Morning-line favorite Omaha Beach will be scratched from Saturday’s 145th running of the Kentucky Derby due to an entrapped epiglottis, Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella said late Wednesday afternoon.
“After training this morning we noticed him cough a few times,” Mandella said. “It caused us to scope him and we found an entrapped epiglottis. We can’t fix it this week so we’ll have to have a procedure done in a few days and probably be out of training for three weeks. We’ll have to figure out a whole new game plan.”
The epiglottis is a triangular-shaped cartilage that lies at the base of the airway just in front of the arytenoid cartilages which cover the airway during swallowing. When an abnormality occurs in this area it can hinder the performance of horses.
Mandella will meet with the media at 8 a.m. EDT Thursday at Barn 28 to further discuss the development.
The scratch of Omaha Beach allows Bodexpress to draw into the field and break from post 20. All horses outside of Omaha Beach (posts 13-20) will move over one position in the starting gate.
