Originally from Cynthiana, Kentucky, Caudill gravitated to public art and expanded his street art to murals which can be seen across the state, many of which include his signature roses. His artwork for the Derby features 150 red roses representing the Winner's Circle surrounded by white, gold and cerulean roses to symbolize the colorful fans from around the world.

“As a Kentucky Native, it is an immense honor to be part of such a milestone year for the Commonwealth's most notable event,” Caudill said. “It's difficult for me to fathom the scale of this opportunity and moment in history, but I am thrilled I was chosen to be the official artist for the 150th Kentucky Derby.”

Caudill will also be the official artist for the Woodford Reserve Commemorative Derby Bottle. As the official artist for both programs, he will also create original murals around Churchill Downs and surprise locations leading up to early May.

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The new three-day pool, which features $2 Win and Exacta wagering, will open Tuesday, Nov. 1 at noon (all times Eastern) and close Thursday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m.

Technology advancements now allow up to 40 pari-mutuel betting interests, up from 24 in previous years. Track officials will release the field for Pool 1 following the conclusion of Sunday's “Stars of Tomorrow I” at Churchill Downs.

All told, there are six Future Wager pools scheduled in advance of the 2023 Kentucky Derby: Nov. 1-3 (Pool 1); Nov. 24-27 (Pool 2); Jan. 20-22 (Pool 3); Feb. 10-12 (Pool 4); March 10-12 (Pool 5); and March 30-April 1 (Pool 6). The Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager, which debuted in 2015 and requires bettors to wager on the winning sire for next year's Kentucky Derby winner, will be held concurrently with Pool 2 on Nov. 24-27. The lone Kentucky Oaks Future Wager will coincide with Kentucky Derby Future Wager Pool 5 on March 10-12.

Bets can be placed at Churchill Downs Racetrack, TwinSpires.com and other online wagering outlets and satellite wagering centers across North America.

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On Thursday, Cox told the Daily Racing Form that he plans to point Mandaloun to the G1 Haskell Invitational on July 17 at Monmouth Park, skipping the rest of the Triple Crown series altogether.

Mandaloun worked for the first time since his half-length defeat in the Kentucky Derby on May 15 at Churchill Downs, covering a half-mile in 48 2/5 seconds. It's possible the colt could run before the Haskell, Cox said, but he'll wait to develop a plan until Mandaloun shows he's ready for the next step.

Should Medina Spirit be disqualified from first in the Kentucky Derby, it would mark Cox's first victory in the Run for the Roses, as well as the first Derby win for a Louisville-born trainer.

“Everybody is asking me, 'What's it feel like?' ” Cox told DRF. “Well, I don't know. It's a feeling I've never had before. It'd be cool . . . I guess? It'd be something you'd mark off your bucket list, but something you'd want to do again, maybe in a different way. It's certainly not the way you'd expect to win a race, especially as something as special as the Kentucky Derby.”

Read more at the Daily Racing Form.

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This, of course, wasn't the case last year, far from it, as the COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside down and forced both the GI Kentucky Oaks and Derby to be held spectator-free over Labor Day weekend.

Masks, temperature checks and social distancing are more of the norm these days as limited crowds of between 40,000-50,000 (40-50% reserved seating, 60% premium dining areas and 25-30% infield) have been welcomed back beneath the Twin Spires.

Last year's Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox will look to become the first native of Louisville to saddle a Derby winner.

He has unbeaten 2-year-old champion and 2-1 morning-line favorite Essential Quality (Tapit) as well as Mandaloun (Into Mischief). The latter, despite a no-show in his final prep in the GII Louisiana Derby, has become a bit of a talking horse on the Churchill backstretch leading up to the main event.

Redemption for jockey Luis Saez? Disqualified from first for causing interference aboard Maximum Security in 2019, Saez has the call aboard Essential Quality.

Chad Brown has been in good form as he prepares the very live GII Blue Grass S. runner-up Highly Motivated (Into Mischief), beaten just a neck by Essential Quality. Looking for his first win in the Derby, Brown asked to sit next to Hall of Famer Bob Baffert at the Kentucky Derby Trainers' Dinner for some advice.

“I've been working him over there all night and I finally cracked him,” Brown said at the event. “He leaned over to me and said, 'If you want to win the Derby, you're best chance is, you got to sneak into Churchill Friday night and put grass seed all over the main track.' He actually didn't say that, but it's something he would say!”

Baffert, currently tied with Ben Jones for the most Kentucky Derby victories with six, will be represented by the overachieving GI Runhappy Santa Anita Derby runner-up Medina Spirit (Protonico). The GIII Robert B. Lewis S. winner, just a $1,000 OBSWIN yearling, brought a mere $35,000 as an OBSOPN juvenile.

