BOZICH | Who'll win Kentucky Derby 151? Every trainer, jockey has the winner | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — They don’t write songs about what unfolds on the third Saturday of April at Churchill Downs.

There’s no traffic on Central Avenue. The NBC television cameras are not locked in place. You can score a breakfast sandwich without waiting in line at the food truck in the barn area on the Churchill backside.

But don’t worry. Derby Dreams are soaring in full flight. Trainer Kenny McPeek, who won the race last year with Mystik Dan, shared the news that he was excited about the pending arrival of a 2-year-old colt in his barn.

The owners named the young colt Kelz -- after U of L men's basketball coach Pat Kelsey. Derby Fever does not come with an expiration date.

Seven horses whose owners and trainers will be eager to race their colts over a mile-and-a-quarter on May 3 worked them over the track Saturday morning. At least four other Derby 151 hopefuls emerged from their barns to gallop when the track was reserved for the Kentucky Derby and Oaks horses at 7:30 a.m.

A good time was had by all. That is a Derby tradition unlike any other.

They moved across the gentle surface at precisely the right pace, with precisely the necessary amount of effort, with exactly the needed energy kept in reserve.

Where to begin?

Why not with Brian Hernandez? He is the jockey who shocked the field last year for McPeek aboard Mystik Dan.

Before last year, Hernandez was 0-for-4 in the Derby, unable to finish better than eighth. He was not the jockey you hired if you wanted to win a Triple Crown race.

Now he’s angling to become the seventh jockey to win the Derby in consecutive years. Hernandez will ride Burnham Square, who navigated his way from last to first while winning the Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington April 8.

Was that a sign Burnham Square can get the Derby distance and is sitting on a big race?

"He was a little sharp this morning, which kind of surprises (me)," Hernandez said after the colt worked three-quarters of a mile in 49.40, galloping out the mile in 1:02.

"But like Ian (Wilkes, the colt’s trainer) said, he came out of the Bluegrass really, really good.

"And he just kind of seems that he’s proud of himself to show what he did a couple Tuesdays ago. He just kind of seems like a horse that’s on the upswing."

Is that correct, Ian?

"It’s great to get to the Derby,’’ Wilkes said. "That’s the race that everyone wants to win. It’s just been a nice progression for the horse. He’s getting better and better each time."

Wilkes was an essential part of the team that Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger built around a pair of Derby winners — Unbridled in 1990 and Street Sense in 2007.

Brad Cox won the Derby three years ago with Mandaloun. But Cox did not receive all the love Derby winners deserve. Cox never got to the infield winner’s circle. Mandaloun was not declared the winner of until Medina Spirit was officially disqualified on Feb. 21, 2022.

A phone call on the third Monday in February did not generate the same serving of joy that Cox hopes to generate in two weeks, when he will saddle Tappan Street and Final Gambit.

Cox said the Derby is his favorite race. But he said it is also the most unpredictable race.

"Sometimes I watch it and I don’t know what to think," Cox said.

"It’s obviously 20 horses. It’s a race unlike no other here in America.

"We always question if there is going to be pace. There’s always pace. There always seems to be pace.

"It’s a trip race. Often times you look at the winner and you say, ‘Wow!’

"The best horse doesn’t win this race. You’ve got to get the trip. The horse with the best trip wins the race."

Brendan Walsh trains East Avenue. Last fall his colt was the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the best 2-year-old in the land. Then the colt stumbled not far from the starting gate and finished ninth at Del Mar.

East Avenue finished a disappointing 10th in his first race as a 3-year-old in New Orleans, and he was the colt that Burnham Square overtook at the wire in the Blue Grass. The Derby buzz has moved to another barn.

Walsh still believes what he believed last fall — that his colt is the best of his class. Of course, he does — and should.

"Sometimes you have to lose to learn your lessons and develop," Walsh said.

"You see an awful lot of horses who’ve won the Derby through the years, they’re seasoned horses who’ve had to battle and what have you in races and they get beaten one, two or three times before they win the Derby.

"Maybe we were lacking that. I feel he learned a lot in the Bluegrass. It was great to see him fight the way he did.

"And if he learned the lessons that I think he did, then hopefully he’s set to make another step forward in the Derby. And if he does, then he should be very, very competitive."

On the third Saturday in April, dreams of the first Saturday in May have never been more alive.