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Before Master Fencer, Japan's last Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve Gr.1 participant, competed in the 2019 classic, the colt was quarantined in Chicago before traveling to Keeneland and later Churchill Downs.
This year's Japanese representative, Teruya Yoshida's Crown Pride, has taken an earlier and more direct path, having already flown to the United States from Dubai, where he captured the UAE Derby Sponsored by Mubadala Gr.2 at Meydan on March 26. He arrived at Churchill's quarantine facility on March 30 and could clear his 42-hour quarantine by 8 a.m. April 1.
Epicenter and Zozos, the 1-2 finishers from the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2), became the first Derby prospects on the Churchill Downs backstretch when they rolled into the Louisville, Ky., racetrack on March 29. The Derby is May 7.
According to Darren Rogers, Churchill Downs' senior director for communications and media services, Crown Pride is the first horse to stable in the track's quarantine barns for an intended race. The barns, built the winter before the 2020 spring meet, have already stabled foreign horses headed to sales, Rogers indicated.