Jockey Whitehall hot out of the gates

Jockey Antonio Whitehall and trainer Steve Keplin Jr. exploded out of the starting gate in the first week of the live racing season, and now Whitehall is going to have some tough decisions to make.

The three-time leading rider won impressively aboard two three-year-olds this week, both of which could be headed for the Manitoba Derby. Whitehall won the sixth race on Tuesday by 4 ¼-lengths aboard former Santa Anita runner Classico for trainer Mike Nault, and won the third race on Wednesday just as impressively by six lengths aboard former Oaklawn Park runner Prime Suspect for Keplin.

Whitehall declined to comment on which horse was better — for obvious reasons — and both could take slightly different paths to the $125,000 Manitoba Derby on Monday, Aug. 3. This should be fun to watch, as both horses appear to be loaded with talent.

Make sure to watch the replays on both horses, but especially on Prime Suspect, who looked like he was shot out of a cannon at the top of the stretch. Pay special attention to his action and watch how his legs devour the ground in the stretch. Imagine an excavator propelling itself forward at 40 m.p.h.

From backstretch to homestretch to grandstand, it takes a village to keep Assiniboia Downs up and running during race season

Sunrise is still 45 minutes away, but don’t tell that to the 12 horses inside Steve Keplin Jr.’s barn.

A flick of the light switch at 5 a.m. and, like clockwork, the magnificent animals rise in their stalls and poke their heads out, ready to begin their day.

It’s a big one, too. The start of the 2026 racing season has arrived at Assiniboia Downs, with the first of 50 race nights on tap.

Two of Keplin Jr.’s thoroughbreds — Ceepeegee and Steal Your Soul — are set to compete this evening. And the leading trainer from the 2025 campaign is hoping to pick up where he left off.

Laurel Park waited 114 years for the Preakness. It may be a farewell as much as a debut

LAUREL, Md. (AP) — The crowds that once packed Laurel Park dressed in their best to watch champions like Secretariat and Seabiscuit have long since disappeared. For one final weekend, they are coming back.

Grandstands that typically sit empty will again fill with patrons in tailored suits, flowing dresses and stylish hats as Laurel Park hosts the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. It will be the first time the track has hosted the race and is a final chapter of sorts, with racing expected to end next year before the property is converted into a training facility.

“It’s going to be a really special day,” said jockey Sheldon Russell, who will ride hometown horse Taj Mahal — trained by his wife, Brittany Russell — at the couple’s longtime home track. “It’s kind of sad because they’re going to get this moment in the spotlight on their way out.”

Founded in 1911, Laurel is the latest of many storied racetracks to close in recent decades as attendance dwindles and gambling increasingly moves online. To the people who still spend their days there, the loss goes beyond the betting window.

Assiniboia Downs racing season opens Tuesday, and follows in the hoofbeats of record-setting 68th season

Assiniboia Downs is set to kick off its 69th season of live racing on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., following a record-setting season last year. The horsemen are champing at the bit to send their charges out of the gate carrying your $2 punt all the way to the winner’s circle.

Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo is not running in the Preakness

Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo will not run in the Preakness Stakes next weekend, trainer Cherie DeVaux announced Wednesday.

DeVaux and owners decided to skip the Preakness and set their sights on the Belmont Stakes on June 6 at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York. DeVaux, who became the first woman to train a Derby winner, is from Saratoga Springs, which is hosting the Belmont for a third and final time this year.

“We are incredibly appreciative of the excitement and support surrounding the possibility of a Triple Crown run,” DeVaux said in a statement. “Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”

Golden Tempo is the third Derby winner in the past five years not to be entered in the Preakness. For various reasons, it is the sixth time in eight years the Preakness will happen with no chance of a Triple Crown on the line. American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018 are the only horses to sweep all three races over the past four decades.

Provincial program at the Downs attracts horse lovers from around the world

The next crop of Kentucky Derby hopefuls has graduated from the HBPA 2026 Racehorse Groom Training Program at Assiniboia Downs, just in time for the beginning of live racing here on May 12, and today’s big race.

