NBC Sports to Present the May 1 Kentucky Derby

With one month to the running of the GI Kentucky Derby, NBC Sports presents live coverage of the GII Wood Memorial, GII Blue Grass S. and GI Santa Anita Derby Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET. This weekend's “triplecast” continues NBC Sports' “Road to the Kentucky Derby” coverage on four consecutive Saturday afternoons, which also includes next weekend's GI Arkansas Derby. NBC Sports will present the 147th Kentucky Derby Saturday, May 1 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Saturday's live coverage begins from Aqueduct Racetrack with the Wood Memorial, which has registered 11 Derby winners. The 5-2 morning line favorite is Risk Taking, ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. and trained by Chad Brown. Additionally, the Blue Grass S. at Keeneland, is expected to feature undefeated 3-5 morning line favorite Essential Quality, who was named 2020's Champion 2-year-old male. Rounding out Saturday's show is the GI Santa Anita Derby. Headlining the field is Medina Spirit, trained by Hall-of-Famer Bob Baffert, who has won the Santa Anita Derby a record nine times.

Ahmed Fareed hosts Saturday's triplecast coverage, alongside analysts Jerry Bailey, Randy Moss, and insights analyst Steve Kornacki, who will be at his Big Board to analyze the Kentucky Derby points standings as qualifying for the Run for the Roses enters its final weeks. Reporters Laffit Pincay III and Britney Eurton will be on-site in Santa Anita, Matt Bernier will be in New York and Kenny Rice will report from Keeneland. NBCSN will also present highlights of Saturday's “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” races from across the country.

Coverage will be streamed live on www.NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app–NBC Sports Group's live streaming product for mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs.

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Keeneland Releases Spring Stakes Schedule

Keeneland will present 18 stakes, featuring the 97th running of the $800,000 GII Toyota Blue Grass S. and the 84th running of the $400,000 GI Central Bank Ashland S., worth a total of $4.1 million during its 2021 Spring Meet from Apr. 2-23. Post time for the first race during the 15-day season will be 1:05 p.m. ET. Keeneland will be closed Easter Sunday, Apr. 4.

“Keeneland is excited to welcome racing back to the Bluegrass in April,” Keeneland President and CEO Shannon Arvin said. “With the cancellation of last year's Spring Meet because of the pandemic, it is critical to the Thoroughbred industry that we are able to offer our full slate of April stakes on their traditional dates. These races are key fixtures on the international racing calendar.”

“For this year's Spring Meet,” Arvin added, “Keeneland is working on plans for ticketing options under our COVID-19 safety protocols and we plan to make an announcement in the next few weeks.”

Keeneland will conduct a total of 10 stakes on grass and eight stakes on dirt while offering multiple stakes on four days during the Spring Meet.

Opening day, Friday, Apr. 2, features three stakes: the $150,000 GIII Kentucky Utilities Transylvania S., a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds; the $150,000 GIII Beaumont S. at seven furlongs, 184 feet, on dirt for 3-year-old fillies; and $100,000 Palisades Turf Sprint S., for 3-year-olds going 5 1/2 furlongs on the grass.

The Toyota Blue Grass and Central Bank Ashland will be contested the following day, Saturday, Apr. 3, as part of a blockbuster card of six stakes. Both are worth 180 points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby and Road to the Kentucky Oaks, respectively. The winners of each stakes will earn 100 qualifying points to the respective races. Joining the Toyota Blue Grass and Central Bank Ashland on April 3 are the $300,000 GI Madison S. for older fillies and mares at seven furlongs; $200,000 GII Appalachian S. for 3-year-old fillies at one mile on the grass; $200,000 GII Shakertown S. for 3-year-olds and up at 5 1/2 furlongs on the turf; and $200,000 GIII Commonwealth S. for older horses at seven furlongs.

For the remainder of the Spring Meet, racing will be held Wednesday through Sunday. For the entire stakes schedule, visit Keeneland.com.

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Streaking Art Collector on Display in Runhappy Ellis Park Derby

All eyes will be on Art Collector (Bernardini) as he looks to go four-for-four on the year and punch his ticket to Louisville in Sunday’s $200,000 Runhappy Ellis Park Derby.

After airing over subsequent GIII Indiana Derby hero Shared Sense (Street Sense) in an optional claimer at Churchill Downs June 13, the Bruce Lunsford homebred followed up with another impressive performance capturing Keeneland’s GII Toyota Blue Grass S. July 11, his second straight victory with a triple digit Beyer Speed Figure.

“I’m just hoping for a good clean trip more than anything,” trainer Tom Drury, Jr. said. “We want this race to be a stepping stone for the next one. I’d love to see him go down there and get a good, clean, easy trip wherever he may finish and then be able to move forward from that race.”

