LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Fate has not been kind to Mike Repole in the Kentucky Derby. The outspoken owner is 0-for-7, although he is perhaps best known for his pair of 2-year-old national champions that never made the starting gate in the prestigious race for 3-year-olds.
In 2011, Uncle Mo was scratched the day before the Kentucky Derby because of a gastrointestinal infection. Last year, Forte was scratched the morning of the race due to a bruised right front foot.
Now the billionaire businessman from Queens, New York, is back with Fierceness, the morning-line favorite for Saturday’s 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby. The bay colt was last year’s 2-year-old champion and is coming off a 13 1/2-length win in the Florida Derby leading up to the “Run for the Roses.”
Fierceness will have to overcome a bit of history: No horse has ever won the Kentucky Derby out of the No. 17 post.
“The horse is just a different kind. He does everything so easy, so calm, so cool,” said Repole, known for his high energy and using his account on X as an incubator for racing reform and challenging critics. “A horse like this calms me down.”
A sharp-dressed crowd of about 150,000 is expected to jam Churchill Downs to wager and watch the 1 1/4-mile main event — which has a post time of 6:57 p.m. and will be televised by NBC — on a day full of racing and pageantry on the first Saturday in May. The forecast calls for a a temperature of 79 degrees and a 40% chance of showers.
Fierceness is trained by Todd Pletcher and will be ridden by John Velazquez, who have won the Kentucky Derby a combined five times.
“I hope it doesn’t take as long as it took the Cubs to win the World Series,” Repole said of his efforts to bag one victory.
Just like Repole, trainer Chad Brown is 0-for-7. He will saddle early 3-1 second choice Sierra Leone, who is known as a closer, and long shot Domestic Product. Sierra Leone is the priciest horse in the field, having cost $2.3 million.
Besides Brown, trainers Brad Cox and Danny Gargan have two entries apiece.
Cox, a Louisville native, had to celebrate his first Kentucky Derby victory belatedly when Mandaloun was elevated to first place after Medina Spirit’s disqualification nine months after the 2021 race. Now he has early 8-1 third choice Catching Freedom and 10-1 co-fourth choice Just a Touch, who didn’t race at age 2 — just like his sire, 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify.
Gargan’s long-shot duo is Dornach and Society Man. Front-running Dornach breaks from the No. 1 post for co-owner and retired Major League Baseball star Jayson Werth.
“Hopefully he’ll break running and we’ll put him on the front end and see how it goes,” Gargan said. “We planned on keeping his face clean. Now we’ll keep it real clean.”
Society Man will be ridden by 53-year-old Frankie Dettori, who is back in the race after 24 years.
Larry Demeritte is just the second Black trainer since 1951 to take a shot at winning the race. The 74-year-old will saddle the star of his 11-horse stable, West Saratoga, a colt that cost $11,000.
“My motto is: ‘I don’t buy cheap horses, I buy good horses cheap,'” he said.
Japan is represented by early 10-1 shot Forever Young, a winner in his past five starts, and 30-1 shot T O Password. No horse from that country has ever won the race.
A year ago, two horses died on race day at Churchill Downs, where a total of 12 horses died in the weeks surrounding the event. The historic track has deepened its dirt racing surface and added to its safety protocols in an effort to prevent more tragedy.
Last May, Churchill Downs suspended trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. after two of his horses died, and it scratched his Kentucky Derby entry, Lord Miles. He is back this week with Catalytic.
Six-time winner Bob Baffert is not. The 71-year-old trainer had his two-year suspension for Medina Spirit’s failed drug test in 2021 extended to a third year by Churchill Downs despite not having any further medication violations.
Four-time winner D. Wayne Lukas is the trainer for long shot Just Steel, which is ridden by Keith Asmussen, the son of trainer Steve Asmussen. The elder Asmussen entered Track Phantom in an effort to stop his 0-for-25 skid in the race.
Saturday’s race is also the first leg of the Triple Crown series. The Preakness Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile race, is set for May 18 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, with the Belmont Stakes on June 8. With renovations ongoing at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, that race has been moved upstate this year — and likely next — to Saratoga Race Course, with its usual length of 1 1/2 miles reduced by a quarter-mile as a result.