Kentucky Derby Update: Silent Tactic Scratched, Great White Draws In
A stubborn left front foot issue has sidelined Silent Tactic from the Derby. Great White draws into the race as a 50-1 longshot with much to prove. But he's a big boy.
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY - APRIL 26: Silent Tactic trains on the track during morning workouts ahead of the running of the 152nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on April 26, 2026 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) Getty Images It’s an unfortunate metric of the long rough odyssey that every successful Kentucky Derby contender must run to get to the big May show at Churchill that there are, inevitably, race-week scratches. Said more positively, it’s a metric of the ultra-microscopic veterinary care under which the athletes prepare for the race that, in Silent Tactic’s case, a long-running left front foot bruise stubbornly flared enough early this week to the point that trainer Mark Casse and his team decided to pull the plug on this year’s campaign.
Pictured above in morning training at Churchill on Sunday, April 26, three days before Casse announced the scratch on April 29, Silent Tactic will pull out of the field. Casse said, “It’s a bruise that he’s dealt with for a long time. Just not 100 percent happy with it.
It’s very slight, but you can’t run in the Derby and not be 100 percent. So, we’re going to work on it and hope to try to make the Preakness. ” As after every scratch, and particularly in the Derby with its large field, there is a follow-on moment of musical chairs.
Since Silent Tactic was breaking from stall 13, the seven horses to his right — from Potente out to Fulleffort — all move in. The highest-ranked alternate entry, Great White, trained by John Ennis, draws into the race in stall No. 20.