The unbeaten Santa Anita Derby winner Rock Your World (Candy Ride {Arg}), meanwhile, figures to go off as the race's second choice. He will look to emulate unbeaten Derby winners Big Brown and Barbaro, who also kicked off their careers on grass.

Two-time Kentucky Derby winning-trainer Todd Pletcher will saddle four–GI Curlin Florida Derby winner Known Agenda (Curlin); GII Wood Memorial S. one-two Bourbonic (Bernardini) and Dynamic One (Union Rags); and GIII Jeff Ruby Steaks second Sainthood (Mshawish). There's been plenty of talk about Known Agenda drawing the rail, but we'll see how much of factor it is with the new 20-horse starting gate, which debuted in 2020.

Who's made the best physical appearance during training hours? Mandaloun, as previously noted, the stunning gray Soup and Sandwich (Into Mischief) and Rock Your World are certainly right at the top of the list.

As far as getting over the surface, Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow), Known Agenda and Midnight Bourbon (Tiznow) were all traveling very nicely during their morning preparations.

In case you missed it, the aforementioned GII Louisiana Derby winner Hot Rod Charlie has been sporting a special blanket honoring the late Jake Panus, who passed away at 16 last August when he was a passenger in a car involved in a DUI accident. The blanket features a University of South Carolina logo to help spread awareness for The Jake Panus Walk-on Football Endowed Scholarship. Donations to the scholarship fund can be made here: https://donate.sc.edu/JakePanusScholarship.

The supporting cast on the Kentucky Derby undercard includes: the GI Old Forester Bourbon Turf Classic, GI Churchill Downs S., GI Derby City Distaff S. and three other graded races.

Saturday's Kentucky Derby coverage begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN. The action shifts to NBC Sports at 2:30 p.m. ET for a live five-hour telecast. Post time for the Derby is 6:57 p.m. ET.

Happy Derby!

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“Of course, I'm pulling for Godolphin and it's easy to pull for Luis because I work for him and he's such a great kid,” McLaughlin told Alicia Hughes of TVG's Horse Racing Insider this week. “Godolphin is a special story if they could win this race. It's a huge team and a great team here in America that basically I worked with for about 25 years, so it is special to think we're there and have a big chance. And it would be very special for Luis being that he won (the Derby) two years ago but didn't get to keep it (when Maximum Security was disqualified for interference). That was very difficult.”

McLaughlin stepped away from training horses full time 13 months ago, when Saez' agent Richard DePass retired. McLaughlin, now 60, struggled with the rising cost of business in his home base of New York, as well as workforce issues, and said the decision to leaving training for the jockey agent's role was an easy one.

As a trainer in the Kentucky Derby, McLaughlin's best finish was a fourth with Frosted in 2015. With Saez' mount on Essential Quality, this could be the year that both McLaughlin and the global racing operation Godolphin both get their first win in the Run for the Roses.

Read more at TVG's Horse Racing Insider.

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Vicki and Phil Oliver established their stable in 1999 and have since had several top graded winners go through their program including Grade I winners Personal Diary (City Zip) and Last Full Measure (Empire Maker).

The majority of their stable's top performers have been fillies, and many of those pupils were supplied by Oliver's father, prominent owner and breeder G. Watts Humphrey Jr.

“I've been training for my father for over 22 years,” Oliver said. “He's been my biggest supporter and I always thought if I was going to be running this weekend in a big race, it would be for him in the Oaks.”

But this year, Oliver finds herself journeying to Louisville on one of the biggest weekends in racing alongside a colt readying for his bid in the Kentucky Derby.

Hidden Stash has yet to find the winner's circle this year, but strong performances in a trio of graded starts against top company have his connections convinced that they still have yet to see the best of what the son of Constitution has to offer.

Since his last start, the colt has had two strong works at Keeneland that have added to Oliver's confidence. He fired a bullet :47.8 four-furlong breeze (1/23) on April 14 and then went five furlongs in 1:00.60 last Friday (6/26).

“His works have been fantastic,” she said. “In his work [on April 14] he got his workmates just past the wire, which was good for him. He's actually a pretty laid-back guy. He doesn't worry about much, which is a nice thing for a horse going into the Derby with the crowd, the post parade and everything.”

In addition to being Oliver's first-ever Derby entry, Hidden Stash will take his owners to their first Run for the Roses.

BBN Racing was founded in 2017 by Brendan O'Brien and Brian Klatsky, both partners in the New York-based Gold Coast Wealth Management, as well as Royal Oak Farm's Braxton Lynch.

