LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The transfer portal may be all the rage in college athletics, but not in horse racing. Not this Kentucky Derby anyway.

In year three of his Churchill Downs suspension, trainer Bob Baffert isn’t in Louisville. And neither is his top 3-year-old, Muth, all because the colt’s owner refused to transfer his impressive horse to an eligible trainer.

That’s why Amr F. Zedan is keeping his winner of both the Grade 2 San Vicente Stakes and Grade 1 Arkansas Derby out of this year’s Kentucky Derby in favor of the Preakness Stakes on May 18 in Baltimore.

That’s not to say that this milestone of a Derby lacks star power for Saturday’s 6:57 p.m. post time. In fact, Grade 1 Florida Derby winner Fierceness and Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes winner Sierra Leone have shown best-in-class potential in their Derby prep races, placing the duo atop the morning-line odds board, with a bit of distance back to the third choice, Grade 2 Louisiana Derby winner Catching Freedom.

Fierceness won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by 6 lengths, beating Muth in the process. After a third-place finish in the Holy Bull Stakes, his 2024 debut, the son of City of Light rolled to a jaw-dropping 13 1/2-length triumph in the Florida Derby for two-time Derby winning trainer Todd Pletcher and owner Mike Repole.

Fierceness isn’t the biggest horse, so his No. 16 post position may work to his advantage. He was close to the pace in the Juvenile and wired the field in the Florida Derby, so the guess is he will be pressing probable early leaders Track Phantom, Dornoch and T O Password on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Sierra Leone has a completely different running style. Trained by Chad Brown, the son of Gun Runner balked at the Keeneland starting gate for the Blue Grass, dropped back behind the field, then rallied with an impressive surge to catch and pass Just a Touch by a length and a half at the finish line.

Sierra Leone is a $2.3 million purchase with experienced racing owners, so you know he has the pedigree. Brown did not appear worried about the colt’s gate behavior in Lexington and Sierra Leone did not need a fast early pace to win the Grade 2 Risen Star on Feb. 17 at Fair Grounds. Sierra Leone’s only loss in four starts came by a nose in last year’s Remsen, while Fierceness has finished third and seventh in two of his five races.

Trained by Brad Cox, Catching Freedom has shown improvement in each of his starts. And his 5-furlong work in :59 1/5 last Saturday at Churchill drew plenty of positive reviews for Cox, whose Mandaloun was declared the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner after Baffert’s Medina Spirit was disqualified for a substance banned on race days.

Both Brown and Cox have multiple shooters. Brown is also starting Seth Klarman’s Domestic Product, winner of the Tampa Bay Derby. Cox is also starting Blue Grass runner-up Just a Touch. Both figure to be factors in the Derby outcome.

...continued

©2024 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.