Significant rainfall hasn’t come down at Churchill Downs since mid-morning, but radar shows the area southwest of Louisville being drenched by storms that are moving toward the northeast, aimed directly at what looks like a relatively light Derby Day crowd. The rain should arrive here within the next hour: weather.com is forecasting a 100 percent chance of rain at 4 p.m.
Churchill’s main track still is rated sloppy some 30 minutes before the Humana Distaff. Track maintenance personnel briefly harrowed and opened up the racing surface at about 2:10, with the Distaff Turf Mile being run on turf. But shortly after that race had been completed, floats were back out on the surface, which was sealed once again, surely in anticipation of coming rain.
Outside closers appear to have been at an advantage over the wet going during the first third of the card. Robby Albarado said he didn’t notice any bias to the surface, but Julien Leparoux, after winning the Eight Belles on closing Buckleupbuttercup, said he believed that the rail was “a little deeper” than other parts of the track
“Two wide and anything out seems about the same,” Leparoux said.
Still, it has seemed in several races like a horse rallying widest in the stretch has an edge over those to the inside.
