THE PUMA

OGMA Investments (led by Gustavo Delgado Jr.), High Step Racing (Randall Guy, Joe Noble, Kevin Avera, Jim Ferreira and Todd Perry) and JR Ranch (Ramiro Restrepo, Jose and Rita Aguirre)

Back in 2015, Ramiro Restrepo, then working for Fasig-Tipton as a sort of South American ambassador, met Venezuelan trainer Gustavo Delgado Sr. at Keeneland. He said, "Let's start working with each other. I'll own an interest in some of the horses, and you bring people to come in and be partners," Restrepo said. "Then, I owned pieces of some of those horses."

With their home-bred Chief Wallabee stepping into the pre-Kentucky Derby spotlight, Mike and Katherine "K.K." Ball are in unfamiliar territory. "We're not used to this much hype," Katherine said.

Mike and Katherine Ball have spent decades racing and breeding Thoroughbreds in Kentucky without getting as much of a whiff of the Kentucky Derby. Both spent more than a decade training their horses.

"As long as we've been in the business, it's our first Derby," Katherine said. "We are enjoying every minute of it."