LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After a seemingly quiet fortnight, the Kentucky Derby field underwent significant changes over the 48 hours leading up to the race. Four of the original 23 horses entered have been scratched – Practical Move, Lord Miles, Continuar, and Skinner – and questions began to surface Thursday about the status of favored Forte. Forte, last year’s 2-year-old champion, seemed to put any rumors about his welfare for the 149th Kentucky Derby to rest with a good-looking gallop Friday morning at Churchill Downs. He did wear a three-quarter shoe on his right front foot, but he got over the ground fine and trainer Todd Pletcher seems confident he’ll run and run well. “He’s shown up and run well every start of his life,” Pletcher said Friday after Forte galloped. “I would expect no different from him.” Pletcher has been bringing horses to the Kentucky Derby for more than two decades. His 62 starters are a record. His 22 Kentucky Derby appearances are second only to his former boss and mentor D. Wayne Lukas (29). He has won the race twice. Never, though, has Pletcher brought to the world’s most famous horse race as accomplished a group as he does this year. Forte, a four-time Grade 1 winner and the 2-year-old champion of 2022, is 6 for 7 with four Grade 1 stakes wins. Tapit Trice is 4 for 5 with victories in the Grade 1 Blue Grass and Grade 3 Tampa Bay Derby. Kingsbarns is 3 for 3 after winning the Grade 2 Louisiana Derby. “You could say it’s the deepest squad we’ve brought so far,” Pletcher acknowledged. Forte is the morning-line favorite in the $3 million race, Tapit Trice the second choice. Should they go off the first and second choices, it will be the first time since 2015 that one trainer sent out the two top choices in the Derby. That year, Bob Baffert finished first and third with American Pharoah and Dortmund, respectively. Pletcher has run one favorite in the 1 1/4-mile Derby, Always Dreaming, who won in 2017. Super Saver was 8-1 when he won for Pletcher in 2010. Forte won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last fall following a hard-fought victory four weeks earlier in the Breeders’ Futurity. This year, following an easy triumph in the Fountain of Youth, Forte had a tough race, overcoming post 11 and a worthy foe in Mage to win the Grade 1 Florida Derby by one length. In the five weeks since, Pletcher has seen nothing but positive signs from the son of Violence. “He doesn’t always tout himself every morning, he just kind of comes out here and does his job, but you can tell the way he looks, the way he’s maintained his weight, his appetite, his energy level, everything looks just the way you want with him at this stage,” Pletcher said. Forte, owned by Mike Repole and Vinnie and Teresa Viola’s St. Elias Stable, will look to give jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. his first Kentucky Derby victory in what will be his seventh ride. Tapit Trice, a strapping gray son of Tapit, has a tendency to get away slow from the gate. His talent and tenacity is unquestioned, though, and jockey Luis Saez is a perfect fit for this horse who needs to be ridden hard for an extended time. The biggest concern regarding Kingsbarns is his inexperience. Justify (2018) and Big Brown (2008) are the only two horses in the last 107 years to win the Derby off just three starts. “He’s displayed the talent level,” Pletcher said. “He’s got a win at a mile and three-sixteenths. It’s just a matter of whether he has enough experience in a big group like this.” The group took a significant change with four scratches in a 24-hour period, which took the field down from 23 to 19. On Thursday, Santa Anita Derby winner Practical Move, Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles, and longshot Continuar all scratched. On Friday, Skinner, the Santa Anita Derby third-place finisher, scratched due to an elevated temperature. Practical Move was scratched due to a temperature. Lord Miles was scratched as the result of trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. being requested by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to scratch all of his starters here due to the sudden death of two of his horses earlier this week at Churchill. Continuar scratched due to his connections not being happy with his fitness level. Those scratches opened the door for Cyclone Mischief, third-place finisher in the Florida Derby; Mandarin Hero, the Santa Anita Derby runner-up; and King Russell, the Arkansas Derby runner-up; to get into the field.  :: Get the full DRF Kentucky Derby Clocker Report by Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team Brad Cox sends out four horses of which Angel of Empire, winner of the Grade 2 Risen Star at Fair Grounds and the Grade 1 Arkansas Derby, may rate the best chance. “If you had asked me in November, December if he was a Derby horse, I would have said he needs to do more,” Cox said. “But guess what? He did do more and he got better the farther he went.” Angel of Empire will be ridden by Flavien Prat. Hit Show, the Withers winner and Wood Memorial runner-up, and Verifying, beaten a neck by Tapit Trice in the Blue Grass, drew posts 1 and 2, respectively, for Cox. Veryifing has a bit more speed than Hit Show and could use it to be a forward factor in a race where the pace is not easy to define. Jace’s Road, Cox’s other entrant, was well-beaten in the Southwest and Louisiana Derby. The wild card of this year’s Kentucky Derby is Derma Sotogake, who looks to give Japan its first victory in this race. In recent years, Japan-based horses have enjoyed great success internationally, winning two Breeders’ Cup races in 2021 at Del Mar, the Saudi Cup, and Dubai World Cup. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on PPs, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Derma Sotogake, a son of sprint specialist Mind Your Biscuits, was most impressive winning the UAE Derby by 5 1/2 lengths in front-running fashion. He has shown the ability to win from on or off the pace. In an April 26 workout at Churchill, Derma Sotogake started five lengths behind Continuar and finished the work in front. In discussing Derma Sotogake’s April 26 move, Masanari Tanaka, the assistant to trainer Hidetaka Otonashi, said through an interpreter he was impressed “with the way he was able to extend himself and switch on that speed so quickly. It was something I hadn’t seen before, that abrupt change of pace. I was really pleased to see that turn of foot.” Fellow Japan-based Mandarin Hero becomes an intriguing runner now for trainer Terunobu Fujita. In Japan, Mandarin Hero won all four of his starts at 2. In two starts this year, he was beaten a neck in a stakes in Japan before getting beat a nose by Practical Move in the Santa Anita Derby. Though he had to scratch Practical Move, trainer Tim Yakteen will still run Reincarnate. Though based in California, Reincarnate but made his two starts at 3 at Oaklawn in the Rebel and Arkansas Derby.  Reincarnate was formerly trained by Bob Baffert, who is serving out the second year of his two-year ban from Churchill, owing to the overage of a therapeutic medication found in Medina Spirit after he crossed the finish line first in the 2021 Kentucky Derby. Reincarnate has the speed to be effective from the start under John Velazquez, a three-time Kentucky Derby winner. Confidence Game has caught the eye in his training this week at Churchill Downs. He is attempting to win the Kentucky Derby off a 10-week layoff, or since he won the Rebel Stakes on Feb. 25 at Oaklawn. Two Phil’s won the Jeff Ruby Steaks over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface impressively and has run well enough on dirt to be a factor. Mage, another who has gate issues, was second to Forte in the Florida Derby in just his third career start. Raise Cain won the Grade 3 Gotham, a race that hasn’t produced a Kentucky Derby winner since Secretariat 50 years ago. Sun Thunder, trained by Kenny McPeek, and Rocket Can, trained by Bill Mott, are both adding blinkers for the Derby. The Kentucky Derby goes as race 12 on a terrific 14-race card that begins at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and includes nine stakes. NBC Sports will provide day-long coverage with Derby post slated for 6:57 p.m. Rain that had been forecast during the week is now out of the forecast for Saturday. The forecast now calls for abundant sunshine and temperatures in the upper 70s. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.