All eyes on Churchill Downs for Friday’s Longines Kentucky Oaks and Saturday’s Kentucky Derby

A crowd of over 150,000 is expected to be drawn to the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs racecourse for the eagerly-anticipated first leg of America’s Triple Crown, the feature race on Saturday’s card and the climax to the weekend’s action and Kentucky Derby week.

However prior to that, the equally historic Longines Kentucky Oaks will take place on Friday, and whilst the race for three-year-old fillies may not capture the same imagination as the Derby, the first Friday in May at Churchill Downs is still a pretty spectacular place to be.

Along with the Kentucky Derby, the Longines Kentucky Oaks was founded by Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. and was first competed for on May 19, 1875 when Churchill Downs was known as the Louisville Jockey Club. The Oaks and the Derby are still the oldest continuously contested sporting events in history and have the distinction of being the only horse races to be held at their original site since its conception.

The Longines Kentucky Oaks is America’s premier and most lucrative race for three-year old fillies, and is held each year on the day before the Kentucky Derby. This feature race is a $1 Million Grade 1 stakes race and awards the winning filly a garland of lilies, appropriately named “lilies for the fillies.

Run over a distance of just over a mile, this year’s renewal is set to see many of the fastest fillies start from outside positions, including favourites Monomy Girl and Midnight Bisou who will go from stall 14 and stall 10 respectively. They will have to fight their way closer to the preferred rail side which in turn may open up the opportunity for other contenders. They include the Tom Amoss filly Chocolate Martini, who will break from stall 4 under Javier Castellano, and the Kenny McPeek’s Eskimo Kisses, who drew stall 13 and will be saddled by Churchill Downs-based jockey Corey Lanerie.

Twenty four hours the focus of attention shifts to the $2 million Kentucky Derby and the first leg of America’s Triple Crown, where another strong field of 20 look to emulate the success of the Todd Pletcher-trained Always Dreaming from twelve months ago

On that occasion the winner was ridden by jockey John Velazquez, and he will ride Vino Rosso who is one of four horses that Pletcher will saddle and hope for a repeat success. The other three being Noble Indy (ridden by Florent Geroux), Audible (Javier Castellano) and Magnum Moon (Luis Saez).

Aidan O’Brien’s Mendelssohn is among the favourites this time around despite having to experience a longer than expected journey to Kentucky. The UAE Derby winner had his plane diverted to Indianapolis owing to an issue over travel documents, but reports from O’Brien’s camp suggest the horse is no worse off for the experience.

O’Brien’s retained jockey Ryan Moore will ride Mendelssohn and the pair will break from stall 14 in a bid to become the first European-trained winner of the Kentucky Derby. If form is anything to go by, Mendelssohn is a good prospect having won four of his five races with Moore in the saddle, including on his previous appearance in the States, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.

However Mendelssohn is vying for favouritism with the Bob Baffert-trained colt Justify who will break from stall seven and look to continue a run of form which has seen victories in all three starts this year, notably the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby last month.

Of other leading fancies, Magnum Moon drew the 16 stall, with Audible in five, Good Magic in six and Santa Anita Derby runner-up Bolt D’Oro in 11.

The Kentucky Derby is one of 14 races on the card at Churchill Downs on Saturday which also includes the Churchill Distaff Turf Mile.

Swiss watchmaker Longines presents the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, and are the Official Watch and Timekeeper of America’s Triple Crown race series.