Forte, the morning-line favorite, scratched hours before Kentucky Derby

[mahatmakanejeeves]

HORSE RACING

Forte, the morning-line favorite, scratched hours before Kentucky Derby

By Chuck Culpepper
May 6, 2023 at 9:19 a.m. EDT



BREAKING: Kentucky Derby favorite Forte has been scratched from the race.

Forte was the morning-line favorite headed into the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Link to tweet

The colt, trained by Todd Pletcher, was coming into the Derby on a five-race winning streak. He was scratched Saturday morning, and was the latest in a handful of Derby horses to depart the field.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

By Chuck Culpepper
Chuck Culpepper covers national college sports as well as some tennis, golf and international sports for The Washington Post. He wrote previously for Sports On Earth/USA Today, The National (Abu Dhabi), the Los Angeles Times (while London-based), Newsday, the Oregonian, the Lexington Herald-Leader and, from age 14, the Suffolk Sun/Virginian-Pilot. Twitter https://twitter.com/ChuckCulpepper1

[Karadeniz]

1. So happy they scratched him! They never scratched Secretariat, twice making him run with

discomfort, fever, infection, lack of training. Forte's owner and trainer obviously care more about his condition than Secretariat's did. Having 4 deaths at Churchill Downs surely contributed to their decision.