Blazing Sevens is the First Kentucky Derby Scratch

The field for the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby is taking shape. Over the weekend the first defection opened up a space for a colt trained by a fan favorite.

Blazing Sevens, who ran third in the Blue Grass Stakes, will skip the Kentucky Derby. His owners will instead prepare the horse for the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes.

“The horse trained well, but I think we’re looking at the Preakness with a little more of a training window between his last race and the next race,” owner John Capek told Horse Racing Nation. “Give him an extra two weeks of training, and we think the Preakness will put him in a better position to be a top contender there.”

Blazing Sevens is trained by Chad Brown. Last year Brown held Early Voting out of the Kentucky Derby and the horse came through with a Preakness Stakes victory.

Blazing Sevens is out and Jace’s Road is in. The first horse on the waiting list on the Kentucky Derby points leaderboard, Jace’s Road ran third in the Louisiana Derby. If he makes it to the starting gate, Florent Geroux will be on board for Brad Cox.

This is the fourth Kentucky Derby entry for the trainer from Louisville, joining Verifying (Blue Grass Stakes runner-up), Hit Show (Wood Memorial runner-up) and Angel of Empire (Arkansas Derby winner). Cox has never won the Kentucky Derby with his horse finishing first. Mandaloun won by DQ following Medina Spirit’s failed drug test. Todd Pletcher has almost as many in the field as Cox with three Kentucky Derby entires, including two of the top choices, Forte and Tapit Trice.

Blazing Sevens will not be the first horse to withdraw from consideration. Last year’s winner, Rich Strike, entered the field of 20 starters just about 24 hours ahead of its historic performance. The 20 post positions will be drawn next Monday, with four also eligibles ready to roll on the wait list.