Kentucky Derby 2012: Who to watch in first leg of Triple Crown

Kentucky Derby 2012: Is this the year when the Kentucky Derby winner becomes the Triple Crown winner, ending a streak of 33 years?

|
Charlie Riedel/AP
Kentucky Derby entrant Bodemeister trainer Bob Baffert leads his horse to the track for a morning workout at Churchill Downs Thursday, May 3, in Louisville, Ky.

The 138th running of the Kentucky Derby takes place this Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

A full field of 20 thoroughbred horses have been entered in the mile and a quarter race.

Much like the Daytona 500 kicking off each NASCAR season, the Kentucky Derby is considered the 'Super Bowl' of thoroughbred racing.

The Derby is the first of three races in horse racing's 'Triple Crown,' meant to determine the top three year-old horse in any given year. It's followed by the Preakness Stakes two weeks later in Baltimore, then the Belmont Stakes in New York on June 9.

The last time a thoroughbred won all three races in the same year was 1978, when jockey Steve Cauthen rode Affirmed to the Triple Crown.

This year's running of the Derby features several horses that won major prep races in 2011 and earlier this year.

Bodemeister has been tabbed as the early favorite to win Saturday's race. The horse, which won the Arkansas Derby on April 14, is trained by two-time Derby winner Bob Baffert. Bodemeister will begin the 20-horse race from the No. 6 position in the Churchill Downs starting gate. Baffert told KentuckyDerby.com he's happy that his horse won't start up against the track's inside rail.

“I was relieved that he didn’t get the one hole. I just didn’t want to be stuck on the rail, like I was with Lookin at Lucky and had that horrible feeling. I think all the good horses drew really well for this race. It’s going to be very competitive," Baffert said.

Union Rags is another proven winner, having captured the Fountain of Youth Stakes in late February in Florida. Union Rags will start the race from the No. 4 spot. Trainer Michael Matz, another former Derby winner, also expressed concern about starting near the rail, according to KentuckyDerby.com.

“We’re going to have him run out of there a little bit, but that’s not the worst thing in the world. My original thought was that I wasn’t crazy about it, but where everybody is, I don’t think it’s so bad.”

Dullahan comes to Kentucky Derby No. 138 with two wins, including the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on April 14. Trainer Dale Romans, a Louisville native, hopes his horse can repeat some Derby history by starting in between Bodemeister and Union Rags.

“It’s obviously a good spot when the five-hole is one of the winningest post positions in Derby history (eight wins, tied for second-most since 1930)," Romans said after Wednesday's post position draw. "I don’t think the post draw was quite as important to our horse compared to some of the other speed horses, or when we had Shackleford last year. It’s good to be there in post five.”

Two other horses of note, Gemologist and Hansen, will start next to each other from the No. 15 and 14 post positions, respectively.

The Kentucky Derby will be run shortly after 6 p.m. ET Saturday and will be  televised by NBC.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Kentucky Derby 2012: Who to watch in first leg of Triple Crown
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Sports/2012/0503/Kentucky-Derby-2012-Who-to-watch-in-first-leg-of-Triple-Crown
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe