It’s a bizarre field for a bizarre Kentucky Derby. What else did you expect in 2020?

When Churchill Downs shifted the 146th Kentucky Derby from the first Saturday in May to the first Saturday in September, the delay promised to produce the strongest field in years.

Alas, like so much else in pandemic 2020, that hasn’t exactly panned out. When this year’s entrants line up for the post parade in front of an empty grandstand Saturday, it will fittingly be one of the most bizarre fields for easily the most bizarre “Run for the Roses” in our lifetime.

For starters, Churchill Downs failed to fill its prized new all-in-one 20-horse gate for its Derby debut. With heavy favorite Tiz the Law leading the way, only 18 horses were entered. After King Guillermo was scratched because of a fever Thursday afternoon and Finnick the Fierce bowed out Friday morning, only 16 will race — the fewest since 16 ran in 2003. But then maybe that’s fitting for a day with possible protesters outside the grounds, but no fans, no governor (Kentucky’s Andy Beshear), no mayor (Louisville’s Greg Fischer) inside.

And, sadly, no Art Collector, who won the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on July 11 and the Ellis Park Derby on Aug. 9 to give 48-year-old trainer Tom Drury and owner Bruce Lunsford their first Derby-worthy horse. That dream died Monday when the colt suffered a minor issue during a routine gallop.

“Art Collector not entering Tuesday was a big loss for the public and the Derby,” said Peter Eurton, trainer of Storm the Court.

Bottom line: No. 146 is Tiz the Law, plus a hope and a prayer. While Tiz the Law has won the Belmont and Travers this year, several horses in the field are looking for their first score. Storm the Court is 0-for-5 since winning last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile as a 45-1 shot. Winning Impression hasn’t lived up to his name, going 0-for-6 in 2020, including a seventh-place finish in the Ellis Park Derby. Necker Island is 0-for-7. South Bend is 0-for-8.

It doesn’t stop there. Last time out, Enforceable ran fourth in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes on July 11. Attachment Rate ran fifth. Mr. Big News ran sixth. Finnick the Fierce, a one-eyed gelding who scratched Friday, was seventh. Sole Volante was sixth in the Aug. 20 Belmont Stakes. And Saturday will be the first stakes race for Money Moves. Ever. Trainer Todd Pletcher isn’t even making the trip to Louisville. He’s staying at Saratoga. And Pletcher has won the Derby twice, with Super Saver in 2010 and Always Dreaming in 2017. This year, he’s turned Money Moves over to former boss D. Wayne Lukas, the 85-year-old who has won four Derbys and recently proved too tough for COVID-19.

Lukas has extended the same favor at Oaklawn to his buddy Bob Baffert, whose Nadal and Charlatan captured their divisions of the Arkansas Derby. But remember, it’s 2020. Both were later injured and off the Derby trail. Still, Baffert being Baffert, he’s in Louisville with the third choice (Haskell winner Authentic) and the horse (Thousand Words) who beat the second choice (Honor A. P.) last time out in the Shared Belief.

Pletcher isn’t the only trainer MIA. After a recent bout with kidney cancer, Patrick Biancone decided to stay in South Florida, leaving Sole Volante’s training duties to his 23-year-old daughter Andie. Enforceable’s trainer Mark Casse, usually a backside staple during Derby week, didn’t arrive until Thursday.

To be sure, the best of the West Coast, Honor A. P., Authentic and Thousand Words have had their moments. And Ny Traffic, trained by 33-year-old Saffie Joseph from Barbados, has finished second each of his last three races. He lost by a nose to Authentic in the Haskell. Plus, there are a couple of other interesting test cases.

One was supposed to be the now-scratched King Guillermo, who hasn’t raced in four months. Owned by former Major League Baseball all-star catcher Victor Martinez and trained by Venezuela’s Jose Carlos Avila, he won the Tampa Bay Derby off a 92-day layoff, then finished second in his division of the Arkansas Derby after a 45-day layoff.

Then there’s Max Player, co-owned by SportBLX, a finance firm that sells shares in basketball players (including former UK star PJ Washington) and Thoroughbred horses. After Max Player finished third in the Travers, the owners traded trainer Linda Rice for Steve Asmussen, Churchill Downs’ all-time leading trainer, but 0-for-20 in the Derby. Intriguing stat: Only Tiz the Law ran a faster final three furlongs his last 1 1/8-mile race.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Asmussen said this week. “This is unprecedented, to say the least.”

Tiz the Law is bearing down on the unprecedented. The New York-bred would be the first colt to win the Kentucky Derby, Belmont and Travers since Thunder Gulch in 1995. Though not in that order. And that’s with the Preakness still to go. On Oct. 3, without fans. At Pimlico, where it is all about the crazy fans.

What a long, strange trip we are seeing.

This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 11:20 AM.

John Clay

Lexington Herald-Leader

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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