Last year's Kentucky Derby was plenty weird.
Remember that interminable wait as the stewards at Churchill Downs debated whether Maximum Security's victory would stand? Or the collective gasp when they disqualified him and handed the Derby to 65-to-1 longshot Country House, who would never run another race? Was that really only 16 months ago?
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Derby already feels strange on an entirely different scale. The signature race on the American calendar will be run on Labor Day weekend instead of the first Saturday in May. The usual crowd of 150,000, decked out in spring dresses, seersucker suits and outlandish hats, will be absent. The Derby will go down as the second jewel in a mutated Triple Crown series scheduled to culminate with the Oct. 3 Preakness Stakes.
But the show will go on, as it did before an empty grandstand at Belmont Park when the series started on June 20. The Derby remains a monumental occasion for the trainers, owners and jockeys who target it with every moment and dollar they invest in promising 3-year-olds. With that in mind, here's a look at five key storylines for the Sept. 5 race:
