Features

Cold morning, rainy morning, sunny morning, warm morning. Wednesday offered a little bit of everything out at Churchill Downs.

The track was waterlogged from intermittent rain throughout the night – occasionally coming down quite hard – but it didn’t deter any of the connections of the contenders for the 140th Kentucky Derby and others from getting out and about.

They had plenty to say, too.

 Icabad Crane has passed all the tests.  It’s no longer a question of “Can he?” or “Will he?” get the hang of his new career in combined training – he’s proven his ability and his affinity for the job.  Now back at Phillip Dutton’s farm in West Grove, Pa., Icabad Crane is considered by the trainer to be “well ahead of the curve.” 

Here’s your Here and There for April 8. A little from Dogwood Classic, Stoneybrook, Saratoga, leftovers from Cheltenham and some other random notes, quips and quotes from the Internet and the hay net.

Icabad Crane had a busy week. On Wednesday, he returned to trainer Phillip Dutton’s West Grove, Pa., base after spending the past three months at Dutton’s winter quarters in Aiken, S.C. But while the horse headed south at the beginning of the year as an eventing prospect, he returns as a winner.