Defending winner and two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan and 2014 champion turf male Main Sequence are among 74 horses on the list of early nominees to the $500,000 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.
The 1-1/8-mile turf race for 4-year-olds and older is set to run May 2 on the Kentucky Derby undercard and is scheduled to be televised as part of NBC's broadcast of the 141st running of the Derby.
Mort Fink's homebred Wise Dan held-off Juddmonte Farm's homebred Seek Again to win the 2014 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, one of four wins from as many starts last year and of 15th of 16 turf outings during his stellar career. Last year's Woodford Reserve victory enabled Wise Dan to join Einstein (2008-09) as the race's only two-time winners.
Should Wise Dan be entered in this year's renewal of the race, he would seek an unprecedented third straight victory -- and a record third win overall -- in the prestigious event, which is positioned each year as the race that immediately precedes the Kentucky Derby.
Flaxman Holdings' Main Sequence, who started his career in England and is unbeaten in five stakes since his stateside debut last July, completed his championship season with a victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf. Trained by Graham Motion, the 6-year-old son of Aldebaran opened his 2015 campaign with a victory in the Mac Diarmida Feb. 15 at Gulfstream Park.
Among other nominees is Seek Again as well as Donegal Racing and Rockingham Ranch's 2014 Hollywood Turf Cup victor Finnegans Wake, Phipps Stable's 2015 Man o' War Stakes winner Imagining, Terry Hamilton's two-time Grade 3 winner Heart to Heart, and David Heerensperger and Jose Nelson's Argentine champion and U.S. Grade 1 winner Winning Prize.