Saturday’s Kentucky Derby will bring an end to one of the more strange lead-ups to the legendary May race.
While the NBA and NHL Playoffs are taking much of the attention in the sports world, now is a peak period in horse racing because this weekend brings the first leg in the yearly Triple Crown. Yet, it has always seemed like the Kentucky Derby is the biggest and most meaningful of the bunch despite being the first in the series of races.
Related: 2023 Kentucky Derby horses, betting odds, and predictions
That is probably why some of the oddities in the week before the event have been headline fodder because some unusual happenings and scandals have shaped the narrative heading into the 2023 Kentucky Derby.
Kentucky Derby will have the most scratches since 2015
Scratches happen at races, especially the big ones. That is why races like the Kentucky Derby even have betting odds for the alternate horses, because sometimes these finally tuned thoroughbreds can’t make it to race day. However, this year is much different than most.
In the 2023 edition of the grand race, not one, not two, not three, but four different horses have been removed from the event. Santa Anita winner Practical Move — a race contender with 10-1 odds — and early scratch replacement Skinner both called it a weekend when their trainers were concerned about elevated temperatures for both horses.
Japanese import Continaur was sent to the stable permanently after trainer Yoshito Yahagi felt the horse was unable “to reach the peak fitness required” to be a strong competitor in the event. Continaur didn’t have very good odds of winning so the scratch isn’t much of a loss.
However, the race did lose out on having Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles, who was bounced from the race “for the betterment of” the event from being connected to one of the weird controversies in Kentucky Derby history.
The Saffie Joseph Jr. scandal at Kentucky Derby 2023
Churchhill Downs was rocked by scandal just days before the race when veteran trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was banned from the event after two of his horses mysteriously died in the past week. Oddly enough, two other horses that were not trained by Joseph Jr. also passed in the final days before the race. When horses are dying and two are trained by the same individual, heads will roll.
That is why Joseph Jr.’s horse Lord Miles was dismissed from the race because it is hard to trust a competitor trained by a man who has half of his valuable horses drop dead unexpectedly.
“Given the unexplained, sudden deaths, we have reasonable concerns about the condition of his horses and decided to suspend him indefinitely until details are analyzed and understood.”
– Bill Mudd, President and CEO of Churchill Downs
Yet beyond the Joseph Jr. horses, several other hopefuls also had sudden and shocking fates. Wild On Ice had to be euthanized after suffering a hind leg fracture. Take Charge Briana had a “catastrophic injury” during a race on Tuesday, and Code of Kings incurred — of all things — a broken neck last week in training.
Making matters even stranger was the fact that on race day, the Derby favorite Forte was suddenly pulled from the event without any clear reason why. Taking the total amount of horses in the race from the traditional 20 to just 18.
It has been a very weird week before the 2023 Kentucky Derby. Here’s hoping the race is a satisfying and exciting end to it all.