Omaha Beach Out of Derby With Entrapped Epiglottis

Omaha Beach | Sarah K Andrew

Fox Hill Farms's Omaha Beach (War Front), the 4-1 favorite for Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, will be forced to miss the race after it was discovered that he has an entrapped epiglottis.

“After training this morning we noticed him cough a few times,” Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella said. “It caused us to scope him and we found an entrapped epiglottis. We can't fix it this week, so we'll have to have a procedure done in a few days and probably be out of training for three weeks. We'll have to figure out a whole new game plan.”

With the scratch of Omaha Beach, also-eligible Bodexpress (Bodemeister), second in the GI Xpressbet Florida Derby at 71-1, draws into the Kentucky Derby starting gate and will break from post 20.

Omaha Beach's “horse to beat” status had come as the well-bred colt rode a three-race win streak towards the first Saturday in May. After breaking through with a nine-length romp in the Santa Anita slop Feb. 2, he stretched back out to defeat champion Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) in a division of the GII Rebel S. and then defeated another formidable Bob Baffert trainee in the form of Improbable (City Zip)
in the GI Arkansas Derby.

 

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