My teenage daughter, an unabashed figure-skating obsessive, clued me into Stars on Ice, though judging by the sold-out arenas, she was far from alone. Part athletic feat, part theatrical spectacle, the 40th anniversary tour has helped rekindle a kind of ice-skating fever in America, drawing longtime devotees and travelers turning performances into weekend getaways.

Increasingly, fans are following the tour the way music lovers follow concert circuits, hopping between cities for repeat fixes. “Fans are treating it more like a concert tour,” producer Byron Allen told me. He noted that some spectators now travel from Florida to the Carolinas to catch multiple performances, while others cross borders between the U.S. and Japan to see different casts perform. It’s a dramatic evolution for a show Allen founded in 1986 and one that has helped position Stars on Ice as a travel-worthy live event in its own right.

Fresh off one of Team USA’s strongest Winter Olympic showings ever, the timing feels especially electric. I spoke with Allen about the tour’s 40th anniversary, the rise of destination-style fandom, and how Stars on Ice is helping bring figure skating’s momentum to new audiences.

This is the 40th anniversary tour for Stars on Ice. What started in the U.S. has grown into tours in multiple countries annually. How do you think about the tour’s legacy and its place in figure skating culture?

As the only star-driven figure skating tour for at least the past decade and a half, Stars on Ice has become synonymous with the sport outside of competition. If you’re a figure skating fan, you know what Stars on Ice is.

More importantly, it’s where fans can experience the sport in a completely different way. They come to see their favorite skaters not just competing, but performing, individually and together. We’ve always believed the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that’s what audiences feel when they come to the show.

What does the Stars on Ice brand mean to fans today?

It’s the place where you can see the best skaters in the world in a more personal, entertaining environment. You’re not watching scores, you’re watching artistry, personality, and collaboration.

It’s also an experience. Fans know they’re going to see world-class talent, but they’re also going to be entertained in a way that goes beyond competition.

Stars on Ice travels across North America rather than staying in one place. How has that touring model helped reignite interest in figure skating in cities that might not otherwise experience it live?

We’re really the primary touchpoint for live figure skating in many markets.

In the U.S. and Canada, there are only a couple of major competitions each year. Outside of those, fans don’t have many opportunities to see these athletes in person. We bring the sport directly to them, and that’s incredibly important for maintaining and growing interest.

Are you seeing fans travel between cities to catch multiple performances, similar to how people follow concert tours or major sporting events?

We are, and more this year than we’ve seen in a while.

In Canada, that’s always been common because of how close some of the cities are. But this year in the U.S., we’ve had fans attend shows in Florida and then travel to the Carolinas to see the tour again. They’re treating it more like a concert tour, which is exciting to see.

With stops like UBS Arena, how does the choice of venue shape the experience for fans, especially those turning the show into a day or weekend trip?

Today’s arenas are designed to be destinations. They want fans to spend the day there, and they’ve enhanced everything from food to in-venue experiences to make that happen.

From our side, we’ve built a full-day experience around the show. Fans can arrive early for pre-show warmups, attend meet-and-greets, explore merchandise, and engage with the event in different ways before the performance even begins.

At the same time, we’re performing in cities that are already travel destinations. Whether it’s New York, Boston, or even smaller markets like Hershey, there’s a natural opportunity for fans to turn the show into part of a broader weekend experience.

Have certain cities or regions stood out in terms of demand, where the performances are starting to feel like destination events?

Yes, particularly the Northeast and the West Coast.

Cities like Boston, Saint Paul and San Jose have always had strong ties to figure skating, whether through major competitions or as training hubs. There’s a built-in audience there, and those markets tend to attract fans from surrounding areas as well.

For someone planning a trip around Stars on Ice, what kind of experience do you hope they build around the show? Do you see it as the centerpiece of a larger weekend that includes dining, culture, and entertainment?

We absolutely see the show as the centerpiece of a larger experience.

Over time, we’ve expanded the number of ways fans can engage with the tour, from pre-show access to Q&As to meet-and-greets. The goal is to deepen that connection and give fans more ways to interact with the skaters and the sport. It’s not just a performance anymore, it’s a full experience.

