Four months late and with the Belmont Stakes, normally the final leg of the Triple Crown, already in the form book, the Kentucky Derby will be run at Churchill Downs on Saturday with no fans in attendance and an animal rights group advising punters to “hold all tickets” on the race, to allow them to sue for damages should the winner fail a post-race doping test.
While there will be a handful of participants inside America’s most famous track, however, a crowd of hundreds, perhaps thousands, is expected outside, joining demonstrations organised by groups campaigning for social justice and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
It is, as Louisville’s mayor Greg Fischer put it this week, “a challenging time” for the city and the event that places it centre stage in the United States. And that is before taking any account of the shadow cast over US racing earlier this year when Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro, two of the country’s most successful trainers in recent seasons, were among more than two dozen individuals indicted on doping and race-fixing charges.
In that respect, last year’s dramatic Derby, when the Servis-trained Maximum Security became the first horse in its history to be disqualified after finishing first, will be fresh in every mind. The animal rights group Peta, meanwhile, has also seized on the Servis/Navarro case as a way to advance its campaign to abolish racing.
The organisation supported a recent court case involving harness racing, when a losing punter successfully sued a trainer and owner whose horse subsequently failed a doping test, winning $20,000. Now, Peta has taken out ads recommending all punters keep hold of losing tickets on Saturday’s Derby so that “they too can sue if they’re cheated out of rightful winnings by trainers who have drugged horses”.
To no one’s surprise, this year’s Derby has faced a struggle to emerge from the furore surrounding it, though it is a fascinating renewal of a Classic that, for the first time since 1931, is not the opening leg of the Triple Crown. Instead, the Belmont Stakes in New York in mid-June set the chase for the Triple Crown running. The race was shortened from 12 furlongs to nine and had a resounding three-and-three-quarter length winner in Tiz The Law, trained by the 82-year-old Barclay Tagg.
Tiz The Law is odds-on to take the Derby, when victory would make Tagg the oldest winning trainer and the odds eased slightly when he was drawn in stall 17 of 18 – the only box in the Derby starting gate that has never supplied the winner. Bizarrely, though, Honor A P, trained by John Shireffs, and Authentic (Bob Baffert), the only other runners at single-figure odds, drew 16 and 18 respectively, putting about 80% of the book in the three widest stalls.
One morsel of comfort for backers is the debut of a complete set of starting stalls. For decades, the track has been tacking a six-stall auxiliary gate on to its regular 14-box gate for its biggest race, resulting in a gap of around two stall-widths between positions 14 and 15. Not before time, that arrangement has been consigned to history and this year’s 17 will be more akin to 15 in previous years.
“I like it being on the outside,” said Tagg, who saddled Funny Cide to win in 2003. “I didn’t particularly want to be out that far, but it’s what we have. He seems to handle everything that gets thrown at him, so we have to leave it up to him.”
Thirsk 1.20 Wor Willie 1.50 Alba Rose 2.20 Dream World 2.55 Diamond Haze 3.30 Archaeology 4.00 Ispahan 4.35 Our Little Pony 5.05 Mr Orange
Ascot 1.55 Pure Dreamer 2.30 George Scott 3.05 La Barrosa 3.40 Labeebb (nap) 4.15 Al Salt 4.50 Walhaan 5.20 Mokaatil 5.55 Inhalation Haydock Park 2.10 Lightly Squeeze (nb) 2.45 Zahrisa 3.20 Bielsa 3.50 Tom Tulliver 4.25 Teodolina 4.55 Tranchee 5.25 Kaser
Sedgefield 4.30 Miss M 5.00 Peterborough 5.30 Lord Springfield 6.00 Chocolat Noir 6.30 See The Sea 7.00 Oxwich Bay 7.30 Joie De Vivre
Kempton Park 5.15 Strict Tempo 5.50 Act Of Wisdom 6.20 Megallan 6.50 Hilarity 7.20 Mouriyani 7.50 Kingsholm 8.20 Villain’s Voice 8.50 Flower Of Scotland
In any other year, the prospect of the Derby having its first octogenarian winning trainer would have been unalloyed PR gold for America’s most famous race. Tagg, though, was also quoted this week describing the protesters expected outside the course as rioters, adding: “All I know is that you’re not allowed to shoot them and they’re allowed to shoot you, that’s what it looks like to me.”
In this of all years, more controversy was not what the Kentucky Derby needed before its 146th running. As Louisville prepares for its annual day in the spotlight, the 150,000 fans who would normally be crammed inside Churchill Downs can only hope this will be remembered as the Derby without a crowd and not the Derby where everything that could go wrong, did.