2021 Kentucky Derby

Bob Baffert has filed suit in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, against the New York Racing Association charging violations under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution violating his right to due process. The suit was filed Monday by Baffert's attorney Craig Robertson. NYRA announced that it had suspended Baffert May 17, after it was revealed that Medina Spirit (Protonico) had tested positive for Betamethasone in the GI Kentucky Derby. The suit reads, "Specifically, Baffert maintains a right to rely upon and use his...

BALTIMORE, MD--Immediately after the May 1 GI Kentucky Derby, it appeared that the GI Preakness S. two weeks hence would be a routine affair. Trainer Bob Baffert would be heading to Pimlico with a record seventh Derby victory under his belt and he would be in the enviable position of trying to collect his eighth win in the second jewel of the Triple Crown. And then the unthinkable happened. The Derby winner, Medina Spirit (Protonico), tested positive for Betamethasone, a substance banned on race day. That single event sparked a...

"That's it, time to go home." - Unnamed Churchill Downs usher, at approximately 7:15 pm EST. I let those words pass through me after watching our horse Helium run his eyeballs out for over nine of the 10 furlongs, in arguably the most important races of his (and my) career. A few minutes prior I felt like I was living in an alternate universe. I was so excited when Julien Leparoux guided Helium out of the starting gate to sit a mere 2-3 lengths off the eventual winner, Medina Spirit,...

Don't know about you, but I'm not really looking for a Hall of Fame horse out there. I would gladly settle for the one of those blurred snapshots of the adolescent sophomore crop, with plenty left to play for in the Preakness. Just so long as we can guarantee an evening of uncomplicated euphoria for connections of the fated horse among 20 who have already confounded the odds even to enter the gate for the GI Kentucky Derby (presented by Woodford Reserve). Because they will be able to tell you,...

NBC racing analyst Randy Moss joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to give his Kentucky Derby picks and talk on the future of horseplayer data.

One after another, the lights were turning red on the young Leonard Green. He had a bad stutter that made him an introvert in mixed company. Dyslexic, too. Couldn't keep numbers in his head: hardly, as such, an accountant in the making. Sure enough, he'd now been fired from a fourth job in a row. "I didn't even know what an entrepreneur was," Green recalls now. "But it turned out to be somebody who thought outside the box, and took calculated risks, and spotted opportunities. And--boom! I suddenly realized that...

Vicki Oliver has dreamed of making it to the starting gate on the first weekend of the Churchill Downs spring meet for her entire career, but the Kentucky Derby was never the race she had in mind. Vicki and Phil Oliver established their stable in 1999 and have since had several top graded winners go through their program including Grade I winners Personal Diary (City Zip) and Last Full Measure (Empire Maker). The majority of their stable's top performers have been fillies, and many of those pupils were supplied by...