Right To Party was scratched from the GI Kentucky Derby by state regulatory veterinarians on Friday morning, and Robusta will take the colt’s place in the Churchill Downs starting gate on Saturday. Trainer Kenny McPeek, who won the 2024 Kentucky Derby with Mystik Dan, said the horse had been lame all week.
McPeek said Right To Party had never been medicated, injected or had surgery, and said veterinarians first asked for X-rays earlier in the week before requesting a PET scan. He said the scan comments identified bilateral remodeling of the medial palmar condyles as the most significant finding, calling it more severe than average and potentially responsible for the clinical signs, while also saying it was most likely not linked to an increased risk for breakdown and offered no contraindication to racing based on the current 18F-NaF PET scans pending clinical signs.
Right To Party was coming off a runner-up finish in the GII Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct, which had put him on the path to Saturday’s race. McPeek said he had become increasingly uneasy about what he sees as a rising number of regulatory scratches in Kentucky, pointing to 11 horses scratched on the last day of the Keeneland meet and 10 more one day earlier. He said a study showed the state had gone from one regulatory vet scratch a day five years ago to five now.
The trainer said the issue reaches beyond his own barn and beyond this Derby. “Why didn’t they call it before everyone got here?” he said, adding, “We’re not dealing with this in New York.” He also said, “This type of extreme doesn’t exist in Florida, or Louisiana. Only Kentucky.”
For McPeek, who already has a Derby victory on his résumé, the frustration is aimed less at one scratch than at a system he says is getting harder to navigate. “I’m sorry for Mr. Broman. It doesn’t affect me. I’ve had my glory, but what I’m concerned about is the state of the industry and how we can continue like this,” he said.
Robusta now gets the Derby call, and that makes Saturday’s race another test not just of a horse’s form, but of how aggressively Kentucky regulators are drawing the line before the gates open.