A full field will be standing in the way of the 4-5 morning-line favorite in the 1 1/8-mile contest, which offers GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points of 50-20-10-5.

Dean Martini (Cairo Prince), claimed by Tom Amoss for $50,000 three starts back in his maiden breaker at Churchill Downs in May, posted a breakthrough victory in the GIII Ohio Derby last time June 27.

The aforementioned Shared Sense, 6 1/2 lengths adrift Art Collector in Louisville, delivered as the 5-2 favorite with a three-length decision in Indiana last time. He will have to work out a trip from post 12, however.

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Hernandez: ‘You’re Always Thinking About The Derby’

Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. has won America's richest horse race. Now the Ellis Park regular has his sights on America's most revered race, the Kentucky Derby.

That long-held dream took an important step forward when Hernandez guided Bruce Lunsford's Art Collector to a 3 1/2-length victory over the talented filly Swiss Skydiver in Keeneland's $600,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on July 11. The triumph in the Grade 2 stakes was the first in a graded stakes for trainer Tommy Drury, a close friend of Hernandez. Drury has trained horses for 30 years, but a large part of his business has been getting 2-year-olds and horses coming off layoffs ready for other trainers.

Hernandez has won a slew of graded stakes races, capped by Fort Larned's score in 2012 in the then-$5 million Breeders' Cup Classic, North America's most lucrative race. He's only had two cracks at the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, in his adopted hometown of Louisville: finishing 12th in 2016 on Tom's Ready and eighth in 2017 with McCraken.

Had the Derby been in its usual First Saturday in May time slot, Hernandez would not be in this position with Art Collector.

“The most special thing about it is to be on this trail with Tommy,” Hernandez said. “The Blue Grass being his first graded-stakes win meant a lot. I've ridden at every little racetrack in the country, I think, for Tommy. Indiana, River Downs, Beulah, Ellis and now to win the Blue Grass for him is a special moment. Being friends like we are, it's more special to have this good of a horse. We've always talked about, 'Man, if we could ever get a really good one like this, the trip it would put us on.' It's meant a lot.

“…You're always thinking about the Derby. Every time we work these young 2-year-olds, you're always thinking, 'Hey, maybe this will be our next Derby mount.' Hopefully one day it will be the Derby winner. I've never won it, so I couldn't tell you what it takes to win it. I know just from riding it the few times we have, it does take a special horse. The year we went into it with McCraken, we went in thinking we had a really big chance. And we kind of lost our chance at the start that day. That just shows you how difficult a race it is.”

Drury said that if Art Collector needs another race before the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, it will be the $200,000 Ellis Park Derby, at 1 1/8-miles on Aug. 9. The winner receives 50 points toward qualifying for the Kentucky Derby, enough to virtually secure a spot in the 20-horse field. But that's not an issue with Art Collector, who earned 100 in the Blue Grass.

Hernandez, the 2012 Ellis Park meet titlist, has ridden Art Collector in a race five times, including the past three when the colt won at seven furlongs, 1 1/16 miles and the Blue Grass' 1 1/8 miles — all by open lengths.

“He's just one of those rare, very intelligent horses that everything put in front him, he's jumped through all the hoops,” the jockey said. “He seems to be improving with each start.

“He's a top 3-year-old right now, and it's a different year with this whole Derby-in-September time. He was one of the late developers. It's a lot of fun, kind of hard to put into words. You're going into the Derby with one of the favorites, and you've just got to be excited about it.”

Lunsford and Drury are lifelong Louisvillians, while the 34-year-old Hernandez has lived in the Louisville area since he began riding full-time in 2004. That's the year the Louisiana product won the Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey.

“I think we've lived in Louisville now just about as long as I did in Louisiana,” he said. “I guess now we're just Kentuckians. That's another fun part of the journey, being able to say, 'Hey, Tommy's from Louisville here, and Bruce is as well. It's all Kentucky guys. It just goes to show you how strong the Kentucky program is getting now. We're one of the top circuits in the country.”

Hernandez has been a shining example that riding at Ellis Park in the summer isn't a detriment to riding in the sport's biggest races (although this year, there's the COVID-19 wrinkle of tracks such as Saratoga closing its doors to outside jockeys).

The jockey won his first Grade 1 victory in Saratoga's 2012 Whitney Handicap with the Ian Wilkes-trained Fort Larned, then rode at Ellis Park the next day. Three months later, the jockey and Fort Larned won the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

“It's always worked well for us being at Ellis,” he said. “Like last year, we picked up a really good 2-year-old in Fighting Seabee. He broke his maiden at Ellis and in his very next start he won the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga. And just having that relationship with clients who run at Ellis during the summertime, we do get the opportunity to run at places like Saratoga and all the stakes out of town — most of the years.”

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