9-2 favorite Always Dreaming wins Kentucky Derby in the slop

But in the meantime, you can keep up with him on his Twitter, which is full of awesome photos and stories about the lovable horse.

When Always Dreaming unloaded at Churchill, Pletcher felt the dark bay colt was too wound up too soon.

Lookin at Lee finished second, according to unofficial results, in the first leg of US thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown series for 3-year-olds, with Battle of Midway third.

Always Dreaming became the fifth successive favourite to win and added to Pletcher’s other victory in 2010 when Super Saver also negotiated a sloppy track. Looking at Lee, with 33-1 odds, paid $26.60 and $15.20. Battle Of Midway and Flavien Prat were third.

Finally, the whole narrative swung back to the beginning, with Classic Empire – his mental and physical woes seemingly behind him – starting as the morning-line favorite. Battle of Midway, at 40-1, paid $20.80.

“We got wiped out at the start”, said Casse, whose horse broke from the No. 14 post position. It’s also where it ended for 10 horses.

Otherwise, it was a cleanly run race up front, with Always Dreaming easily putting away State of Honor before drawing clear.

Jockey John Velasquez said,”This is the best horse (trainer Todd Pletcher) and I have ever come to the Kentucky Derby with”.

“So we have great work to do to make the ties between France and Australia stronger still”.

It seems insane that it takes but two minutes to decide who will win a race that has been discussed and debated ad nauseam for weeks leading up to the race.

The 49-year-old trainer and jockey John Velazquez won their second Derbies. Who was going to give Pletcher another Atlanta Falcons’ moment? Altogether, he’s had 48 runners, tying mentor D. Wayne Lukas for the most in Derby history.”It’s becoming a little more respectable now”, Pletcher said.Velazquez used his colt’s speed out of the gate to get good position early in a chaotic start that saw several horses, including Classic Empire, get sandwiched.

Sneering at Pletcher’s overall Derby record of just one previous victor from 45 starters has become an ritual of pre-Derby doings for anyone so minded.

“I think for the first 25 starters I had to defend my record”, Pletcher said.

For those who didn’t come prepared with a hat but still wanted to join in the Derby fun, Spa Sapphire, a spa at Mohegan Sun Pocono with a boutique in Pittston, was selling all of the accessories one might need for the day.

Maybe that was because observers felt he had the horse to get that elusive second win.

The winning owners, Anthony Bonomo and Vinnie Viola of Brooklyn Boyz Stables, spent the postrace press conference mainly doing three things: answering questions, smiling at the replay of the race to their left and smiling at their families seated on their right.

“Ricardo [Santana] put Untrapped in a great spot, and then the race kind of got away from him in the middle”. He got his first win on January 25, the latest first victory for a Derby victor since 1933.

Which horse would run down Pletcher’s Derby favorite, Always Dreaming?

But this year’s reigning 2-year-old champion, Arkansas Derby victor Classic Empire, went from morning-line favorite at 4-1 to a 7-1 shot at post time and seemed to garner no respect.

Marine Le Pen, his far-right opponent in the presidential runoff, quickly called the 39-year-old to concede defeat after voters rejected her “French-first” nationalism by a large margin.

The next stop on the Always Dreaming dream tour is in two weeks at the Preakness.