LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Cristian Torres is getting the chance to ride in his first Kentucky Derby after Kenny McPeek-trained Right to Party was scratched on Friday, with Doug O'Neill's Robusta drawing into the field.
The jockey looked to be out of luck after Silent Tactic was ruled out earlier this week because of a foot injury. Trainer Mark Casse said it was an easy decision in the best interests of the horse but that he felt badly for Torres.
With Robusta getting in off the also-eligible list, O’Neill tapped Torres for the mount because Emisael Jaramillo was already booked to ride at Santa Anita Park in California on Saturday.
Robusta was the second-to-last horse eligible for the opening leg of the Triple Crown. Dallas Stewart's Corona de Oro would draw in if there are any additional scratches to the current field of 20 horses.
In addition to Right to Party and Silent Tactic, Brad Cox scratched Fulleffort after an X-ray revealed a chip and fluid in the colt's left hind ankle.
Right to Party was a veterinarian scratch, not a choice made by McPeek and owner Chester Broman Sr.
“The safety and well-being of the racehorses training and competing in Kentucky are the center of everything we do,” the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Commission said in a statement.
“(The commission) closely monitors data pertaining to scratches, including those based on the advice of our regulatory veterinarians,” the organization said. "It is one of the most difficult parts of the job, as we share the goal of each horse’s connections for the horse to compete safely. ... We all want what is best for the horse.”
This story has been corrected to show that Corona de Oro is also eligible if there is another scratch.
AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing
Kentucky Derby entrant Right To Party works out at Churchill Downs Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kentucky Derby alternate Robusta works out at Churchill Downs Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Kentucky Derby alternate Robusta works out at Churchill Downs Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
MIAMI (AP) — A former Miami congressman and longtime friend of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was convicted Friday in connection with a secret $50 million lobbying campaign on behalf of Venezuela during the first Trump administration.
Jurors found Republican David Rivera and an associate, Esther Nuhfer, guilty on all counts, including failing to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of their work for former President Nicolás Maduro's government.
The seven-week trial offered a rare glimpse into Miami's role as a crossroads for foreign influence campaigns aimed at shaping U.S. policy toward Latin America, one highlighting the city's reputation as a magnet for corruption and anti-Communist crusaders among its sizable exile population.
It included testimony from Rubio, Texas Congressman Pete Sessions and a top Washington lobbyist — all of whom testified that they were shocked to learn belatedly of Rivera’s consulting contract with a U.S.-based affiliate of Venezuela’s state oil company, PDVSA.
In an 11-count indictment unsealed in 2022, prosecutors alleged that Rivera was tapped by then Foreign Minister Delcy Rodríguez — now Venezuela’s acting president — to work Republican connections from Rivera's time in Congress to get the first Trump administration to abandon its hard-line stance and ease crippling sanctions on Venezuela.
As part of the charm offensive, prosecutors alleged, Rivera and Nuhfer, a political consultant, manipulated influential friends, including Rubio and Sessions, like “pawns on a chess board." The goal: to try and normalize relations with the new Trump administration at a time when the Maduro government was buffeted by serious accusations of human rights violations.
“As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” prosecutor Roger Cruz said of the defendants during closing arguments.
But the two held onto the “massive secret” and didn't disclose their lobbying work as required, for fear it would have ended Rivera's political career as an anti-Communist stalwart, Cruz said.
To hide his work, prosecutors allege, Rivera also set up an encrypted chat group called MIA — for Miami — with his main conduit to the Maduro government: Venezuelan media tycoon Raúl Gorrín, who was subsequently charged in the U.S. with bribing top Venezuelan officials.
Members of the group used playful code words to discuss their activities: Maduro was the “bus driver,” Sessions “Sombrero,” Rodríguez “The Lady in Red,” and millions of dollars “melons,” according to copies of text messages presented to the jury.
“It was all about La Luz,” Cruz said, referring to the Spanish word for light, which Rivera and others repeatedly used to discuss payments from Caracas.
Attorneys for Rivera and Nuhfer said the two acted in good faith and believed they were under no requirement to disclose their work. The three-month, $50 million contract with Rivera's one-man consulting firm, they say, was focused exclusively on luring oil giant ExxonMobil back to Venezuela — commercial work that is generally exempt from the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Wholly distinct from that consulting work, they say, were Rivera's meetings with Rubio and Sessions, which occurred after the consulting contract had expired and was focused on ushering in leadership in Venezuela that would be less hostile to the U.S.
“He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said during closing arguments. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.”
Nuhfer's attorney, David Oscar Markus, likened the government's case to the 17th century Salem witch trials, presuming ill intent that was belied by the flimsiest of evidence.
“My client does not have a dark heart,” he said.
Prosecutors said Rivera used the contract with New York-based PDV USA as cover for illegal lobbying.
Once exposed, the partners tried to hide the work — backdating documents and coming up with sham agreements like one to justify a wire transfer of $3.75 million to a South Florida company that maintained Gorrín’s luxury yacht.
The political activity included setting up meetings for Rodríguez in New York, Caracas, Washington and Dallas. As part of the effort, the two roped in Sessions, who later tried to broker a meeting for Rodríguez with the CEO of ExxonMobil that had succeeded Trump’s then-secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. After a secret meeting in Caracas with Maduro, Sessions also agreed to deliver a letter from the Venezuelan president to Trump.
The outreach quickly unraveled, however. Within six months of taking office, Trump sanctioned Maduro and labeled him a “dictator,” launching a “maximum pressure” campaign to unseat the president.
However, nearly a decade later, Rodríguez has emerged as the second Trump administration's trusted partner after the U.S. military's ousting of Maduro.
Before being elected to Congress in 2010, Rivera was a high-ranking Florida legislator. During that time, he shared a Tallahassee home with Rubio, who eventually became the Florida House speaker.
Rivera has previously faced controversy, including allegations that he secretly funded a Democratic spoiler candidate in a 2012 congressional race. Last year, federal prosecutors dropped the case after an appeals court threw out a sizable fine imposed by a lower court. Rivera was also investigated — but never charged — for alleged campaign finance violations and a $1 million contract with a gambling company while serving in the Florida legislature.
FILE - In this courtroom sketch Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies during the trial of former Florida congressman David Rivera in District Court Judge Melissa Damians courtroom, March 24, 2026, in Miami. (Lothar Speer via AP, File)
FILE - Former U.S. Rep. David Rivera speaks with media outside a federal court in Miami, Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Joshua Goodman, File)
