LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When the rescheduled Kentucky Derby was run last September with the pandemic at a peak, and the vast majority of horseplayers were placing their wagers via phone or computer, Churchill relented on longstanding policy by allowing 10-cent increments on all superfecta wagers.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Concert Tour, third last out in the Arkansas Derby, has been training at Churchill Downs in his yellow Kentucky Derby saddle towel, and while trainer Bob Baffert decided shortly after the Arkansas Derby that Concert Tour would pass the Derby, the colt still is bound for a Triple Crown race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rock Your World and Hot Rod Charlie, two of the Kentucky Derby favorites, made simultaneous first appearances on the racetrack Monday morning after arriving here from California the previous afternoon via equine charter. Both were out for very light exercise after having their final pre-race workouts Saturday at Santa Anita.

Rock Your World, whose front-running victory in the April 3 Santa Anita Derby upped his career record to 3 for 3, has settled in without incident in Barn 43, said trainer John Sadler.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The cameras and tape recorders were waiting, and Bob Baffert was ready. His last horse scheduled to train Monday morning, Charlatan, returned from the track, clomped back into the shed row, and Baffert framed himself in front of the cameras, setting a backdrop of six plaques hung on the barn wall bearing the names of the Kentucky Derby winners he has trained.

The racing action in Louisiana gets a little spicy this week, with Evangeline Downs opening Wednesday night, Louisiana Downs launching its meet Saturday, and native son Gerard Melancon nearing 5,000 career riding wins in North America.

Evangeline will pop the top on its meet with new announcer Rob Tuel calling an eight-race card. Evangeline is scheduled to run 84 dates on a Wednesday-through-Saturday basis through Sept. 18. First post is 5:50 p.m. Central.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – “The Kentucky Derby is a more difficult race to win than I first believed,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum mused to ESPN in 2001.

The ruler of Dubai, whose Godolphin operation has won many of the major events the world over and has earned multiple Eclipse Awards in the U.S., couldn’t have known how right he was. Two decades later, he is still looking for his first Kentucky Derby win, despite the amount of effort and resources committed to the goal. Godolphin has sent 11 horses to the Derby since 1999, with none finishing in the top three.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Justify did it in 2018. So, too, did Big Brown a decade before him. They’re among just three horses who have worn Kentucky Derby roses following only three prior starts, with the legendary filly Regret being the first to do it way back in 1915.

When the Phipps family decided to sell all their yearling colts at the 2019 Keeneland September auction, it wasn’t because they were intending to leave the business they had been involved in for nearly a century.

The decision to sell came three years after Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps had passed and his children Daisy Phipps-Pulito and Ogden Phipps were certainly planning to keep the stable going.

“This was just one of the ways we can sort of spread our risk a little bit,” Phipps-Pulito said.

This Saturday, after a one-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Kentucky Derby will be held on its traditional date. Tens of thousands of rowdy fans will once again gather under the famed twin spires of Churchill Downs in Louisville to celebrate the first Saturday in May and the rough-and-tumble 1 1/4-mile race that is synonymous with it.

But don’t call it “normal.”

Almost normal, maybe.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On his march to becoming Thoroughbred racing’s all-time winningest trainer – a goal he will likely achieve this fall – the one race that has eluded Steve Asmussen is the Kentucky Derby.

Asmussen, whose 9,299 victories through Sunday put him within 146 of Dale Baird’s all-time record, is winless with 21 starters over 14 Derbies. Saturday, Asmussen will take another crack at the coveted prize when he sends out Super Stock, the Arkansas Derby winner, and Midnight Bourbon, the Louisiana Derby runner-up, in the 146th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.