LEXINGTON, Ky. _ The Kentucky Derby field is now at 17 horses.
Tampa Bay Derby winner King Guillermo was scratched from the race Thursday afternoon, one day after his connections discovered the 3-year-old colt had come down with a fever. King Guillermo missed his training session at Churchill Downs on Thursday morning and was further evaluated by veterinarians later in the day.
Trainer Juan Carlos Avila, who would have been saddling his first Kentucky Derby starter, announced that he would be removed from Saturday's race.
"A fever yesterday afternoon took us away from this great dream," Avila said in a social media post Thursday afternoon. "First is the health of our King Guillermo, who will be ready to show that he is one of the best in the country sooner rather than later."
In a release from Churchill Downs a short time later, Avila said that King Guillermo would now be pointed toward the Preakness Stakes, the final leg of this year's Triple Crown scheduled for Oct. 5.
"To race in a race like the Derby we need him at 100 percent," Avila said. "We aren't going to be able to demonstrate how good he is like this. I think we are going to have plenty of time to show his quality. He's going to be a great horse and everybody knows we have to take care of the horse first."
Avila and owner Victor Martinez _ the former Major League Baseball All-Star catcher _ made the joint decision to scratch King Guillermo from the race. The son of Uncle Mo had been training impressively at Churchill Downs for several weeks and was coming into the Derby off a longer layoff than any horse in the field. He had not run since a second-place finish in one of the divisions of the Arkansas Derby on May 2, a planned four-month layoff before the biggest test of his young racing career.
"The sad part is that Juan said yesterday was his best day here," Martinez said. "When we left the track in the morning following training and came back in the afternoon for feed time, we discovered he had a fever. It's just the sad part about this game."
Martinez and his wife, Margaret, recently became horse owners after the couple had long been casual fans of the sport. King Guillermo was one of the first three horses that Martinez had purchased, and he burst onto the Kentucky Derby scene with his upset victory _ at 49-1 odds _ in the Tampa Bay Derby.
It was also going to be the first Kentucky Derby starter for 32-year-old jockey Samy Camacho, who rode King Guillermo in the Tampa Bay Derby and the Arkansas Derby.
Martinez, Avila and Camacho are all originally from Venezuela.
King Guillermo was the first scratch for this year's Derby, but he wasn't the first defection this week. Blue Grass Stakes winner Art Collector, who would have been among the race favorites, was removed from consideration just hours before Tuesday morning's post position draw after suffering a minor foot injury earlier in the week.
The defection of King Guillermo leaves the Kentucky Derby field with 17 starters, which would make it the smallest Derby field since 16 horses ran in 2003. Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law is the 3-5 favorite, the shortest morning-line Derby favorite since 1989. King Guillermo, at odds of 20-1, was the co-fifth choice on the morning line.
As a result of King Guillermo's scratch, the two inside gates and one outside gate of the new 20-horse Derby starting gate will remain open.
