• Tappan Street, a son of Into Mischief, clinched 100 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Derby

Louisville trainer Brad Cox picked up his first Florida Derby victory and found another contender for the Kentucky Derby.

Tappan Street made a five-wide move off the final turn and raced to a 1 ½-length victory in Saturday’s $1 million, Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.

Ridden by Luis Saez, Tappan Street covered the 1 ⅛ miles in 1:49.27 and paid $6.80 to win on a $2 wager.

“Hopefully this is a big step forward for this colt,” Cox said. “I’m proud of the performance. … He’s got a great mind, knows how to turn it on and off. I think the best is yet to come. Obviously, the Kentucky Derby is the main goal.”

Tappan Street earned 100 qualifying points for the May 3 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, virtually assuring himself in a field limited to 20 runners.

Sovereignty, the 8-5 favorite, finished second and was followed by Neoequos and Madaket Road.

Madaket Road, the Bob Baffert trainee ridden by Mike Smith, set fractions of 23.37 seconds for the quarter-mile, 47.22 seconds for the half-mile and 1:11.61 for three-quarters before fading.

A son of Into Mischief, Tappan Street improved to 2-1-0 in three career starts. He entered off a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 1.

A $1 million purchase at the 2023 New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale, Tappan Street is co-owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Cold Press Racing.

Better Derby Betting: Want to learn how to bet on the 2025 Kentucky Derby? Get tickets to Better Derby Betting

Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; follow on X @KentuckyDerbyCJ.

Bill Burton: It’s time for us to take a look at the Science Behind the Forecast as I am joined by WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Good morning, Tawana.

Tawana Andrew: Good morning. And today’s topic is really focused in on preparing for tornadoes, especially as we get closer to the core of the severe weather season.

BB: The tornado season is right around the corner, and unfortunately, the U.S. leads the world in tornadoes. It’s not a category you want to lead in, but we do. What do we need to know about them?

TA: Well, in terms of how many tornadoes we see in the U.S. on average, we see around 1,200 twisters per year. That’s our average.

The next country in that list is Canada, and they see on average around 60 tornadoes a year. So it is a big difference, and our geography plays a big role in why we see so many tornadoes, because you have the cold dry Canadian air meeting up with the Gulf’s warm, humid air right over what we call Tornado Alley, and that interaction creates atmospheric instability and creates the perfect conditions for us to see severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. So for tornadoes to form, you need a couple of things. You need warm, moist air near the ground, cool, drier air, about 10,000 to 30,000 ft in altitude, and you also need wind shear, which is the change in wind speed and direction with altitude. And the topography and geography of the United States helps with all of those things. There was a study that came out in 2024 that highlighted the impact of terrain. Hundreds of miles upwind of tornado formation downstream and it noted that the fact that we have that smooth flat expanse all the way from the Gulf straight on through to the plains helps to contribute to tornado potential because there’s nothing stopping the wind and really helping the wind to slow down in any of that space since it’s so flat.

BB: That makes sense.

TA: Plus you have, of course, the moisture coming off of the Gulf and in the Great Plains in the Mississippi River Valley, you also have a lot of the crops and vegetation that also puts off moisture and that helps to fuel a lot of the severe thunderstorms and tornadic storms that we see. Something else that contributes to the amount of tornado fatalities that we see in the U.S., the couple of things, of course, the topography, which we just touched on, and the time of day. That plays a big role as well.

A tornado, of course, can form at any time of the day, but specifically, we see them more often between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., which if you think about it, is also the warmest part of the day. So you have all that fuel at that point as well. Some numbers that I was looking into when I was diving into the data, I found that, of course, a lot of us know that Texas and Kansas have the highest number of tornadoes in the country. Around 135 tornadoes are seen yearly in Texas, but Alabama actually has the highest annual tornado fatalities, averaging around 14 per year. In the past decade, however, Kentucky has seen the highest number of tornado fatalities in the country, with 75 deaths in between 2014 and 2023. 57 of those 75 were just from that long track tornado that hit Mayfield and that that was a nighttime tornado.

BB: Yeah, we will all remember December 2021.

TA: Which is why you’ll always hear me say have multiple ways to get alerts. Don’t just rely on your phone, have the TV, a weather radio, whatever you need to make sure that you can get alerts day and night as we get further into the severe weather season.

BB: Yeah, when you’re sleeping, it’s, it just becomes so much more dangerous. You can’t be prepared at that point, of course, but now we have a better understanding of why the US gets as many tornadoes as it does, and we have a better understanding of it thanks to this edition of Science Behind the Forecast with WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Thanks for the knowledge, Tawana.

TA: Of course.

This transcript was edited for clarity.

Not much could have gone worse for Kentucky, Tennessee in total control for essentially the entire half before taking a mini 8-4 run into the break — down just 15 rather than the 19 the Volunteers led by with 3:04 to go. Take the little wins where you can get them, right?

The Wildcats were totally out of sorts the majority of the way, though, shooting just 38.5 percent from the field compared to 50.0 percent for the Vols with the latter taking six more attempts while also winning the rebounding battle 22-13. Maybe the biggest difference? 13 second-chance points on nine offensive rebounds for UT with 14 bench points compared to just three for UK.

Amari Williams has been Kentucky’s only consistent offense, scoring nine points on 4-5 shooting, followed by Otega Oweh with seven, Lamont Butler with five, Koby Brea and Collin Chandler with three apiece and Andrew Carr with one. For Tennessee, it’s the Zakai Zeigler show, leading the way with 13 points and four assists, followed by Jordan Gainey with seven, Chaz Lanier and Felix Okpara with six apiece and Darlinstone Dubar with five.

The Cats are going to have to get some shots to fall and will have to start pulling down some boards or they will be going home in 20 minutes of game time.

As things stand now, it looks like a five-game losing streak in Indianapolis is very much on the table for this program. That doesn’t feel very good — especially against this team.

There are two halves for a reason, though. Can they pull off an all-time comeback?