Today is the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs! It is warm today, around 84 degrees, and dispite rain yesterday the track has dried and been rated as fast. Only for three year old horses, these athletes have only one chance in their lives to win this race. These two minutes mean a lot in the horse racing world!
While there are many promising horses the current favorite is Union Rags, who starts in the fourth spot:
(found here)
Union Rags’ owner has a wonderful story – she sold him as a colt and repurchased him for much more than he was original sold for when he went to auction. He has turned out to be a champion so far, will he be able to pull off a big win?
There are a couple others horses that I want to highlight before the race.
Hansen – a beautiful all white horse that is drawing a lot of attention to himself. A bit of controversy surrounds his owner Dr. Hansen who has used the horse to seemingly bring himself publicity. He wanted to dye part of Hansen’s tail blue for the last race he ran, even with threats to scratch the animal over the issue. The tail was dyed back by the trainer to prevent any problems at the anger of Dr. Hansen – Hansen placed second in that race. He has done well thus far, can he pull off a win today?
(found here)
Bodemeister – Has a lot of potential to win this race by the very nature of his speed. He won the Arkansas Derby by 9 1/2 lengths. However, he has not been raced that many times (never as a two year old) and new situations could come up that will startle him and impact his performance. Maybe he can pull off such a wonderful win today.
(found here)
Gemologist – So far undefeated, and the only horse in the field to be so, Gemologist has great potential and good odds to take the Derby.
(found here)
Take Charge Indy – He has won in a couple major races but has not gotten much publicity like other derby favorites. However, he will have three time derby winning jockey Calvin Borel – so only time will tell if this combination will take it all today.
(found here)
Creative Cause – Has had good winnings thus far and I think he is a beautiful animal:
Another horse that I like just for the name: Rousing Sermon
(found here)
Creative, and I am not sure that many people would name a horse something like this. So I am interested in seeing how he runs. Also great names: I’ll Have Another and Daddy Long Legs.
