THE Road to The Kentucky Derby may be an especially long one this year, but a few of the three-year-old colts have been pushing themselves towards the front of the grid for when the time comes.

Tiz The Law (117) and Authentic (115) laid down markers in March by winning the Grade 1 Florida Derby and the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita respectively. Ete Indien (115) is better than his third to the former suggests.

Oaklawn Park ran two divisions of the Arkansas Derby last Saturday, and they were won by leading contenders for Churchill Downs.

Charlatan won by twice as far (six lengths) as Nadal, but the latter posted a 0.15s faster time while carrying 4lb more and edges things on 119 compared to Charlatan’s 116. Both divisions had finishing speed percentages below 95, indicating that they were strongly-run.

A typical Kentucky Derby winner would run to about 120, but this year’s race, if/when it takes place, will not be typical at all and it remains to be seen if more (or possibly less) will be required.

Japan has managed to run their equivalent of the 1000 Guineas at Hanshin, won by Daring Tact with a figure in the region of 113, and 2000 Guineas at Nakayama, won by Contrail at around 116.

Japanese racing was one of the success stories of 2019 – when they had the second-highest number of horses in the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings (alongside Britain and behind only the US) – and their relatively uninterrupted fixture list in 2020 (so far) could see them consolidate further among horse racing’s superpowers.