 150’s favorite Saturday in Fierceness.

The man has been down this road before, and then some.

Fierceness, 2023’s 2-year-old champion, will be the record-extending 65th starter for the 56-year-old native of Dallas. Since he saddled his first Derby starters in 2000, the champion trainer has had only one year (2003) when he hasn’t had a least one starter in the world’s most famous horse race.

Twice, in 2007 and 2013, he has started five runners in the field. Four other times he had four entered. On four additional occasions he sent out three entrants.

This year he has only the one possibility, the City of Light colt he’ll tack up for a mile and a quarter journey under veteran John Velazquez. But it’s a very good possibility, as his 5-2 morning line favoritism in the field of 20 tells you.

Wednesday morning Pletcher had Fierceness on the Churchill oval at 7:30 under Danny Wright for a 1 1/4-mile tour of the oval, followed by a jog down to the starting gate in the mile chute where the dark bay youngster practiced entering a version of the 20-hole gate he’ll see Saturday. Pletcher was nearby to make sure all went well. It did and a return to Barn 39 followed shortly thereafter.

Forever Young. Forever Young walked in the mile chute for 15 minutes and then had a paddock schooling session in which training assistant Yusaku Oka was replaced in the saddle for two laps around by trainer Yoshito Yahagi.

“I’m very proud to represent Japan at Kentucky Derby 150,” Yahagi said. “American horse racing is very tough. I always have so much respect for American horses. My horse had a great morning yesterday for his breeze and I’m very pleased with how he did it. We did many things to prepare for kickback but that’s all secret.”

Forever Young had worked five furlongs in 1:03 over a good track Tuesday morning. He completed his Wednesday morning activity by walking back to the quarantine barn.

Grand Mo the First. Grand Mo the First spent part of the walking in the grassy area behind Barn 41 and giving fans an up-close look at a Kentucky Derby runner.

“No grass at Gulfstream Park (in the barn area),” trainer Victor Barboza Jr. said.

Once on the track, exercise rider Amel Macias took Grand Mo the First to the starting gate, where he stood to the satisfaction of Barboza and then galloped a mile and a half.

Emisael Jaramillo, who has ridden Grand Mo the First in four of his six starts including his two victories, has the Derby mount. Jaramillo is scheduled to arrive in Louisville Friday night after riding at Gulfstream Park.

Honor Marie. Honor Marie galloped 1 1/2 miles at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday under regular rider Maurilio Garcia.

Jockey Ben Curtis was on hand to watch his Derby contender train.

“It’s a fun week being involved with the Kentucky Derby,” Curtis said. “I’m excited to get to Saturday, though.”

This will be the first mount in the Derby for Curtis. He discussed how he's approaching the race with Horse Racing Nation.

Just Steel. About 10 minutes after the track opened at 5:15 a.m., D. Wayne Lukas and his distinctive pony were on the scene leading Just Steel out for his routine gallop. Lukas stated he has been watching the energy level of the colt since his half-mile breeze in 50.4 seconds on April 28 and has been encouraged by what he has seen since.

“Everything went smooth, he had good energy,” Lukas said. “We’re now in the keep-them-happy stage. And I’m happy.”

At this stage of his illustrious career, Lukas said his biggest satisfaction when it comes to the Derby is being able to bring his clients to Thoroughbred’s biggest stage. The latest success story in that respect is Brian Coelho, who co-owns Just Steel in partnership with his friend John Bellinger.

Coelho, who is based in California and is president and CEO of Central Valley Meat Co., got involved in the Thoroughbred industry only three years ago. Bellinger had a mutual friend with Lukas and after some discussion, they decided to get their feet wet in the game by buying yearlings at the 2022 Keeneland September sale.

Among the youngsters that caught their eye was a big-framed son of Justify out of the Eaton Sales consignment. The colt who would become Just Steel was hammered down for $500,000 by BC Stables, the nom de course of Coelho and Bellinger’s operation. With Lukas giving both his equine protege and his new clients an education along the way, Just Steel ran himself into the upper ranks of the sophomore division with runner-up finishes in the Southwest Stakes (G2) and Arkansas Derby (G1).

“Being able to be here, it’s a dream come true and in such a short period of time,” Coelho said. “We searched out some good horses. We identified (Just Steel) at the Keeneland September sale and he had great structure and a great pedigree to start with. Just a good sound horse, good body, big frame and he’s really developed well. We feel very fortunate and are just trying to enjoy the moment.”

Joking that he does nothing halfway, Coelho says that he now owns 21 or 22 horses. He recognizes how fortunate he has been during this whirlwind journey to racing’s promised land and gives full credit to his legendary conditioner for making an improbable opportunity come to fruition.

“It’s very rare,” Coelho said of his experience. “The amount of knowledge with Mr. Lukas and spending the time with him learning the sport, it's been amazing just to sit and talk with him and learn so much from him. He’s always available, it’s been a great learning experience the last few years for sure.”