“We were trying to figure out a model in racing where we could bring sports fans, friends and family into the game and have some financial structure around it where it just wasn't bills after bills,” said Klatsky, who also founded and oversees an AAU basketball program in New Jersey called Team Rio.

BBN enjoyed success early on when a filly they had bought in on named Concrete Rose (Twirling Candy) broke her maiden on debut at Saratoga.

After Concrete Rose became a four-time graded stakes winner, including a victory in the 2019 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S., the BBN Racing team returned to the sales in search of their second group of runners.

“The whole purpose of BBN surrounds around the idea of having as many opportunities within one crop,” Klatsky explained. “We want to diversify the portfolio with six or seven horses that will develop and this way, someone that is new to the game doesn't lose interest if their first horse doesn't work out.”

The BBN team, along with trainers Rusty Arnold, Vicki and Phil Oliver, plus consultant Bo Bromagen, took on the 2019 Keeneland September Sale.

The group landed on a colt by Constitution out of the Pennsylvania-bred Making Mark Money (Smart Strike).

“Everyone saw something in him,” Klatsky recalled. “They all had a different opinion, but everyone liked something about him. This was right before Constitution was really starting to heat up. I think it was about a week before he had a couple of big 2-year-old winners. When he went through the ring, we got him for $50,000.”

When Hidden Stash eventually arrived at the Olivers' stable as a juvenile, they knew they had their work cut out for themselves.

“He was a really big baby when we first got him,” Oliver said. “He was all over the place and really immature. He didn't want to switch leads in the afternoons and just didn't know what was going on.”

It took a few tries for the youngster to figure out his job, first running fourth at Ellis Park and then getting up for third in his next start at Churchill Downs.

By the end of the Keeneland October meet, the pieces started falling into place and, despite hanging onto his left lead going down the stretch, he broke his maiden by three lengths. In his final start at two, he charged home to claim a victory over allowance company going a mile and a sixteenth under the Twin Spires.

“After he won at Churchill Downs, we thought we might have a really nice 3-year-old on our hands,” Klatsky said. “We wanted to be patient. We really felt that the mile and a quarter was something that he would really like a few months down the road, so we gave him some time and came back to the races in February.”

Hidden Stash ran third in the GIII Sam F. Davis in his sophomore debut before crossing the wire second less than a length behind Helium (Ironicus) in the GII Tampa Bay Derby.

“In that race, I think he just got a bit lackadaisical,” Oliver admitted. “I thought he was going to go past the winner and he didn't, so I think he just lacked experience. But that was probably his biggest race so far this year.”

Up against champion Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GII Blue Grass, the colt ran towards the back of the pack through most of the race and was moving up coming into the stretch, but couldn't do better than fourth.

“Essential Quality and Highly Motivated (Into Mischief) pretty much dictated the pace that day and had their way,” Klatsky said. “He was passing horses and didn't get his chance to show his best. But he continues to develop, so stretching out now into a mile and a quarter, we think he has his best race still ahead of him.”

On Tuesday, Hidden Stash drew the 13th post position for the 147^th edition of the Kentucky Derby, breaking alongside Eclipse Champion and Mike Battaglia's morning line favorite Essential Quality. Hidden Stash was given 50-1 odds.

“Everyone wants a Derby horse, whether you're 50 to one, 10 to one or two to one,” Oliver said.

Despite the long odds, Derby Day will be particularly special for Klatsky because of his close association with the horse's various connections.

“I've been a guest of the Humphrey family at the Kentucky Derby over 15 times and I've always been in awe and never realistically thought we would be here with a runner,” he said. “Watts has played an integral role in mentoring me and teaching me the game. The lessons I've learned from him over the years were a big part of how we built the foundation for BBN.”

He continued, “I've known Vicki and Phil for close to 22 years now. I met them when they started training at Monmouth Park and we were all in our late 20's and early 30's. That's what makes this really special for me is to have been through 20 plus years of racehorse ownership and to be at the Kentucky Derby is something you dream about, but it's never a realistic goal. It's so hard to get here and there's so much more to the sport of racing than just the Kentucky Derby, but to be in this situation with the people that I learned the game with really makes it special.”

While BBN Racing has already reached the big stage with GISW Concrete Rose, Klatsky said there's an unquestionable reverence to Saturday's race.

“The Kentucky Derby is the pinnacle,” he said. “It's really exciting to have people that are friends and don't follow racing actually draw interest now because it's the Kentucky Derby. You really can't put words around it. I haven't been able to sleep well for weeks now. But whatever happens on Derby Day, to me, is just a blessing. Just being a part of this whole journey is just as exciting as race day.”

Oliver said she still has the dream of getting a G. Watts Humphrey Jr. homebred in the Kentucky Oaks winner's circle, but for now she's taking in the Derby journey one day at a time.

