ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Stu Simon got his Woodbine meet off to a strong start, recording a win with his first starter when Sister Peacock captured the Star Shoot Stakes on April 21.

Simon said he is pointing Sister Peacock toward the $100,000 William D. Graham Memorial, an overnight stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs on the turf that is scheduled for June 8 here. The 3-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Real Solution now has a career record of three wins from five starts, and has finished no worse than second.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Chad Brown was disappointed that he didn’t get the chance to run his lightly raced filly Dunbar Road in Friday’s Kentucky Oaks and called the system Churchill Downs utilizes to determine the field “flawed.”

Though Dunbar Road had just a maiden win and a runner-up finish to Champagne Anyone in the Gulfstream Park Oaks on her résumé, Brown was really high on the filly’s chances in the Oaks. So, apparently, was the morning-line maker, who installed Dunbar Road as the 5-1 second choice behind Bellafina (2-1).

CHURCHILL DOWNS
Thursday, May 2
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 63
Track: Fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The complexion of this year’s Kentucky Derby may have changed immensely overnight with the news that likely favorite Omaha Beach was out of the race, but it was still business as usual for the rest of the field during training hours Thursday morning at Churchill Downs.

The multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Limousine Liberal fractured a sesamoid in his left front ankle, an injury that will end his career, according to trainer Ben Colebrook.

Limousine Liberal, a 7-year-old gelding, was entered to run in Saturday’s Grade 1 Churchill Downs Stakes, a race he won the last two years when it was a Grade 2.

Colebrook said the injury happened when the horse was galloping Wednesday at Keeneland. Colebrook said Limousine Liberal is at Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington. He will not need surgery.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Unless Gray Magician, Master Fencer, or Bodexpress achieve such a dubious distinction, this will be the 18th straight year that a Derby starter fails to reach as high as 99-1 on the toteboard – and there’s no way any of them will approach the Derby record for the highest odds.

Gray Magician and Master Fencer are the only two horses as high as 50-1 on the morning line. Bodexpress, a maiden who drew in as the lone also-eligible, is one of seven horses listed at 30-1 on the revised line.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As always, there are overlays and underlays for bettors who took a shot in any of the four pools in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

The most obvious bargain came in Pool 2, where Tacitus – still nothing more than a maiden winner at that point – was 96-1. The eventual winner of the Tampa Bay Derby and Wood Memorial, he is 10-1 on the Churchill Downs morning line Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Omaha Beach, scratched Wednesday from the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday because of an entrapped epiglottis, will have surgery Thursday afternoon but should be back in action by the summer, trainer Richard Mandella said at Churchill Downs on Thursday morning.

“We’ll wait a few days until after the surgery to make sure he’s good, then we’ll get him home,” Mandella said.

Mandella is currently based at Santa Anita. He spends the summer at Del Mar.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Omaha Beach, the morning-line favorite for the 145th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs, will be scratched owing to an entrapped epiglottis, trainer Richard Mandella said Wednesday.

“He was coughing, which made us suspicious, and we scoped him,” Mandella said.

“It's not anything we can fix to have him run on Saturday, so we’re going to have to scratch him.”

Mandella said the issue is “fixable,” but the timing is terrible.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jason Servis is bringing more than an undefeated Grade 1 winner to Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. He’s bringing the scrutiny that goes with a high rate of success and an unconventional training method.

Servis trains Maximum Security, who began his career last Dec. 20 winning a maiden $16,000 claiming race at Gulfstream Park and 100 days later became a Grade 1 winner, taking the $1 million Florida Derby in authoritative fashion.

Editor's Note: Omaha Beach was scratched on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, shortly after this story was originally published.

During 2018, the Fox Hill Farms stable of owner Rick Porter won three races from 53 starts. Porter had one graded stakes starter, who lost.