And why couldn’t one of them end up in the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle one day? Assiniboia Downs has had a connection to the Kentucky Derby in four of the last five years, including this one.

In 2025, Sovereignty won the Derby for trainer Bill Mott, who spent two years as a teenager in St. Laurent, riding horses and looking after cattle. In 2024, Derby winner Mystik Dan was sired by Goldencents, who is out of a Manitoba-bred named Golden Works bred by Phil Kives, and in 2022, 80-1 Rich Strike made his Manitoba-bred mom Gold Strike proud by winning the Run for the Roses.

This year, jockey Edwin Maldonado, who won his first career race at Assiniboia Downs in 2002 as Edwin Alicea, is riding 30-1 longshot Pavlovian in the big race for two-time Derby-winning trainer Doug O’Neill.

No clear favorite and plenty of contenders: The 152nd Kentucky Derby is a 20-horse puzzle

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The chaos at the start of the Kentucky Derby sometimes decides the most exciting two minutes in sports in a matter of seconds. Twenty horses bursting out of the starting gate to varying degrees of success makes it a mad dash to the turn.

Calling the race on television for NBC, Larry Collmus typically focuses on the favorite. This year presents a challenge.

“I don’t know who the favorite is going to be,” Collmus said. “I guess we’ll find out. It’s wide open this year.”

Todd Pletcher-trained Renegade opened as the favorite, but it could just as easily be Brad Cox’s Commandment or Further Ado or Bill Mott’s Chief Wallabee by the time the field of 20 leaves the gate. The first leg of the Triple Crown is so wide open that at least a half-dozen horses have a legitimate chance to win the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Robusta is in the Kentucky Derby field, giving Cristian Torres the chance to ride

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Cristian Torres waited his whole life to ride in the Kentucky Derby. In line to get his first chance on Saturday, it looked like the rising-star jockey would have to wait at least another year when the horse he was supposed to be on was ruled out.

Then his phone rang on Friday morning with a number from California he did not have saved. It was trainer Doug O'Neill calling to ask if he wanted to take the mount on Robusta, who got into the field when Kenny McPeek's Right to Party was scratched by track veterinarians.

“I was shocked,” Torres told The Associated Press after riding in the fifth race at Churchill Downs later in the day. “I didn’t respond for a few seconds because I couldn’t believe it. It’s been a roller coaster of emotions but just very happy and very grateful.”

Torres, a native of Puerto Rico who began riding in 2019, was set to be aboard Silent Tactic in the 152nd running of the Derby. Trainer Mark Casse and owner John Oxley made the call Wednesday to scratch Silent Tactic because of a foot injury and plan for the Preakness on May 16.

Horse racing in Japan is on the rise. A Kentucky Derby winner could be next

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — As horse racing grapples with an uncertain future in the U.S. with tracks closing and legalized sports betting taking away something that made the sport unique, there is a place in the world where it's getting increasingly popular and turning out significantly better competition.

Japan is pouring tons of money into everything from breeding to training and racing, with a turn to dirt-track runners over the past decade or so after turf was the focus for so long. Following a near miss with Forever Young in 2024, the investment could soon pay off in the form of a Kentucky Derby winner, with Danon Bourbon and homebred Wonder Dean the country's hopes in the race this year.

“We are getting closer,” racing manager Hiroshi Ando told The Associated Press outside the Japanese horses' barn Thursday. “For Japan, I think we’re able to change Japanese racing history again, like we did with Forever Young in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Our ambition is the Kentucky Derby right now, if possible.”

The ambition for a longer period of time has been the Arc De Triomphe on grass in Paris, because Japan's roots in racing are on turf. The Japanese Racing Association launched the Japan Cup in 1981 to promote the sport and get more national interest in it, and it has become the richest turf race in the world with a purse of $8.2 million.

