Nothing about 2020 is normal, thanks to the havoc wreaked upon the world by the coronavirus pandemic. Horse racing has not been immune.
We've had an Arkansas Derby on the first Saturday in May, a Belmont Stakes to kick off the Triple Crown, empty grandstands most everywhere and now we prepare for a spectator-free Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in September.
But before the best of the 2017 Thoroughbred foal crop runs for the roses, horse racing may have to get past yet another challenge: civil unrest in the wake of a police shooting of a 26-year-old African-American woman, Breonna Taylor, in her home in Louisville, Ky., host city for America's most famous horserace.
In this week's edition of the Friday Show, publisher Ray Paulick and editor-in-chief Natalie Voss point out that the Kentucky Derby has been used before as a focal point of civil rights demonstrations. In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King and others fought for fair housing laws in the city, held demonstrations at Churchill Downs early on Derby week but ultimately opted not to disrupt the big race.
Paulick and Voss also discuss the newly assembled Churchill Downs 20-horse starting gate that may pose a challenge for the gate crew that typically stands inside each horse's stall.
Watch the Friday Show below.
The post The Friday Show Presented By Woodbine: Derby Challenges appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