The lineup includes Olympic and world champions. How important is that level of talent in motivating fans to travel for a performance?

It’s everything.

Stars on Ice has always been synonymous with the best in figure skating, not just top competitive skaters, but also elite performers. Fans expect to see world champions, Olympic medalists, and the most compelling personalities in the sport.

What makes it special is how that talent is presented. It’s not just athleticism, it’s artistry and showmanship. The experience goes beyond competition and starts to feel closer to a Broadway production on ice.

Have you noticed a ripple effect in local skating communities, whether that is increased interest in rinks, lessons, or youth programs in the cities you visit?

Yes, and especially in Olympic years.

By working with organizations like U.S. Figure Skating, our goal is to help increase interest in figure skating, and that interest has increased significantly. The athletes coming out of the Olympics are incredible ambassadors for the sport. Stars on Ice takes that to the next level.

We work closely with local skating communities and clubs in each market. We have Learn to Skate booths on the concourse in each city, and we promote the local programs at each show. It is important to recognize and connect with young figure skaters as they are the foundation and the future of the sport.

Looking ahead, do you see opportunities to expand the tour’s reach, whether internationally or through more immersive experiences for traveling fans?

Domestically, we see opportunities to expand the number of dates as interest continues to grow. Internationally, there are markets where Stars on Ice could expand further, places like Korea or parts of Europe, where figure skating has a strong following.

We’re also continuing to enhance the fan experience. That’s been a major focus, finding new ways to make the event more immersive and engaging for audiences.

Is there any international crossover—fans traveling between countries to see the tour?

Yes, particularly between the U.S. and Japan.

We’ve seen increased interest from U.S. fans looking to attend shows in Japan, especially when the cast includes both top North American and Japanese skaters. And Japanese fans have long traveled to the U.S. and Canada for performances.

Part of that is the appeal of the destination, but part of it is the unique lineup and the opportunity to see these athletes perform together.

What makes this year’s tour stand out?

This is our biggest and best-selling tour in two decades.

We’re playing more shows across the U.S., Canada, and Japan than we have in years, and the response has been incredible. We’re also seeing record merchandise sales, which is a strong indicator of how engaged fans are—they want to take a piece of the experience home with them.

It all points to one thing: the excitement coming out of the Olympics isn’t fading, it’s growing. And Stars on Ice is helping carry that momentum forward.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

Until yesterday morning, stalwart Kentucky Derby trainer Brad Cox was doing a fair impression of a few trainers of old with three solid contenders studding the gate in the $5 million 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, but late on April 30, his outside horse, the fetching silvery roan colt Fulleffort, who won the one-and-an-eighth-mile Jeff Ruby Steaks for Cox with a time of 1:49.94, was out jogging Thursday morning and Cox thought he seemed to be favoring his left hind ankle. A swift subsequent X-ray found a bone chip in his left hind ankle. It will require surgery and will cause him to miss the Derby, the two subsequent Triple Crown races, and the rest of the summer.

“Main thing is he’s fine,” Cox said, while noting that the surgery would be minor, and that it was never good timing. “Easy decision to withdraw from the Derby. We’ll get that cleaned up and hopefully have a fresh horse for next fall.”

Fulleffort had been breaking from the 19th stall in the gate, having been moved in one stall from his original post of the 20-hole as Great White drew into the gate on April 28. Fulleffort’s saddle cloth number 20 will be retired. Great White now moves into Fulleffort’s stall 19, and Ocelli, trained by Whit Beckman, pulls into Great White’s outside post No. 20. As per the Churchill drill, Ocelli will run under saddle cloth number 22.

Below, the revised field for the 2026 Kentucky Derby. Note: revised post positions appear here in parentheses ONLY for those eight outside horses whose stalls and saddle cloths do not correspond. For the twelve inside horses whose saddle cloths and post positions still correspond, no change is made.

