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sports Saturday 7 May 2022
20 horses, full house: Kentucky Derby returns with no limits

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — more races in North Amer-
Twenty eager colts break- ica than any other trainer,
ing from the starting gate, but he's never won the Der-
a full house for the first by in 23 tries. He'll saddle
time in three years, and a Epicenter, the early 7-2 sec-
Kentucky Derby lacking a ond choice that earned
dominant favorite. his first career victory at
Things could get interest- Churchill Downs last fall.
ing Saturday at Churchill "You have no control over
Downs, where the winners how 20 3-year-olds will han-
in 2019 and 2021 were dis- dle this volume of crowd
qualified. for the first time," Asmussen
The biggest question for said. "None of them obvi-
these 3-year-olds is whether ously has been in a race
they can handle running 1 that's had that many run-
1/4 miles while jostling for ners in it."
position in front of the big- The 148th Derby is missing
gest crowd they'll ever see horse racing's household
and hear. name: Bob Baffert. The Hall
"Things can get a little of Fame trainer with a re-
dodgy throughout the Kentucky Derby entrant Messier works out at Churchill Downs Friday, May 6, 2022, in Louisville, Ky. cord-tying six victories was
race, having to go through The 148th running of the Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday, May 7. banned by Churchill Downs
holes and take dirt and Associated Press this year and next after last
take some bumps along year's winner, Medina Spirit,
the way," trainer Chad September. Last year, the spot on the first Saturday in ited to about 52,000. flunked a post-race drug
Brown said. "You just never Derby returned to its usual May with attendance lim- Steve Asmussen has won test.q
know what's going to hap-
pen when you open the
gate."
Zandon is the early 3-1 fa-
vorite and breaks from
the No. 10 post, which has
produced the second-
most winners with nine. The
dark bay colt is trained by
Brown, seeking his first Der-
by win after six losses.
"It would mean everything,"
said Brown, who has had his
own stable for 15 years. "It's
so hard to get these Derby
horses, especially the favor-
ite."
After two years of COV-
ID-19 restrictions, the Derby
returns in all its noisy, col-
orful glory. Attendance is
back to full capacity, which
means about 150,000 peo-
ple jammed into Churchill
Downs, dressed to the nines
and fortified by mint juleps
served in souvenir glasses.
Post time is 6:57 p.m. EDT.
"You want to adopt the
philosophy that it's just an-
other race, but of course
most definitely it's not just
another race," said Barba-
dos-born trainer Saffie Jo-
seph Jr., who saddles White
Abarrio.
In 2019, winner Maximum
Security was disqualified for
interference and Country
House wore the garland of
red roses.
In 2020, an eerie silence en-
veloped the track when no
fans were allowed because
of the pandemic and the
race was pushed back to