Probable Kentucky Derby Betting Favorite Eskendereya Out Of Race

The state of Kentucky has fallen on hard financial times over the past couple of years, and the horse racing industry has felt the effects. This past weekend, for the second straight year, the storied Kentucky Derby lost their probable betting favorite.

Eskendereya will now follow in the footsteps of I Want Revenge and sit the race out due to injury. I Want Revenge, the morning-line favorite, was scratched the day of the race. For Eskendereya and horse racing fans everywhere, the bad news came a week earlier this year.

The colt was expected to compete for the Triple Crown, something that has not been achieved in over thirty years. On Sunday, however, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed the racing industy's worst fear that Eskendereya could not run this week. The colt had swelling from his knee to his ankle after a training session run on Saturday.

"We were still kind of hoping for a miracle overnight, and we didn't get it," said Pletcher on Sunday. "We looked at and worked on it overnight but didn't see any improvement. He's too special of a horse to take any chances."

Pletcher will still have a chance to win his first Derby with several other horses entered in the race. The usual suspects of Bob Baffert, D. Wayne Lucas, and Nick Zito will all have horses running in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Lookin at Lucky is the horse with the most career earnings, but several other horses have a chance to be the favorite in the deep field. Check back with CGW throughout the week for updated betting odds and other information on horse racing's biggest day of the year.

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