Until Thursday 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 during Fulleffort’s April 30 pre-Derby jog, the fetching silvery roan, who won the one-and-an-eighth-mile Jeff Ruby Steaks for Cox with a time of 1:49.94, seemed to Cox 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 the athlete to miss the Derby, the two subsequent Triple Crown races, and the rest of the summer.

“Main thing is he’s fine,” Cox said, noting that the surgery would be minor, and that the timing for such a thing was never good. “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, Tyler Gaffalione, Whit Beckman, 50-1

Note: Trainer Beckman and his athlete Ocelli will have their work cut out for them staying up in the mix with Commandment, Chief Wallabee and Further Ado in the last furlongs. But Beckman improved that possibility by a lot by wasting literally zero minutes collaring leading Churchill rider Tyler Gaffalione, who had been slated on Fulleffort for Cox, to ride Ocelli in the Derby and to saddle up on Beckman’s Friday evening Oaks filly Nycon.