(Saddle Cloth, (Revised Post Position), Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Morning Line)

1) Renegade, Irad Ortiz Jr., Todd Pletcher, 4-1

2) Albus, Manny Franco, Riley Mott, 30-1

3) Intrepido, Hector Berrios, Jeff Mullins, 50-1

4) Litmus Test, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 30-1

5) Right To Party, Christopher Elliott, Kenny McPeek, 30-1

6) Commandment, Luis Saez, Brad Cox, 6-1

7) Danon Bourbon, Atsuya Nishimura, Manabu Ikezoe, 20-1

8) So Happy, Mike Smith, Mark Glatt, 15-1

9) The Puma, Javier Castellano, Gustavo Delgado, 10-1

10) Wonder Dean, Ryusei Sakai, Daisuke Takayanagi, 30-1

11) Incredibolt, Jaime Torres, Riley Mott, 20-1

12) Chief Wallabee, Junior Alvarado, William Mott, 8-1

13) SCRATCH Silent Tactic, Cristian Torres, Mark Casse, 20-1 SCRATCH

14) (13) Potente, Juan Hernandez, Bob Baffert, 20-1

15) (14) Emerging Market, Flavien Prat, Chad Brown, 15-1

16) (15) Pavlovian, Edwin Maldonado, Doug O'Neill, 30-1

17) (16) Six Speed, Brian Hernandez Jr., Bhupat Seemar, 50-1

18) (17) Further Ado, John Velasquez, Brad Cox, 6-1

19) (18) Golden Tempo, Jose Ortiz, Cherie DeVaux, 30-1

20) (19) SCRATCH Fulleffort, Tyler Gaffalione, Brad Cox, 20-1 SCRATCH

21) (19) Great White, Alex Achard, John Ennis, 50-1

22) (20) Ocelli, J. Ramos, Whit Beckman, 50-1

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

As Churchill’s sunny, outdoor post-position draw for the $5-million, 2026 Kentucky Derby got underway on April 25, there was a sociable background hum in the seating area as trainers, owners and the press met and greeted each other. But in the early going as leading unofficial backstretch favorite Renegade’s paper was pulled, and the horse received the dreaded Churchill stall on the rail, there was a sudden, noticeable silence. You could almost watch the thought race through the crowd: Thank God that wasn’t me.

And yet: minutes later, as Churchill’s new odds captain Nick Tammaro put through his very first Kentucky Derby morning line on the field, there was young Renegade as the top dog, at 4-1. Two questions: First, does stall No. 1 in the Churchill “new” 20-horse gate somehow not carry the “curse” of producing no Derby winners, even though it’s 0-6 since its debut in 2020? And, perhaps more importantly, second: What is it about Renegade (and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.) that makes Mr. Tammaro think that the dismal record of the post position — in the new gate or in the old 14-horse one — doesn’t matter?

In answer to the second question, as trainer Pletcher and part-owner Mike Repole (of Vitamin Water and Body Armor fame) have both given us to understand, the Churchill rail is what it is, and they will try to make the best of it. In the larger sense, Renegade’s late-running power surge to win the Arkansas Derby by four lengths proved a couple of things, not least that the horse possesses the precise tool kit for the Derby distance and its demands. Like Further Ado in the Blue Grass, Renegade put a very great deal of room between himself and the peloton in the very last furlongs of the graded stakes that got him the invitation to the big race.

Stall No. 1 in the Churchill gate in the face of a 20-horse field thundering down into the first turn does still mean that Irad Ortiz will have to take back — or that he must, more daringly and dangerously, try to squirt out in front, then slide back off the pace as they work up the backstretch. Any way you cut it, the stall adds a daunting, traffic-rich tactical series of sidesteps to Renegade’s burgeoning do-list in the race — in addition to whatever tactical problems Pletcher, Ortiz and Repole were thinking they faced just having to work their man to the front in the last two furlongs on Saturday. Breaking from the rail in a Derby gives the equine athlete quite some choreography of gear-shifting in addition to the gear-shifting required of nominally “better” post positions.

