It now looks like Bob Baffert will only have two horses entered in the Kentucky Derby. His ‘third horse’ in his impressive trio, One Lucky Dane, was pulled from the Derby Trail today. One Lucky Dane has suffered what is a yet to be determined front leg injury. Shed no tears for Baffert, however, since he still has the two race favorites in the field.
One Lucky Dane was the last of twelve horses to work out today at Santa Anita and had just completed a five furlong work in 59.20 seconds. In the run out he was brought to a halt by jockey Rafael Bejerano at the clubhouse turn and carted off with an equine ambulance. One Lucky Dane had lost his front shoe (a persistent problem in Baffert’s barn this year) and was favoring his front leg.
Baffert said that there wasn’t much to say about the injury at this stage but regardless of what X-Rays and MRI’s showed that One Lucky Dane would be pulled from Derby consideration: “So far, there’s nothing obvious, but Rafael (jockey Bejerano) said he didn’t feel right.”
In his last start One Lucky Dane finished second to Dortmund in the Santa Anita Derby. Dortmund, along with Arkansas Derby winner American Pharoah, are Baffert’s two top contenders. One of the two will very likely be the post time favorite for the Kentucky Derby. That might not be good news for Baffert–he’s 0 for 6 with the post time Derby favorites: Indian Charlie (1997), Excellent Meeting and General Challenge (1999), Point Given (2001), Lookin at Lucky (2010) and Bodemeister (2012). Note that Excellent Meeting and General Challenge were an entry so that’s technically 0 for 5 even though six horses were involved. Baffert has won the Derby three times with Silver Charm, Real Quiet and War Emblem.
Updates to One Lucky Dane’s condition were expected within the next 24 hours but regardless of what they reveal he’s likely to be ‘shut down’ for awhile. In any case, he won’t be running in the Kentucky Derby on May 2nd. One Lucky Dane was a 25/1 Kentucky Derby betting choice at Wynn Las Vegas at the time of his injury.