Fulleffort scratched from the Kentucky Derby, putting Ocelli into the race

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Fulleffort was scratched from Saturday's Kentucky Derby because of a chip in his left hind ankle, the latest departure from the field of 20 horses roughly 24 hours after Silent Tactic was ruled out.

Race officials announced the change Thursday, and trainer Brad Cox told The Associated Press that Fulleffort will undergo surgery and is expected to recover and return to racing. Cox said an X-ray revealed fluid in the ankle and called it an easy decision because Fulleffort showed some lameness.

“That’s part of the game,” Cox said. “It was a problem that needed to be addressed."

Fullefort’s exit means jockey Tyler Gaffalione will have to wait for another chance to win the race for the first time. Cox went into the week with three Derby horses and is now down to two: Commandment and Further Ado.

Stir well, slap lightly. Tips for making a mint julep worthy of the Kentucky Derby

Horses are poised, bets are on, hats are at the ready and the bourbon is standing by, ready to be poured into thousands of mint julep cocktails. It must be Kentucky Derby weekend.

America's most famous horse race says more than 125,000 mint juleps are consumed at the annual two-day festival at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky. According to its website, that requires about 10,000 bottles of Kentucky bourbon, 2,250 pounds of freshly harvested mint and 475,000 pounds of ice.

But you don’t have to be there in person to enjoy this classic cocktail. The julep — a simple mix of sugar, water, fresh mint, crushed ice and bourbon — is accessible and easy to recreate.

First, a little history

Todd Pletcher’s Renegade draws the inside No. 1 post and opens as the Kentucky Derby favorite

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Renegade opened Saturday as the morning line favorite for the 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, looking to overcome the inside rail post position that has not produced a winner in four decades.

The colt trained by Todd Pletcher and set to be ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. is 4-1 after drawing the No. 1 post in the field of 20 horses for the May 2 race. No horse has finished first in the Derby from there since Ferdinand in 1986, and the most recent to be in the top three was Lookin At Lee, who was second in 2017.

Trainer Brad Cox’s No. 6 Commandment and No. 18 Further Ado are the second and third choices on the morning line each at 6-1, followed by No. 12 Chief Wallabee at 8-1 and The Puma at 10-1. Cox's third entrant is 20-1 long shot Fulleffort, who drew the far-outside No. 20 post.

Cox's jaw dropped when he saw Fulleffort's draw, calling it "probably the one I’m maybe not as wild about, as excited about as the other two. He was most happy with Further Ado at No. 18, with three-time Derby-winning jockey John Velazquez aboard.

Triple Crown-winning jockey Patrick Husbands retires from thoroughbred racing

TORONTO - Patrick Husbands will forever be a part of Canadian thoroughbred racing history.

The veteran jockey, who in 2003 guided Wando to the Canadian Triple Crown, retired from racing Friday following a decorated career that included over 3,700 victories. However, the 52-year-old resident of Brampton, Ont., left the door open to a potential return to the track.

"I have been riding since 1988, so that is 37 years that I have done this,” Husbands said. "This year, I am going to get on horses in the morning for Mark (trainer Mark Casse) and my brother (Anthony), I want to give back to the both of them and show them my respect.

"I can say I am retired, but next year, one morning I might wake up and say I have a couple years left. But right now, my mind and body need that rest."

Woodbine jockey Pietro Moran looking to build upon his stellar 2025 campaign

TORONTO - Pietro Moran has a tough act to follow.

His own.

The 20-year-old jockey will have two mounts when Woodbine Racetrack's 2026 thoroughbred meet opens Saturday. Last year as an apprentice, Moran finished second in wins (139) and purse earnings (over $5.9 million) behind Rafael Hernandez (148, over $6.4 million, respectively) in the riders' standings.

Among his victories was the $1-million King's Plate aboard Mansetti. It was a historic accomplishment as Moran and his dad, David, became the first father-son duo to compete against each other in the race.