The question for Renegade — and the reason that the three-time Derby winning trainer Pletcher is less than sanguine about being slotted into the rail — is simply that the extra layer of demand brought by the rail in a Derby can become the straw that broke the camel’s back in this one traffic-choked race.

Which brings us back to the first question inspired by Odds-czar Tammaro’s position that Renegade has the moxie to overcome all foes and all track disadvantages: The Churchill rail hole is “dreaded” not just because it’s 0-for-6 since the new gate was introduced. Of the last fifteen Derbies, nine (or 60%) have been won by runners starting from stall Nos. 15-20. That implies that the ordinarily holy tactical notion of “saving ground” is far less important in a Kentucky Derby than the simply doing what you have to do to get a clean trip. In reference to Renegade, it means that anything he and Ortiz devise to get around the traffic will be better for them than staying inside.

It will remain an irony of Saturday’s race — and of Derby history — that all outside post positions are not alike, and some can even be worse than the rail. Derby champ Ferdinand did in fact win the big race from the rail in 1986, forty years ago, the last contender to do so. Post 14, by contrast, last produced a winner sixty-five years ago, in 1961, when Carry Back (who also won the Preakness) went off as the 5-2 favorite and breezily carried the day with a commanding two-plus length stretch run.

Pletcher, Ortiz and Repole will be hoping their boy can snap the rail hole’s four-decade drought with a dancing, traffic-free run on Saturday.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

This much is well-known: Astounding even the players backing the favorite and, to a slightly lesser extent, his connections, Further Ado, with the added threat of Irad Ortiz in the irons (a jock the horse will not have in the Derby), blazed out in the last furlongs of Keeneland’s April 4 Blue Grass to a Secretariat-like margin of eleven lengths on the peloton. The run clocked an eye-watering 106 Beyer speed figure, the highest this year among the Class of 2026.

His conditioner Brad Cox, who has another top Derby favorite in Commandment in his stable, has been reserved and within bounds, elated, about Further Ado’s development. Bluntly put, although top favorites Renegade and Commandment, respectively, won the Arkansas and Florida derbies (Grade 1 preps nominally valued higher than the Blue Grass in producing Derby placers), neither Commandment nor Renegade posted speed numbers like those of Further Ado.

That was then — but this is Derby week. Before we get into what Further Ado has to do to put away his looming May 2 competitors Renegade, Chief Wallabee, and Commandment, here, a refresher on the the field, its post positions, and the morning line.

(Post Position, Horse, Jockey, Trainer, Morning Line)

1) Renegade, Irad Ortiz Jr., Todd Pletcher, 4-1

2) Albus, Jaime Torres, Riley Mott, 30-1

3) Intrepido, Hector Berrios, Jeff Mullins, 50-1

4) Litmus Test, Martin Garcia, Bob Baffert, 30-1

5) Right To Party, Christopher Elliott, Kenny McPeek, 30-1

6) Commandment, Luis Saez, Brad Cox, 6-1

7) Danon Bourbon, Atsuya Nishimura, Manabu Ikezoe, 20-1

8) So Happy, Mike Smith, Mark Glatt, 15-1

9) The Puma, Javier Castellano, Gustavo Delgado, 10-1

10) Wonder Dean, Ryusei Sakai, Daisuke Takayanagi, 30-1

11) Incredibolt, Jaime Torres, Riley Mott, 20-1

12) Chief Wallabee, Junior Alvarado, William Mott, 8-1

13) Silent Tactic, Cristian Torres, Mark Casse, 20-1

14) Potente, Juan Hernandez, Bob Baffert, 20-1

15) Emerging Market, Flavien Prat, Chad Brown, 15-1

16) Pavlovian, Edwin Maldonado, Doug O'Neill, 30-1

17) Six Speed, Brian Hernandez Jr., Bhupat Seemar, 50-1

18) Further Ado, John Velasquez, Brad Cox, 6-1

19) Golden Tempo, Jose Ortiz, Cherie DeVaux, 30-1

20) Fulleffort, Tyler Gaffalione, Brad Cox, 20-1

As usual when it comes to money on the Kentucky Derby barrelhead, the handicapping value of Further Ado’s Blue Grass run as factored into his Derby chances remains fraught. Further Ado was second on the Derby points leaderboard only to Commandment. Obviously, this week’s handicapping is no longer about the points, but the points accrued by each horse do still lend us a kind of mathematical reduction of past performances, if we accept the broad premise that certain races and fields on the road to the Derby mean more than others.