Mystik Dan. Mystik Dan was out for trainer Kenny McPeek for a typical gallop of about 1 3/8 miles with jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. on Wednesday, along with a little gate schooling.

“We stood him in the gate for like a minute, 45 seconds, to kind of simulate what’s going to happen Saturday,” Hernandez said. “Then we popped him out and let him go for about a sixteenth of a mile. Then he came back to us and trained well. It seems like he’s ready to go.”

“We just did a little gate schooling, since we drew inside,” said McPeek, whose colt will start from post 3 with Hernandez. “We wanted to make sure we leave there clean. We don’t want to leave there flat-footed.”

The scratching of Encino could make a difference in the Derby. “I do think he was a little speed in there,” McPeek said. “I’m not sure how that will unfold.”

Resilience. It was a “thumbs up” kind of morning for trainer Bill Mott as he watched Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) winner Resilience complete his latest day of training without a hitch days out from the Kentucky Derby.

As has been the standard routine for Resilience, he and champion stablemate Just F Y I visited the paddock and then took to the Churchill Downs track. The son of Into Mischief galloped twice around the oval with Mott keeping watch from his pony.

In addition to fielding multiple questions about his latest Kentucky Derby contender, Mott still gets asked about how he would feel to have one of his proteges cross the wire first in the 10-furlong classic. Mott famously won the Derby with Country House in 2019 when the colt was elevated to the victory after Maximum Security was disqualified because of interference.

Mott stated he was already feeling like a winner when Country House outran his 65-1 odds to hit the wire in second. Over the next 23 minutes that passed as the stewards reviewed the incident that led to the historic decision to take Maximum Security down, Mott remembers thinking a change in order in his favor was inevitable.

“I was happy to win the other one the way we won it, it was fine. But actually if you’re competing you want to win, and 99 percent of time you have to cross the wire first to get the victory,” the Hall of Fame trainer recalled. “There was some suspense. During that 23 minutes there was a TV in the tunnel and I went in the tunnel and the stewards were showing the view of the stretch run and it was becoming pretty obvious there would probably be a disqualification.

“I think the stewards knew right away there would be a disqualification and what took a while was figuring out where to place (Maximum Security). He bothered three or four horses in the race. We didn’t get really get bothered in the race. We were thrilled the way our horses ran, even to be second. My son Riley and I were going down, and you would have thought we won the race.”

Stronghold. Trainer Phil D’Amato was back from his two-day sojourn to his stable headquarters at Santa Anita on Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs and gave his Kentucky Derby rider Antonio Fresu a leg up on his Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Stronghold for an early tour of the track.

The two went trackside just after 5:30 and took a 1 1/2-mile gallop around the strip then headed back to Barn 48.

“I wanted to get (Fresu) up on him and let him get the lay of the land,” D’Amato said. “We’ll probably do the same thing tomorrow.”

The Italian Fresu, who is making quite a name for himself with his riding exploits in Southern California, will be making his first start in the Kentucky Derby. That will be true, too, for D’Amato, as well as the colt’s owners and breeders, Eric and Sharon Waller.

Saturday, Stronghold will come out of post 18 in the 20-horse lineup.

T O Password. T O Password, who worked a half-mile in 46.8 seconds Tuesday, walked in the mile chute for 15 minutes under jockey Kazushi Kimura and then walked to the paddock for a schooling session.

“I spent some time in North America, and I’ll never forget the experience I had here learning from some great people like Dale Romans,” trainer Daisuke Takayanagi said. “It really helped my training career when I got back to Japan.

“(T O Password) had a long trip from Japan, and I wanted to see how he’d do going a little faster than normal. I didn’t care about time, I wanted to see how he was moving. I was very pleased with how he was moving. He has only run two times but improved in his second start. I think he can keep improving.”

After the paddock stop, T O Password walked back to the quarantine barn.

Track Phantom. Lecomte Stakes (G3) winner Track Phantom galloped about 1 3/8 miles at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and schooled at the starting gate, which is normal for most Steve Asmussen trainees on Wednesday.

Track Phantom was scheduled to school in the paddock during racing Wednesday.

West Saratoga. Harry Veruchi’s West Saratoga visited the starting gate under exercise rider Donte Lowery and then galloped a mile and a half for trainer Larry Demeritte.

For Veruchi, the Derby experience is one to relish.

“I bought my first horse in 1982, and two weeks later he won at Centennial Racetrack in Littleton, Colo.,” Veruchi said. “I thought, this is easy. And now, to be here, who would have thought it. I don’t know anybody who has been in the Kentucky Derby or even anybody who has won a graded stake.”

Also eligible, Mugatu. Mugatu galloped a mile and a half at 7:30 under jockey Joe Talamo for trainer Jeff Engler.