There's a reasonable chance that a Hall of Fame trainer will win Saturday's Kentucky Derby as eight of the 20 horses have one of the sport's legendary trainers.
Conventional wisdom would say that those who reach that historical pedestal already would have won the most prestigious race the sport has to offer. But three of those five trainers _ Steve Asmussen, Richard Mandella and Bill Mott _ have never won the Kentucky Derby. Collectively, they have lost the race 33 times.
Still, this could be the year for one of them to upset Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, the five-time winner, who has three horses in the race. Mandella, with an entrant for the first time in 15 years, has the likely favorite, Omaha Beach, winner of the Arkansas Derby and a division of the Rebel Stakes.
And there is Mott, who has both Tacitus and Country House. Tacitus won the Wood Memorial and Tampa Bay Derby, and Country House, who hasn't won a stakes, was third in Arkansas Derby.
Asmussen, who is winless in 19 tries, has Long Range Toddy, who won a division of the Rebel Stakes and will have Jon Court as the jockey. At 58, Court will be the oldest rider to ever compete in the Kentucky Derby.
If those aren't enough storylines to make this year's Derby interesting, here are five more to think about.
