Right to Party scratched from Kentucky Derby, Robusta draws in amid vet scrutiny

Right to Party’s Kentucky Derby dream ended on race morning, and the fallout reached far beyond one scratched colt. State regulatory veterinarians took Kenny McPeek’s runner out of the 152nd Derby on Friday morning, a move that pushed Calumet Farm’s Robusta from the also-eligible list into the main field and shifted Incredibolt over to post 10.

The change landed less than 24 hours before Saturday’s race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, when the field was already locked in the public imagination and on betting tickets. Right to Party had earned his way in with 65 qualifying points, including 50 for a runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct on April 4 and 15 more from a third in the Gotham Stakes. He had been listed as a 30-1 longshot, while Robusta came in at 50-1 after drawing in.

McPeek said the vets told him Right to Party had been “lame all week,” but he pushed back hard, arguing the colt’s imaging did not justify the scratch. He said the horse’s PET scan showed “more severe than average” remodeling in the medial palmar condyles, yet the report also said the finding was “most likely not associated with an increased risk for breakdown” and that there was “no contraindication to racing” pending clinical signs. McPeek said officials also objected to the way the horse jogged and believed he might be “coming up with a condylar.” He added that Right to Party had never been injected or had surgery.

The scratch turned into a broader indictment of Kentucky’s regulatory climate. McPeek said the state has become more aggressive than New York, Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana, and pointed to recent numbers from Keeneland, where he said 11 horses were scratched on the final day of its meet and 10 the day before. He said regulatory vet scratches have risen from one a day five years ago to about five a day now, a pace he believes has strained trust between horsemen and officials.

The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation said it cannot comment on an individual scratch, but said horse safety and well-being remain central to its work and that it continues to monitor scratch data and work with HISA, HIWU, trainers and attending veterinarians. For Right to Party’s camp, the change was immediate and personal: Christopher Elliott was set to make his Derby debut aboard the colt, and McPeek said the decision underscored how much control race-day vets now hold over the biggest betting race in America.