Clockwork

Clockwork was foaled in Templeton, California, a quiet town in San Luis Obispo County where vineyards and horse farms share the same rolling hills above the Pacific coastline. He has had only four career starts — an unusually small number for a Derby contender — which is either a sign of hidden depth or a sign of a horse who has not yet been fully tested.

His pedigree is distinguished. Pioneerof the Nile is the sire of American Pharoah — the 2015 Triple Crown champion and arguably the most celebrated horse of the past quarter-century. The connection is not metaphorical: Clockwork's sire actually produced the horse that ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought. If American Pharoah's pedigree can produce classic dominance, then Pioneerof the Nile's other offspring deserve respect at Derby distance.

Synchronized, the dam by Empire Maker, adds another layer of classic distance credentials. Empire Maker was a Belmont Stakes winner who was controversially not Triple Crown-eligible due to an injury before the Preakness. His daughters are among the most valued broodmares in American racing, producing horses with robust constitutions and the kind of mental toughness that comes out in long races.

Four starts. Three wins. One close second in the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. Clockwork has not had the prep race volume that most Derby horses accumulate, and the question everyone asks is: does that matter? Neil Drysdale believes it does not. He rarely speaks publicly about his training philosophy, but the horses he sends to the track are invariably well-prepared. Clockwork is here because Drysdale decided he was ready.

Neil Drysdale was born in London, England, and came to American racing via the British system — which tends to produce trainers who think differently about pace, conditioning, and race planning than their American counterparts. He settled in California and became one of the most respected, and most reclusive, trainers in the sport.

His credentials are impeccable. He trained A.P. Indy — the 1992 Belmont Stakes winner and Horse of the Year, one of the most influential sires in American thoroughbred history. He trained Fusaichi Pegasus to win the 2000 Kentucky Derby at even money, one of the most impressive performances by a Derby favorite in the modern era. He has trained Breeders' Cup winners and champions across multiple disciplines.

What Drysdale does not do is talk about it. He is famously guarded about his training methods, his horses' morning work patterns, and his race-day strategy. He almost never gives interviews. When he does speak, it is briefly and without the theatrical self-promotion that characterizes many of the sport's biggest names.

His horses simply show up ready. They have been conditioned methodically, pointed at the right targets, and brought to the track on the day they are at their best. With Clockwork — a lightly raced horse by a sire who produced American Pharoah — Drysdale has been holding his cards close. No one outside his barn truly knows what Clockwork is capable of. That is exactly how Drysdale prefers it.

Kent Desormeaux was born in Maurice, Louisiana, a small Cajun community in Vermilion Parish where French is still spoken in some households and the bayous run close to the road. He grew up in the culture of south Louisiana — the music, the food, the kind of communal warmth that shapes people who carry it with them wherever they go. He carried it to the racetrack, and it made him one of the most beloved figures in American racing.

He won the Kentucky Derby three times: in 1988 on Winning Colors (the legendary filly who led wire to wire), in 1998 on Real Quiet (who came within a nostril of the Triple Crown, caught at the wire of the Belmont), and in 2008 on Big Brown (who won the Derby and Preakness before finishing last in the Belmont in one of racing's great mysteries). Three Derby wins place him among the immortals of the riding profession.

He is now 56 years old, riding as a freelance journeyman after years away from the elite level. His body has the miles of a man who has ridden tens of thousands of races. His mind has the experience of someone who has been in the Derby paddock three times and won. A fourth win would tie him with Eddie Arcaro — the "Maestro," the most celebrated jockey in American history — for the most Derby victories in modern times.

Desormeaux says this is not about records. He says he rides Clockwork because Drysdale called, because the horse is interesting, because he still loves the feel of a good horse under him at Churchill Downs in May. But everyone who watches him knows: Kent Desormeaux has unfinished business with the Kentucky Derby.

Hollywood Park Breeders is a partnership of families whose wealth traces back to the original investors in Hollywood Park Racetrack — the storied Los Angeles track that opened in 1938 and closed in 2013. Hollywood Park was where Seabiscuit raced, where the great California horses of the 1940s through 1980s competed, where racing was glamorous and movie stars sat in the boxes and the weather was always perfect.

When Hollywood Park closed, the families who had been involved since the beginning remained in thoroughbred racing through their breeding operation. They have maintained relationships with elite trainers — including Neil Drysdale — and have produced horses of genuine quality without the fanfare of the bigger modern operations.

Clockwork represents their most significant Derby entry in years. For the descendants of Hollywood Park's original investors, sending a horse to Churchill Downs is a way of honoring what came before — of maintaining a connection to the sport in its most spectacular form. They will be at Churchill Downs today, carrying the history of California racing with them.