The Puma has been scratched from the 152nd Kentucky Derby. Churchill Downs officials confirmed the scratch on Saturday morning May 2, 2026, less than 12 hours before the 6:57 PM Eastern post time. The reason is a swollen leg caused by a skin infection.
Trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. delivered the news directly. “We discovered some swelling in his leg due to a skin infection. It’s incredibly disappointing, but the swelling should go down within a day or two. It’s just really bad timing.”
The Puma is being treated with antibiotics and is expected to resume training soon. He is not in danger. He simply will not be in the starting gate tonight.
The scratch came past Friday’s deadline for horses on the also-eligible list to draw into the field. Corona de Oro, the next horse in line, will not get a chance to replace him. The Kentucky Derby runs with 19 horses instead of the maximum 20.
Why This Changes The Outlook Of Tonight’s Race
The Puma was not a longshot. He arrived at Churchill Downs having opened at 10-1 on the morning line and been bet down to 7-1 or 8-1 by Friday as money moved toward him throughout Derby week.
At various points he had been installed as a co-favorite alongside or ahead of Renegade, the official morning-line favorite who had seen his own odds drift after drawing the No. 1 post position, the most difficult draw in the field.
The Puma won the Tampa Bay Derby on March 7, edging Further Ado by a nose. He then ran in the Florida Derby three weeks later and lost by a nose to Commandment.
Both performances established him as a horse capable of racing at the very front of a competitive field without fading, a horse who could disrupt whatever plan the favorites had made for themselves.
The Delgado father-son training team had won this race before, in 2023 with Mage, using the same jockey in Javier Castellano who was set to ride The Puma today.
A second Derby win for the Delgados is now on hold.
What The Scratch Means For The Rest Of The Field
Removing The Puma from a 20-horse field of this quality reshapes several things simultaneously.
Further Ado in Post 18, trained by Brad Cox and ridden by three-time Derby winner John Velazquez, immediately gains ground in the market. The Puma beat Further Ado by a nose in Tampa.
Velazquez now arrives without the horse who beat his in their most recent head-to-head as a direct competitor in the gate. Further Ado’s supporters will feel the morning has already gone their way.
Renegade in Post 1 reasserts sole leadership of the morning line. Renegade is trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr.
He won the Sam F. Davis Stakes and the Arkansas Derby and arrives as the consensus choice for the top of the market heading into post time. The field around him has thinned by one genuine threat.
So Happy in Post 8 and Commandment in Post 6 both shift slightly upward in the calculation.
So Happy at approximately 5-1 and Commandment at 5-1 now fill the vacuum that The Puma’s exit creates in the tier just below the very top of the market.
Chief Wallabee in Post 12 remains the most interesting tactical choice on the card.
Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, the exact combination that won the 2025 Kentucky Derby with Sovereignty and then won the 2025 Belmont Stakes, Chief Wallabee at approximately 8-1 carries the weight of a defending trainer-jockey partnership that knows how to win this specific race.
Danon Bourbon in Post 7, the undefeated Japanese-bred entry, also benefits marginally from the reduction in field size.
One fewer competitor in a 1¼-mile race is one fewer variable to navigate, and Danon Bourbon’s undefeated record earned before his trainer and jockey made the journey from Japan becomes a marginally easier argument to make with 19 opponents instead of 20.
The Delgados And What They Were Chasing
Gustavo Delgado Sr. and Gustavo Delgado Jr. won the 2023 Kentucky Derby with Mage under Javier Castellano.
That win was the culmination of a training partnership that had developed Mage quietly through the prep season and arrived at Churchill Downs as a horse most of the country underestimated.
They had done something similar with The Puma. The horse opened at 10-1 and was bet down steadily throughout Derby week as people who watched the Tampa Bay Derby and the Florida Derby recognized what the price did not yet reflect.
By Friday, 7-1 to 8-1 was where the smart money had landed.
A skin infection cost them the morning. It cost them the field position. It cost them the chance to stand in the winner’s circle for the second time in four years.
“It’s just really bad timing,” Delgado Jr. said. It is an understatement of almost comic proportions, the timing of a skin infection that could have arrived a week earlier or a week later but arrived today.
The horse will be fine. The Derby will run without him.
The Fourth Scratch Of Derby Week
The Puma is the fourth horse to be scratched from the 2026 Kentucky Derby since last Saturday’s post position draw.
Silent Tactic was first, withdrawn with a minor foot bruise, trainer Mark Casse said he would point toward the Preakness on May 16 instead.
Silent Tactic had finished first or second in all six career starts. Fulleffort followed, scratched due to a chipped left hind ankle. Right to Party scratched as well.
Three of those four scratches happened early enough for alternates to draw into the field, Great White replaced Silent Tactic, Robusta replaced Right to Party, and Ocelli replaced Fulleffort.
The Puma’s scratch came past Friday’s deadline. No one drew in.
This is the sixth time in the past eight years where the Kentucky Derby has run with fewer than 20 horses.
The maximum field size has been 20 since 1975 and reaching it has become increasingly uncommon as the economics of racing and the health of individual horses at the end of a long prep season create inevitable attrition.
When Does The Kentucky Derby Start?
Post time is 6:57 PM Eastern. NBC’s coverage begins at 2:30 PM. Peacock’s coverage begins at noon.
Nineteen horses will load into the gate. The favorites Renegade, Commandment and So Happy at 5-1 each. Further Ado at 7-1. Chief Wallabee at 8-1. Danon Bourbon at 14-1.
The rest of the field working through their final preparation hours knowing that one of the horses they had been watching and accounting for in their plans will not be there when the gate opens.
The Puma will watch from somewhere other than the track. His leg will heal.
His connections will begin pointing toward the next race. And the 2026 Kentucky Derby will be decided without the Tampa Bay Derby winner, the horse that ran Commandment to a nose in the Florida Derby, and the horse that a training team which won this race in 2023 believed could win it again today.
