Grade 2 Louisiana Derby winner Emerging Market exited a 10th-place finish in the Kentucky Derby without his left front shoe.
Making just his third start, the son of Candy Ride and jockey Flavien Prat ran in fifth- and sixth-place during the early stages of the 1 ¼-mile race, before flattening out on the home turn to be beaten 7 ¾ lengths by Golden Tempo.
Brown said discussions with Prat after the race led him to the conclusion that Emerging Market lost his left front shoe as the field bunched up in the first turn.
“Down the backside, the horse didn't feel quite as he had felt for him in the previous start,” trainer Chad Brown said during a National Thoroughbred Racing Association media teleconference on May 8.
Emerging Market is back in training at Saratoga and is under consideration for the 1 ¼-mile Belmont Stakes on June 6.
“My plan is to give him the opportunity to get to the Belmont; we'll see how he works in between now and then,” Brown said.
Emerging Market won his debut by three-quarters of a length over Powershift at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 7. Powershift was the workmate for Kentucky Derby runner-up Renegade and broke his maiden on the Kentucky Derby undercard.
In the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds on March 21 – Emerging Market’s second start – the colt prevailed by a head under Prat after a stretch-long duel with Pavlovian, who finished last in the Kentucky Derby.
Campaigned by Klaravich Stables, Emerging Market was a $185,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase. Emerging Market is out of the Empire Maker mare Wild Empress, a half-sister to the 2009 Eclipse champion 2-year-old filly She Be Wild.
This story was originally published by Paulick Report on May 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Paulick Report as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
