Soggy morning means no on-track practice for Kentucky Derby contenders

Rain disrupts Derby morning routines

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Heavy rain dampened the Derby morning routines for the field of 20 horses and the veterinarian who was going barn to barn checking on them.

Kentucky state veterinarian Bryce Peckham began his checks earlier than usual because races began at 10:30 a.m., and the downpour complicated matters.

“Nobody’s really ready for us at 6 in the morning because they’re not used to it,” Peckham said. “It’s a tough day.”

The soggy conditions canceled morning works on the dirt track. Many trainers, including Nick Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, were out early to watch their horses walk inside their covered barns instead.

“We can’t go to the track, so we just jog them in the shed as best we can and hope for the best,” said Zito, who sends Ice Box and Jackson Bend in the Run for the Roses.

Bob Baffert, trainer of morning-line favorite Lookin At Lucky and Conveyance, sought shelter — and coffee — in the backside media center.

Lukas said trainers would have an almost impossible task trying to tell owners their horses shouldn’t run in the Derby, even if the track is muddy.

“I think they’d run over crushed glass,” he joked.

SLOP DOESN’T NECESSARILY BENEFIT LONG SHOTS: This was the second straight year the track condition at Derby time was expected to be listed as “sloppy.”

Eoin Harty, who trains American Lion, said he figured that benefits the long shots.

“The track conditions, you never know who’s going to relish it and who’s going to detest it,” said Eoin Harty, who trains American Lion.

Although that was true last year when Mine That Bird won in the slop despite 50-1 odds, the muddy conditions have seldom been kind to the underdogs.

The only previous Derby winners in the slop, according to Churchill Downs, were Smarty Jones in 2004 (4-1), Go for Gin in 1994 (9-1), Citation in 1948 (2-5) and Flying Ebony in 1925 (3-1).

Mine That Bird has the best recorded Derby time on a sloppy track at 2:04.49.

NO PREAKNESS FOR BLIND LUCK: Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has no plans to send Kentucky Oaks winner Blind Luck to the Preakness.

The 3-year-old filly nipped Evening Jewel by a nose in the distaff version of the Kentucky Derby, cementing her status as the successor to superstar Rachel Alexandra.

Yet a year after Rachel Alexandra used a 20¼-length Oaks romp as a springboard to a win against the boys in the Preakness two weeks later, Hollendorfer is skipping the second jewel of the Triple Crown.

“We met our spring goal now, which was to get her to the Kentucky Oaks and now it’s time to set out a plan for the rest of the year,” he said. “I would think she’ll run at least once in New York at some point.”

Does that mean a spot in the Belmont in June? Hollendorfer didn’t say, though he expects Blind Luck to return to Churchill Downs in the fall for the Breeders’ Cup.

AP Sports Writer Will Graves contributed to this report.