Kentucky Derby helps fuel bourbon boom

Connection between race, state’s distilling industry impossible to miss

The Kentucky Derby morning-line favorite will not race Saturday. Churchill Downs confirmed that Omaha Beach has scratched due to an entrapped epiglottis. Bloodhorse.com describes the condition as “an upper airway abnormality that can cause poor performance in athletic horses.”

The condition was discovered after a cough and scope, his trainer, Richard Mandella, told the track. Omaha Beach was the favorite at 4-1. Bodexpress, at 30-1, is now in the field. Omaha Beach dealt with a quarter crack in the weeks leading up to the Derby, a condition Mandella described as the equivalent of a human breaking a fingernail near the cuticle.