That caveat noted, mounting a stretch run that opens up that gargantuan sort of lead in the last three furlongs argues for more than just the power of this one young athlete. It’s an argument for the health of the sport. Specifically, this always needs to be remembered: the Kentucky Derby is a tough go for three-year-old equine athletes, each of whom is maturing at vastly different rates. Their characters and racing preferences are notoriously patchy; their ability to focus on any one task under pressure is as wobbly as any two-legged teenager’s would be; and not least, their vulnerability to being spooked — laboring under Churchill’s infamously clamorous crowd, band and infield — is infinite.

The point is that Further Ado showed a tremendous ability and a single-minded focus on getting to the wire well out in front in the Blue Grass. This ability to focus is critical in a Kentucky Derby, which is why we often see late additions of blinders on some of the colts. The Derby is longer than any race they have run in their lives, the learning curve is steep and the pitfalls — both tactical and veterinary — are legion. The Derby fields are by orders of magnitude larger and more ferociously competitive than any that any contender has been in. In the heat of all that, those that do succeed must stave off more demons than they ever knew existed. Quiet, steady, clean-running achievers such as 2025’s champion, William Mott’s Sovereignty, are few and far between.

These are the reasons that, among the four strongest colts coming into the Derby, an ultra-dominant 11-length show such as that put on by Further Ado stands out. He wasn’t just holding on neck-and-neck in the last furlong or having to overtake other contenders. He was the master of an entirely different race, one taking place far away from the one in which his erstwhile competition was running.

Pre-post-position draw, all of the above is why Further Ado rose to second-favorite in TwinSpires’ “fair” odds, at 5-1, hard on the heels in the pre-draw estimation of Renegade, at 9-2 (or 4.5/1). Five-tenths of a point separated them. They’re in that same 1-2 arrangement now, but with Renegade coming down a half-point to 4-1 and Further Ado rising a full point to 6-1 in the morning line.

As ever, the money at the track often has other ideas than the morning line does, so the corollary to the annual 20-horse Derby melee is that it’s up for grabs whether Further Ado’s most recent run will sway the odds thinking as the handicapping gets honed down to a white-hot dagger point with post time looming. As if to prove this point — about Further Ado and about the Blue Grass generally — Churchill’s own Derby Future Wagers book closed before the Blue Grass was run, which had the oddly hilarious effect of parking Further Ado at 17-1, a dang good price given his copious talent, and that could well bring some fun pocket change to some of the passionate Futures players. By contrast, Arkansas Derby winner Renegade closed as the Future Wager pool’s Derby favorite at 4-1, spot on where he is now. In short, the money will have much more talking to do about Further Ado.

Odds wrinkles aside, what of the horse? Who is that very game Further Ado under Velasquez on Saturday? Let’s begin by noting the obvious: He’s a half-brother to 2024’s Breeders’ Cup Classic victor Sierra Leone. Their sire is the white-hot Kentucky Bluegrass go-to sire, Gun Runner. Last September in the bellwether Keeneland fall yearling sale, Gun Runner yearlings broke the historical record, kept since the sale began in 1944, by bringing the top price in each of the sale’s four sessions. Further Ado is right in line with that pedigree, solid runner, can take the distance, able to focus, strong desire to do everything he can to get there first. It’s difficult to say that any race run by any three-year old is “proof” of anything, but in Further Ado’s case the Blue Grass win was a sterling indication of his DNA.

Bottom line, we don’t know what kind of trip he’s going to get on Saturday, but breaking from the far outside in the Churchill gate won’t hurt him. He’ll have all he can do to deal with the traffic and get by his co-favorites, but if any one of them has a shot at beating the others, Further Ado is carrying the tool kit to do it.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com