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LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) — Churchill Downs today released plans for a dramatically different qualifying process for the Kentucky Derby, taking a page from NASCAR and the PGA to create a points system for reaching the Run for the Roses.

Calling it the “Road to the Kentucky Derby,” race officials say they’re hoping it will be more understandable for fans accustomed to following leagues and standings.

The new system should shake up what had become set strategies for reaching the race, and does streamline the route to the Derby by limiting the number of “points” races to 36. Previously, earnings from 185 graded-stakes determined the field.

The new points system is a historic departure from the way fields have been determined. But it’s not necessarily easier to understand. In fact, on its face, it may be more difficult for the casual fan to understand than the system already in place.

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There’s nothing wrong with wanting to lead. But it’s hard to do if nobody follows.

Wednesday, the Kentucky Racing Commission drew a line in the sand (or dirt, or polytrack). Out of a desire to make Kentucky a leader in reform of race-day medication in horse racing, the state’s racing commission voted 7-5 to phase in a ban of the anti-bleeding medication furosemide in graded stakes races and those races eligible to become graded stakes.

There’s nothing wrong with leading. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to reduce the amount of race-day medication given to horses.

But two rights sometimes can make a wrong. And if Kentucky thinks a ban on the diuretic commonly referred to as Lasix will cause other state commissions to do the same, it’s making a losing bet.

That line in the sand? When Kentucky says, “Who’s with us?” it’s hard to see where any other states have any incentive to join Kentucky in stepping over it.

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We will not have another.

Not another Triple Crown winner this year, anyway. Doug O’Neill, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another, will announce at a press conference at 1 p.m. that the colt will not run in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, making him the third Triple Crown candidate to miss the final jewel in the chase.

Burgoo King in 1932 and Bold Venture in 1936 are the others.

O’Neill told The Dan Patrick Show that I’ll Have Another has developed “a problem with his left front leg.” Shortly after, he and trainer J. Paul Reddam announced in a news conference that the colt had developed a problem in his left front superficial tendon and would be retired.

Disappointment from the Triple Crown is nothing new, of course. I was in the process of writing about my last near-miss experience, covering Big Brown in 2008, when the news broke out of New York.

I have a dozen $2 win tickets somewhere in my office that friends asked me to buy for them when Big Brown was making his bid. I still remember all of you, and you all still owe me $2.

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