Louisville native Whit Beckman is approaching his second Kentucky Derby this year. What did he learn from saddling that first Derby starter last year?
“Don’t stress out about it,” Beckman said.
Those are brave words less than two weeks out from America’s most famous race. But Beckman has exuded relaxation outside his shed row at Churchill Downs, which currently houses not only 2025 Kentucky Derby candidate Flying Mohawk, but also Kentucky Oaks candidates Drexel Hill and Simply Joking.
In some important ways, Beckman, 43, will have much less stress than last year, when he was preparing for his Derby debut with Honor Marie. The trainer was hospitalized for five days – from Friday until the Tuesday of Derby week – with rhabdomyolysis, where damaged muscle tissue can release proteins into the blood. Despite lingering numbness in his legs upon returning to the backstretch, he was able to make the famous race-day walkover with Honor Marie to the Derby paddock, saddling the colt to an eighth-place finish.
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“There are certain things you want to control, you want to get ahead of, that you just can’t,” Beckman said of learning from his first Derby experience. “As you go through, you learn what’s really worth worrying about and what’s just part of it.”
Beckman will be much busier deciding what he has to worry about this week. Last year, he saddled four horses during the calendar week of the Derby. This year, he has almost that many for the Oaks and Derby alone, let alone weekday or undercard races. One thing he hasn’t had to worry about is having suitable workmates for his horses, something he said was an unexpected hurdle when he hung out his own shingle and had only a small stable in 2021. Most recently, Drexel Hill and Simply Joking have been breezing in company, while Flying Mohawk, who earned his Derby spot with a runner-up finish in the Jeff Ruby, is being shown the ropes by Honor Marie.
“You prepare, you can do everything you want, but the second those gates open, everything is out of your control,” Beckman said. “They can get slammed or jostled. At the end of the day, you just process, execute, get everything as ready as you can. And then the rest of it is up to those universal forces that move things.”
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