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Kentucky Derby 2024 has its first scratch. See who's out, and who's now in the field.

Cameron Drummond, Lexington Herald-Leader on

Published in Horse Racing

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It’s only Tuesday, but we already have a scratch for Saturday’s 150th edition of the Kentucky Derby.

Encino — trained by Brad Cox and drawn into post position 9 — won’t run in Derby 150.

With Encino scratching out of the race, Epic Ride — trained by John Ennis — will move into the 20-horse field as a result of being the first horse on the also-eligible list.

Encino worked at Churchill Downs on Tuesday morning before being scratched from the race by Cox later in the day. According to a Kentucky Derby news release, Encino was “off” after going through the training.

Encino had moved into the Derby field by winning the final qualifying points race for the Derby, the Grade 3 Stonestreet Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, on April 13. By winning that race, Encino boosted his Derby qualifying points total to 40.

This initially had Encino on the outside looking in for the Derby. But after No More Time was injured during a workout in Florida, Encino moved into the Derby picture.

 

“Ultimately (a potential Kentucky Derby start) will be up to the Godolphin (ownership) team — Dan Pride, Michael Banahan, Sheikh Mohammed — and if it’s something they want to do, we’ll prepare him,” Cox said on April 13 at Keeneland after the Lexington Stakes. “We’ll ship him over to Churchill (Downs) in a few days regardless. I’ll tell you it will either be the Derby or the Preakness.”

During Saturday night’s post position draw, Encino was given post position 9 and assigned 20-1 morning line odds for the Derby.

The horse is 3-1-0 in four career starts. Prior to the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland, all three of Encino’s races came on the synthetic surface at Turfway Park in Florence.

Encino won the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes, another Derby prep race, in March at Turfway Park. Axel Concepcion was to be aboard Encino for the Derby.

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