BOZICH | 5 names to drop to talk like a Kentucky Derby insider | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — I cannot give you the Kentucky Derby winner. Let’s begin Derby Week with that confession.

I won’t pretend to dazzle you with fancy handicapping skills. I had Orb in 2013, Sunday Silence in 1989, Sunny’s Halo in 1983 and Pleasant Colony in 1981. I covered my first Derby in 1979. I’m reasonably certain that is my list of handicapping scores.

I reported to the rail at Churchill Downs around 7 a.m. Saturday to ensure I was on the scene for a major collection of Derby works.

What did I see?

Nothing to make me sprint to the betting windows. I didn’t feel as lost after I spoke with Dale Romans, the venerable Churchill trainer who does not have an entry in Derby 148.

I’m no Andy Beyer or Steve Crist. But I know who to ask. So I asked Romans about next Saturday’s race. I liked his answer, even though you won’t — if you’re looking for an edge.

“I thought they all looked good,” Romans said. “I didn’t see anybody to dismiss.

“The one horse I like that I don’t think enough people are talking about is Crown Pride.”

That, of course, is because Crown Pride was bred in Japan and prepped for the race overseas. Romans said the colt has looked impressive every morning, especially during his sizzling work last Wednesday when he covered a half-mile in 0:46.40.

“Some people dismiss him because they train a little differently but I think that horse is talented,” Romans said.

Does that mean Crown Pride will win Derby 148?

Serious questions only.

I can borrow several names from the Horse of the Year list (keep reading) that failed to score on the first Saturday in May.

What I can do is give you "Five Names To Drop to Talk Like A Kentucky Derby Insider." Consider them my gift to help you navigate the conversation when Derby Talk escalates this week.

And, we’re off.

1. Tim Yakteen — Hey, even I had to do some research. Yakteen and his two Derby horses have not arrived at Churchill Downs from California. That will happen Sunday — after a flight to Indianapolis and van ride on I-65. (Hope they brought they RiverLink toll money.)

Yakteen trains Taiba and Messier, colts that finished 1-2 in the Santa Anita Derby. They’ve posted some of the best speed figures in the race.

They have questions. All Derby horses do. Taiba has been lightly trained and lightly raced. Messier might lack the brilliant late speed a Derby winner typically shows over the final three-eighths of a mile.

But here’s the bigger question — Yakteen.

He is training these horses because Bob Baffert cannot. Baffert will sit out Derby 148 and Derby 149 as part of a 2-year suspension he was given by Churchill Downs after Medina Spirit was stripped of his victory in Derby 147 because of a medication violation.

Yakteen has never trained a Derby starter, although he was an assistant for Baffert and Charlie Whittingham, another Derby-winning trainer.

According to Equibase, Yakteen has trained seven graded stakes winners in his 19-year career. His career winning percentage is 13 and this is the first year horses in his barn have earned more than a $1 million.

2. Bob Baffert — Nothing at Churchill Downs is stranger than the sight at Barn 33.

The stalls where the last two Triple Crown winners stayed are empty. The wall that was filled with plaques highlighting his success have been scrubbed clean with a different color of paint.

Baffert arrived in 1996, finishing second with Cavonnier. He won the next two Derbies. He scored with War Emblem in 2003. He won Triple Crowns with American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018). He won the September-COVID Derby with Authentic in 2020.

He shook up the world by becoming the first trainer to win a seventh Derby when Medina Spirit scored as a 12-to-1 long shot last year.

You know the rest of the story.

If you had doubts about how Baffert has towered over this race since 1996, know this:

Even with one Derby trophy taken from him, Baffert still has six. The 14 trainers likely to start horses in this year’s race have combined to win five Derbies while starting 104 horses — and this is a Derby with multiple Hall of Fame trainers.

3. Steve Asmussen — Epicenter is Asmussen’s horse. He won back-to-back prep races in New Orleans, including the Louisiana Derby.

Some people predict Epicenter will be the favorite. You could say Epicenter is Asmussen’s best shot to win his first Derby.

You would be wrong.

Asmussen sits near the top of the list of Hall of Fame trainers who have not won this race. His record, which will be repeated often his week, is 23 starts, no wins, two seconds and two thirds.

Consider Asmussen Exhibit A that a great trainer teamed with a great horse are no Derby lock.

In 2007, Curlin won Horse of the Year. But Street Sense won the Kentucky Derby with Curlin finishing third.

In 2017, Gun Runner won Horse of the Year. But in 2016, when he was a 3-year-old, Gun Runner finished third behind Nyquist and Exaggerator in the Derby.

4. Gun Runner — Nobody is more interested in the results of Derby 148 than the folks at Three Chimney farm. That’s where Gun Runner stands, for a stud fee of $125,000.

It might be a bargain, which is easy for me to say because I own a female Labrador retriever, not a mare.

Gun Runner is the only horse to sire three horses in this race — Cyberknife, Taiba and Early Voting.

In 2021, Gun Runner established himself as the No. 1 sire of 2-year-olds in the world and he currently ranks 12th nationally in earnings as a sire, even though the current crop of 2-year-olds is only second group of runners. He’s just getting started but Gun Runner has started like a horse with dominant genes.

In an interesting quirk, none of the Gun Runners in the race are trained by Asmussen.

5. Mike Smith — Guess which jockey will turn 57 in August?

Mike Smith, who rode his first Derby in 1984.

Guess who was the oldest jockey to win the Kentucky Derby?

Bill Shoemaker, who was 54 when he scored aboard Ferdinand in 1986.

Smith has the record for Derby mounts with 27. He won aboard Giacomo in 2005 and Justify three years ago. You can also find four second-place finishes on his record.

Smith has the mount on Taiba, the colt in the Yakteen/Baffert barn with dazzling speed figures. If anybody can find a way to win the Derby on a horse with two career starts, it is Mike Smith.

But I wouldn’t bet on it — or any tips you get Derby Week.