Reports: Timberlake out of Kentucky Derby

Factoring in Muth’s ineligibility and Timberlake’s unavailability, both Oaklawn winners of seven-figure Kentucky Derby preps are out of the May 4 race at Churchill Downs.

Grade II Rebel Stakes winner Timberlake will not start in the race, reports indicate. After going 1 1/8 miles in the Grade I $1.5 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday, the Into Mischief colt does not have a physical problem, trainer Brad Cox said.

“He came out of it in good order, very sound,” Cox said before the colt shipped back to Louisville. “We still feel it’s in his best interest not to try a mile and a quarter in 4 1/2 weeks.”

Though leading after three quarters of a mile, Tmberlake and jockey Flavien Prat retreated against Muth, two-length winner of the Arkansas Derby for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Muth is ineligible for the Kentucky Derby because Baffert’s horses are ruled off Churchill Downs for a third consecutive year. Though Baffert has won the Derby six times, a seventh winner, Medina Spirit (since deceased) in 2021, was disqualified because of a drug violation, prompting a legal dispute between the track and the California-based trainer.

Timberlake ranked fifth with 81 points in a series of Derby qualifying races, for which Baffert trainees receive no points. Cox-trained Catching Freedom, Oaklawn’s Smarty Jones winner Jan. 1, is second with 125 points after taking the Grade II Louisiana Derby on March 23.

Juvenile champion Fierceness, runaway winner of Saturday’s Grade I Florida Derby for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, leads with 136 points.