The Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot, which has been a points race for the Kentucky Derby, will not be held in 2018, according to officials with Delta Downs and the Louisiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association. It is the second year the race has been canceled after the 2017 running was lost due to Hurricane Harvey.  

CHURCHILL DOWNS

More money plus more horses equals more better?

That’s the equation Arlington hopes holds during a 71-day racing season that commences Friday.

Through various sources – primarily an underpayment in the 2017 purse account and the restoration of Illinois Owners Awards by the state’s Department of Agriculture – Arlington could have close to $2 million more in purse money to pay out this year than in 2017. There’s a great chance that has something to do with the fact Arlington expects about 1,400 horses to be stabled on its backstretch this year compared with 1,150 in 2017.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’ll be eight weeks Friday since the 2018 Kentucky Oaks Future Wager opened March 9. The lineup held together quite well.

Bettors who made the mutuel field, the 24th or “all others” option, the lukewarm 5-1 favorite during the three days of betting into the Oaks futures have wound up in a tenuous position at best. Conversely, those who played either of the likely favorites, Monomoy Girl or Midnight Bisou, got a good deal at 6-1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On a recent morning, trainer Brad Cox stood outside his Churchill Downs barn talking to Garrett O’Rourke, manager for Juddmonte Farms. Juddmonte, Prince Khalid Abdullah’s international powerhouse, you certainly know through standouts like Arrogate and Frankel. Soon, you might know Cox just as well.

Cox’s star has risen so fast, so high that even Juddmonte took notice, sending him a couple horses. The first of them to start, a colt named Speed Gun, won by more than five lengths this winter at Fair Grounds.

But then all Cox seems to do these days is win.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Luis Saez is like any other jockey – he’d be overjoyed to win the Kentucky Derby. And with the mount on undefeated Magnum Moon in the 144th Derby, Saez stands as good a chance as any to be surrounded by roses Saturday evening at Churchill Downs.

Victory, however, would come with a certain bittersweet tinge. A part of Saez will be sad that his late younger brother, Juan, will not be able to share in his elation – nor have the same type of opportunity for himself.

“I want to win the race for him,” Saez said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – When trainer Chad Brown made his first appearance in the Kentucky Derby, he had won a grand total of one graded stakes race on dirt. That was in 2013.

Five years later, as he prepares to make his fourth appearance in the Kentucky Derby, Brown has won 44 graded stakes races on dirt, including the Preakness, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Champagne, Hopeful, and Cigar Mile. Oh, and he’s also won the last two Eclipse Awards as the nation’s outstanding trainer.

As a part-owner of Coach Rocks, Rick Pitino would dearly love to be at Churchill Downs on Friday to watch his filly compete in the Kentucky Oaks. But true to his word following Coach Rocks’s impressive victory in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, Pitino will not be in attendance for the race, opting instead to watch the Oaks from a table at Christine Lee’s restaurant at Gulfstream Park with his son, daughter, and longtime friend Steve Alaimo.

Rachel Alexandra, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks, received her earliest training lessons in Texas, as have at least two starters in this year’s Kentucky Oaks.

Trainer Bret Calhoun said Classy Act and Patrona Margarita were broken in Texas. Both also race for residents of the Lone Star State.

Willis Horton has raced a champion 3-year-old colt and won a classic the first weekend in May at Churchill Downs – but he’s never won the Kentucky Derby. The 78-year-old from Marshall, Ark., will get a second crack at the Derby on Saturday with Combatant, whom he owns with Winchell Thoroughbreds.