“I never actually dreamed that we would be able to get into the Derby because most of the horses in our barn are fillies,” she said. “I can't believe that in our first few years with BBN Racing that we got one in the Derby. It's a bit surreal. But all the hard work is done now. We've just got to keep him on the ground safe until Derby Day.”

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Second choice on the board at 5-2 after 4-5 favourite Takeru Pegasus (Jpn) (Dunkirk), the dark bay did not leave the gate in good order, being slowly into stride. Longshot Probatio (Jpn) (Transcend {Jpn}) charged up to set the pace and rattled off uncontested fractions of :23.80 for the quarter, and :48.30 for the half-mile while La Perouse enjoyed a dream rails run, making up ground to sit in midpack.

He remained in tight quarters on the fence as the frontrunner covered three-quarters in 1:12.80, but Christophe Lemaire, who would win the G1 February S. with last year's Hyacinth winner Café Pharoah (American Pharoah) later on the card, began to ask La Perouse for his best effort. The response was immediate, as the winner gave generously, shifting off the rail around a tiring rival 200 meters out, before moving back to the fence and into the lead in the final 100 yards to win going away. The 100-1 Probatio clung to second by a diminishing neck as the filly Ladybug (Jpn) (Hokko Tarumae {Jpn}) charged late to take show honors. Takeru Pegasus was another 1 3/4 lengths back in fourth after a mild rally.

Although unplaced at first asking, the Nobutaka Tada homebred saluted in the slop going six furlongs at Monbetsu Sept. 17. He dropped to second over that track and trip in the mud on Oct. 6 and rebounded with a brace of wins-in a Monbetsu 1700-metre affair Oct. 22 and at Nakayama stepped up to 1800 metres Dec. 13.

The winner is the first black-type scorer from extremely limited opportunities for the now-pensioned Sunday Silence-line horse Pelusa (Zenno Rob Roy {Jpn}), successful at Group 2 level in his native land. A foal of 2007, the chestnut was also second and third in the 2010/11 G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn), respectively.

La Perouse is the second foal, first runner and first winner for his dam, who won a 1400-metre race at two in Japan. Hat Shite Good has a juvenile filly by Symboli Kris S., a yearling full-brother to the winner and she is due to Majestic Warrior. Under the third dam Naughty Notions, who won a stake at Tampa, is Canadian Champion 2-Year-Old Filly and GI Alcibiades S. heroine Negligee (Northern Afleet).

Sunday, Tokyo, Japan
HYACINTH S.-Listed, ¥36,660,000 (US$348,026/£348,324/€287,134), Tokyo, 2-21, 3yo, 1600m, 1:36.80, gd.
1–LA PEROUSE (JPN), 123, c, 3, by Pelusa (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Hat Shite Good, by Empire Maker
                2nd Dam: Naughty Mambo, by Kingmambo
                3rd Dam: Naughty Notions, by Relaunch
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. O/B-Nobutaka Tada (Jpn). T-Kazuo
Fujisawa. J-Christophe Lemaire. ¥19,000,000. Lifetime Record:
6-4-1-0, ¥27,520,000.
2–Probatio (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Transcend (Jpn)-Honor Leave (Jpn),
by Dance in the Dark (Jpn). O-North Hills Co. Ltd. B-Doi Bokujo
(Jpn). T-Tsuyoshi Tanaka. ¥7,600,000.
3–Ladybug (Jpn), 119, f, 3, Hokko Tarumae (Jpn)-Favorite Girl
(Jpn), by Dance in the Dark (Jpn). O/B-Gold Up Company Co.
Ltd (Jpn). T-Yoshihito Kitade. ¥4,800,000.
Margins: 1HF, NK, 1 3/4. Odds: 2.50, 100.00, 10.30.
Also Ran: Takeru Pegasus (Jpn), Gempachi Forza (Jpn), Taisei Slugger (Jpn), Bakushin (Jpn), Lord Strom (Jpn), Zenno Ange (Jpn), Hokko Karyu (Jpn), Daishin Pisces (Jpn), Kojikun (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart or the Video.

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New to the seating arrangements in 2021 will be an all-inclusive ticket plan, with food and beverages included, which is intended to reduce patrons' need to spend time in lines, the letter said.

The 2021 Kentucky Derby is scheduled for Saturday, May 1.

Read more at wkyt.com.

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“We are starting with the assumption that we will limit the number of reserved seats to 40 to 50 percent of capacity, and we will delay selling any general admission tickets … until we are closer to the date of the Derby,” Carstanjen said.

Carstanjen added that he expects the company to retain the first Saturday in May date for the 2021 Kentucky Derby.

Read more at the Courier-Journal.

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