Kentucky Derby: Castellano will ride Normandy Invasion

More dominos fell into place as far as the riding situation is concerned for the Kentucky Derby as Javier Castellano has chosen to ride Wood Memorial runner-up Normandy Invasion instead of two-time graded stakes winner Revoluntionary

Castellano said it was a tough call, but considering how well Normandy Invasion ran against likely morning-line Kentucky Derby favorite Verrazano in last Saturday’s Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, he chose to stick with him. Normandy Invasion, owned by Rick Porter and trained by Chad Brown, finished three-quarters of a length behind Verrazano while galloping out extremely well past the wire.

Castellano rode Revolutionary, owned by WinStar Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, to graded stakes victories in the Withers at Aqueduct and Louisanan Derby at Fair Grounds.

“They’re both very competitive horses, there’s not much difference,” said Castellano, who is 0 for 6 in the Derby. “We have to beat that horse Verrazano. My horse, the first time he run with Verrazano, he almost beat him. That’s the reason why I lean toward him.

“With all due respect, I really like Todd, the owner WinStar farm, and Elliott Walden, they’ve been really supportive to me, but it’s my own decision and it was really hard really, but it’s Normandy Invasion.”

Pletcher, the trainer of Revolutionary, said Thursday that he and WinStar would most likely wait until after this weekend’s two important Kentucky Derby preps – the Blue Grass Stakes and Arkansas Derby – to choose a rider. Jockeys like Calvin Borel, who won the 2010 Kentucky Derby on Super Saver for Pletcher and WinStar; Mike Smith, who won the 2010 Belmont Stakes and 2011 Breeders’ Cup Classic for WinStar on Drosselmeyer; Garret Gomez, and Rafael Bejarano could become available.

“We won a lot of races with and without Javier,” Pletcher said Thursday at his Belmont barn. “We’ll be okay either way. There are number of good riders that are available. We’ll see how things develop over the weekend.”