Epicenter

Fans will have the final pari-mutuel opportunity to bet on this year's GI Kentucky Derby in advance of the May 7 race beginning Thursday at noon ET through Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET for Pool 5 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager ("KDFW"). Pool 5 of the KDFW features 24 betting interests and the 5-1 early morning-line favorite is Winchell Thoroughbreds' GII TwinSpires.com Louisiana Derby winner Epicenter (Not This Time). Unlike the previous three-day Kentucky Derby Future Wager opportunities, Pool 5 will feature an early start Thursday and will close...

There was a time when you would load as much experience and conditioning as possible into a Kentucky Derby horse, as a mere adolescent required to jostle with 19 others through 10 furlongs. Nowadays, however, trainers are trying to reach Churchill Downs across a highwire stretched to a thread by two diametrically opposed imperatives. One is their conviction, whether through perception or presumption, that the typical, commercial-bred Thoroughbred of today can only stand up to a much lighter schedule. The other is to secure enough gate points in the trials....

The Week in Review by T.D. Thornton Epicenter (Not This Time) is the first horse on this year's GI Kentucky Derby trail to arrive back in the proverbial clubhouse. His afternoon work is finished for the next six weeks, and he's earned his berth in America's most important horse race in a thoroughly professional manner that checks many of the boxes on the Derby desirability list. Epicenter's never-in-doubt dismantling of the GII Louisiana Derby field serves as a microcosm of his overall body of work: He's an adept breaker from...

Winchell-owned and Steve Asmussen-trained Epicenter (Not This Time) gave his connections a sweep of the day's 3-year-old features, scoring a good-looking victory in the GII Louisiana Derby just one race after his champion stablemate Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) took the GII Fair Grounds Oaks. The victory puts Epicenter back at the top of the GI Kentucky Derby leaderboard. The even-money favorite established position on the rail, sitting in a close third as 'TDN Rising Star' Zozos (Munnings) carved out splits of :23.27 and :47.35 with Pioneer of Medina (Pioneerof the...

First things first: let's give their chance to the guys off the bench. Okay, so there are going to be plenty of eyeballs rolled now that three of Bob Baffert's four Derby migrants are joining a former assistant, on the same circuit, with a total of 38 starters to his name this year—especially as it was the handling of another Baffert medication violation that reportedly caused the scuffle between this same gentleman and a fellow trainer at Clocker's Corner one morning last April. (Both were fined $500.) The wiseguys will...

Winchell Thoroughbreds and trainer Steve Asmussen teamed up back in 2016 to take the GII Louisiana Derby with future Horse of the Year Gun Runner and that team is back with a strong chance in this year's renewal with Epicenter (Not This Time). Graduating at second asking at Churchill Downs Nov. 13, the bay was an appropriate and dominant winner of the Gun Runner S. at this venue Dec. 26. Missing by a head to Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) in the GIII Lecomte S. here Jan. 22, the $260,000...

On the opening day of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, just 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the First Saturday in May, buyers will have a chance to purchase the half-siblings to a pair of GI Kentucky Derby contenders. The first of the two to go through the ring Mar. 15 will be an Always Dreaming half-brother to GII Risen Star S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time). Consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables as Hip 121, the bay is out of stakes winner and GSP Silent Candy (Candy Ride...

Their grandfather first invested in horseflesh when just 14 years old. "I remember him telling me about an oil boom they had in Warren County," Mike Harris recalls. "Back then, the oil rigs were just pulled around on skids, and they'd hire somebody with a team to pull them from location to location. So he started out with one team, and then he hired a couple of his buddies and bought two more, and soon they were moving these rigs all over the county. So he was quite a businessman...

The first thing that will strike most people about the emergence of Epicenter on the Derby trail is the way only his second crop of sophomores is putting up in neon lights the name of Not This Time. The GII Risen Star S. winner is lighting a path for several other sons of the Taylor Made stallion, notably fast-closing GIII Holy Bull runner-up Simplification and Saturday's GII Rebel S. fancy Chasing Time. Two others, Howling Time and In Due Time, are learning their scripts in readiness for forthcoming rehearsals in...

The chart of the GII Risen Star S. run Saturday at the Fair Grounds will show you that the race was won by Epicenter (Not This Time) and that runner-up Smile Happy (Runhappy) was never a serious threat to win. It's just that there is a lot more to this story. Expectations were high for Smile Happy coming into the Risen Star. He was 2-for-2 last year and his win in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. came at the expense of Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway) and White Abarrio (Race...

Winchell Thoroughbreds' Epicenter (Not This Time) made up for his close call in the GIII Lecomte S. with a front-running score in the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds, moving him up in the GI Kentucky Derby points rankings. Winchell Thoroughbreds and winning trainer Steve Asmussen also teamed up to take this event in 2016 with future Horse of the Year Gun Runner. Away a breath slower than the rest, Epicenter quickly got his hooves beneath him and tugged his way up to the front under Joel Rosario....

'TDN Rising Star' Smile Happy (Runhappy) and Zandon (Upstart), one a graded winner in their second trip to the races and the other unlucky not to achieve the same, meet for their respective sophomore debuts in Saturday's GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds. The Risen Star is the first of 16 races that comprise the 'Kentucky Derby Championship Series' and offers Kentucky Derby points on a 50-20-10-5 scale. A $185,000 purchase out of the 2020 Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase, Smile Happy was the recipient of an inside-out ride...