LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With Weather.com forecasting a 50 percent chance of showers Saturday in Louisville, as of this writing early Friday morning, there is the possibility for a wet track on Kentucky Derby Day.

Should that scenario unfold, which horses stand to benefit if rain results in the Derby being run on a sloppy or muddy track? Based on their past performances: Itsmyluckyday and Vyjack, stakes winners over such surfaces, and Palace Malice, who finished second in a fast allowance race over a sloppy surface.

Dr. Larry Bramlage, the equine orthopedic surgeon who was injured in a fall on Thursday on the Churchill Downs backside, will remain in the hospital on Friday for “continued observation,” according to Dr. Mary Scollay, a colleague of Bramlage and the equine medical director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fear the Kitten, the lone also-eligible in Saturday's Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, was officially withdrawn at scratch time Friday morning because none of the 20 horses in the main body of the race was scratched.

Dr. Larry Bramlage, the equine surgeon, was taken to a Louisville, Ky., hospital on Thursday afternoon after falling off the back of a golf cart in the Churchill Downs stable area and suffering a head injury, according to a witness to the accident.

Mike Maker, a trainer, said that Bramlage was thrown from the golf cart after the vehicle performed a U-turn. Maker said he was approximately 20 yards from the accident when it occurred.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Icon Ike has won a total of seven races over four different turf courses, so trainer Larry Jones was very encouraged by what jockey Rosie Napravnik told him after she breezed the 4-year-old colt over the Churchill grass Tuesday morning.

"Rosie said he seemed to like it as much as anyplace else, if not more," said Jones.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - One of the reasons Hungry Island has been brought back for her 5-year-old season is to try to win a Grade 1 race.

Technically, Saturday's $250,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile doesn't qualify. But it should."We're trying to win a Grade 1," Shug McGaughey, the trainer of Hungry Island said Thursday. "We're in a Grade 2 that should be a Grade 1."

[bc_video_id:291241:][bc_video_id:291242:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Thursday’s Kentucky Derby/Oaks training session featured two blowouts, one planned and the second not so planned, and another good morning from likely favorite Orb.

Thursday at Churchill

62 degrees, clear, fast

LOUISVILLE, Ky. − Four World War II veterans, three of whom fought during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 − better known as D-Day − will attend Saturday’s Kentucky Derby as guests of Rick Porter, the owner of the 3-year-old Normandy Invasion.

Porter said he and his assistant Victoria Keith received e-mails from more than 50 people with connections to D-Day, and they selected four to come to the race with them. The four are J.J. Witmeyer, 92; Alan Reeves, 91; Bill Wilch, 89; Ray Woods, age unknown.

Apollo gets mentioned whenever there's a Kentucky Derby contender who didn't compete as a juvenile - like Verrazano, one of this year's favorites. Apollo won the race in 1882 and remains the only Derby winner without any starts at 2.

"Some fools think he's a right smart horse, though he ain't," was the assessment of Green B. Morris, Apollo's trainer and co-owner, when asked about his Derby chances in early 1882. But Morris wagered heavily on Apollo in the Derby winter books.

The field was less than an eighth of a mile into the race when trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. knew his first Kentucky Derby experience was not going to be a memorable one.

Three Ring, one of two fillies in the 19-horse field for the 1999 Kentucky Derby, had ducked in at the break under jockey John Velazquez, bumping with Adonis, who was to her inside. A filly who preferred to be forwardly placed, Three Ring was now in midpack. She would finish last.