Protective Measure Is Taken for Unbridled’s Song

Unbridled’s Song, the favorite for next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, wore a supportive bar shoe for a 1 3/4-mile gallop around Churchill Downs Saturday, but his trainer, Jim Ryerson, said that the colt’s training hasn’t been compromised.

“We couldn’t be happier with the way he has trained,” said Ryerson, who has had his horse fitted with a regular shoe for workouts.

Unbridled’s Song kicked himself in the left foreleg while winning the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Ryerson said that Unbridled’s Song has missed no training. He is scheduled to work half a mile on either Tuesday or Wednesday. A hyperactive colt, Unbridled’s Song was introduced to the Churchill Downs paddock before Saturday’s races.

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Before a crowd of about 17,000, about 100,000 less than the turnout expected next Saturday, Valid Expectations won the $100,000 Derby Trial by 4 1/2 lengths over Great Southern, with Storm Creek finishing third. With Semoran, a Derby probable, being scratched, none of the 10 starters is expected to run back in the Derby. Trainer Wayne Lukas, who already had five horses scheduled to run in the Derby, ran three in the Trial and the best of them was Wavering Warrior, who was fourth. Lukas’ other two horses, Hit The Roof and Dixie Connection, were the last two finishers.

Semoran, who was to have been ridden by Martin Pedroza in the Trial, will be ridden in the Derby by Russell Baze, who is getting his first Derby mount. Baze has ridden the colt three times, including a victory in the Remington Park Derby and a sixth-place finish in the Blue Grass Stakes.