LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It has been a strange build-up to Kentucky Derby week at Churchill Downs, because most of the building has been for next year.

Kentucky Derby No. 150 promises to be the grandest to date, and that's saying something for an event that prides itself on topping the year before. This year, construction reigns. A temporary paddock sits where next year a grand, $200 million structure will sit.

In the meantime, we have the little matter of Kentucky Derby No. 149. It's not a forgotten race but certainly feels more like prelude than climax, like a pit stop on the way to something bigger.

Louisville itself is emerging from mourning, a mass shooting of eight people, in which five were killed, plus the shooter, at the Old National Bank headquarters downtown. The event brought national attention to the city. It's probably fitting that the favorite in the 2023 Kentucky Derby was sired by a stallion named Violence. And it's little surprise that another Derby colt, named Disarm, is considered a longshot.

Derby of a lifetime

A video poster promoting next year’s Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

Already, this running of the Derby has been touched by heartbreak, when Wild on Ice, a Cinderella story trained by Joel Marr and ridden by 60-year-old Ken Tohill, pulled up after training last Thursday and had to be euthanized soon after. The homebred had won the Sunland Derby as the longest shot in the field, and was a dream come true for owner Frank Sumpter.

The favorite, Forte, is comfortably placed in Todd Pletcher's barn, alongside two other Derby contenders and another one possible. The 2-year-old champion has been beaten only once, has four Grade I victories and has been at the head of his class for a while.

Whether he can stay there in a 20-horse field is the question. Some look at his win in his final prep race, the Florida Derby, and see vulnerability. You can just as easily see a colt who didn't run his best race, who faced a good bit of adversity, including an outside post and wide trip, and still got up to beat top competition.

When it comes to conditioning Derby starters, Pletcher is moving like a tremendous machine. If all three of his entries make the starting gate this year, he'll have 65. The next-closest, D. Wayne Lukas, Pletcher's mentor, has 49.

Then it's a good many lengths back to Bob Baffert, with 34 starters and holding, for a second-straight Derby, finishing a two-year ban from Churchill Downs that survived a last-ditch legal battle from Baffert in February.

Baffert's absence deprives the Derby of some of its star power. But it doesn't deprive it of stars.

Pletcher takes a back seat to nobody. He won the Derby in 2010 with Super Saver and in 2017 with Always Dreaming. But he lacks the flash and charisma of Baffert. You could call him "Plain" Todd Pletcher, but the nickname has already been taken.

After Always Dreaming won the Derby, it was not a splashy celebration for Pletcher. He and his friends and family lived it up in a hotel conference room. Free ice for all.

But Pletcher is formidable. In addition to the likely favorite, he has Tapit Trice, winner of the Blue Grass Stakes and Tampa Bay Derby, Kingsbarns, who is three-for-three lifetime, including a 3 ½-length win in the Louisiana Derby, and Major Dude, who sits 22nd in points should there be defections.

"When you come in with a group like we have, expectations are high," Pletcher said. "But along with that you're a little more tense about it and anxious for the moment to get here. We know we have some really good colts and we want everything to continue to go smoothly and give them their best chance."

Other stars: Steve Asmussen has won more races than anybody in North America, and thought he had won the Derby in the stretch a year ago, with the favorite Epicenter in the lead and taking aim on the wire, with only Zandon to hold off on the outside. Or so he thought. On the inside, Rich Strike, who had only gotten into the race the day before when another colt had scratched, came flying along the rail. He had been 17 length behind the leader after a half mile and was still in 15th place after a mile.

For Asmussen, it was a tough one to take, but all he could do was smile, and to his credit, he did. This year, he's back with his own last-minute qualifier. He had to send Disarm in the last-chance Lexington Stakes two weeks ago to amass enough points for qualification.

Kentucky Derby 149 Field

But the son of Gun Runner is here, and looks enough like his sire that he could play him in a movie. And if he runs anything like him, his long odds could pay off.

"I'm smiling because I'm blessed to be here, and he looks great," Asmussen said.

Tim Yakteen has been the guy people around here know as the trainer picked to take care of Bob Baffert's horses in the Hall of Famer's absence. And he does have one of those this year in Reincarnate, third-place finisher in the Arkansas Derby.

But Yakteen also is here with one of his own trainees, Santa Anita Derby winner Practical move, who has posted back-to-back triple-digit speed figures and is a serious contender.

Brad Cox, a Louisvillian who won the Derby by disqualification with Mandaloun in 2022, wants the authentic Derby experience, and may have the hand that can give it to him, with four entries, led by Arkansas Derby and Risen Star winner Angel of Empire.

And then there is the Japanese contender, Derma Sotogake, winner of the UAE Derby with career earnings of $1.162 million. Unlike past Japanese entrants, this one looks the part, has been training in the U.S., and is looking to ride the wave of recent Japanese success to a victory on the biggest stage in American racing.

What would it mean for this colt to win the Kentucky Derby, his assistant trainer, Masanari Tanaka, was asked.

"It would absolutely change history," he said.

Unlike in most years, much of the class in this field will run near the back of the pack, so traffic in the stretch could be critical. And while the race doesn't shape up to have the kind of record opening fractions that last years did, in the Derby, somebody always gets anxious and fires at the front.

Yes, next year is a year for which Churchill Downs has been pointing and, literally, building for. But Kentucky Derby 149 could have something to say about its own place in history before the week is over.

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