Ethereal Road scratches from Kentucky Derby. Rich Strike now in the field.

D. Wayne Lukas won’t be saddling his 50th Kentucky Derby horse, after all.

Churchill Downs reports that Ethereal Road has scratched from Saturday’s race, meaning that Rich Strike will now have the No. 20 post position for the annual “Run for the Roses.”

After running fourth in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 16, Ethereal Road was just outside the No. 20 spot on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. The race is limited to 20 horses. But the Lukas trainee gained entry on Monday when the connections for Un Ojo announced that their colt would not be in the field.

Ethereal Road would have been the 50th horse to run in the Derby for Lukas, who has won the race four times. Ethereal Road is owned by Aaron Sones and Julie Gilbert.

Rich Strike has one career win in seven starts. He is 0-for-3 this year with a pair of third-place finishes in the Leonatus Stakes at Turfway on Jan. 22 and the Grade 3 Jeff Ruby Steaks at Turfway on April 2. He finished fourth in the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes at Turfway on March 5.

Trained by Eric Reed and owned by RED TR-Racing, Rich Strike broke his maiden last Sept. 17 at Churchill.

Post time for Saturday’s race is 6:57 p.m. NBC has the television coverage.

This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 10:08 AM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-472-4218

John Clay is a sports columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Central Kentucky, he covered UK football from 1987 until being named sports columnist in 2000. He has covered 20 Final Fours and 42 consecutive Kentucky Derbys. Support my work with a digital subscription