Right To Party was scratched from the GI Kentucky Derby on Friday morning by state regulatory veterinarians, and Robusta will take his place in the Churchill Downs starting gate on Saturday. The decision came after veterinarians earlier in the week asked for X-rays and then a PET scan for the horse, who was the runner-up in the GII Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct.
Trainer Kenny McPeek said Right To Party had been lame all week. He said he was told the horse should be X-rayed, then later sent for a PET scan, and that he gave TDN a copy of the results. The PET-scan comments said the most significant finding was bilateral remodeling of the medial palmar condyles, a change described as common in racehorses and most likely not linked to a higher risk of breakdown. The same comments said there was no contraindication to racing based on the current 18F-NaF PET scans.
McPeek, who won the 2024 Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan, said he thought the horse was fine after the imaging. He said the state’s veterinarians did not like the way Right To Party moved, but argued the colt has been steady and is not a catastrophe waiting to happen. “They said he was lame all week,” McPeek said. “I thought after the X-ray and the scan, we were fine.”
The scratch also fit into a broader complaint McPeek has made about how often horses are being pulled from races in Kentucky. He said there were 11 horses scratched on the last day of the Keeneland meet and 10 horses scratched one day earlier, adding that a study he had seen showed one regulatory vet scratch a day five years ago and now there are five. “It’s gotten way out of balance,” he said.
McPeek said he feels badly for owner Chester Broman, and he cast the issue as one that reaches beyond a single Derby entrant. Right To Party was not only a high-profile starter; he was also a major player on the strength of his runner-up finish in the Wood Memorial. Now the colt goes to the sidelines, Robusta moves in, and the fight shifts to how Kentucky’s regulatory vets are drawing the line before the race even starts.