Arkansas Derby

The new points system for qualifying horses for the Kentucky Derby appears to have served its purpose. The race is full of horses with the preferred pedigree and running style to handle the distance. While this has served to restore some purity to the race, it has also made the race tougher to handicap because many of the horses now excluded by the points system were easy toss-outs for handicappers. This field of 20 is very even. A case could be made for every one of them to win. Orb was made the morning-line favorite, in a bit of a surprise, over Verrazano, who many thought would be made the favorite after remaining perfect in the Wood Memorial.

The new points system for qualifying horses for the Kentucky Derby appears to have served its purpose. The race is full of horses with the preferred pedigree and running style to handle the distance. While this has served to restore some purity to the race, it has also made the race tougher to handicap because many of the horses now excluded by the points system were easy toss-outs for handicappers. This field of 20 is very even. A case could be made for every one of them to win. Orb was made the morning-line favorite, in a bit of a surprise, over Verrazano, who many thought would be made the favorite after remaining perfect in the Wood Memorial.

Stately Victor stunned the field Saturday at the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes in Lexington, Ky., surging to the front in the stretch then pulling away to beat Paddy O'Prado by 4 1/4 lengths and secure an unlikely spot in next month's Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old bay colt went off at 40-1, the longest shot in the nine-horse field filled with Derby hopefuls. He didn't look like an underdog as he recovered from a slow start to win the 1 1/8 -mile race at Keeneland and collect the $450,000 winner's check.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Standing outside of his barn at Churchill Downs, leaning against a temporary fence that seems more invitation that blockade, D. Wayne Lukas is as much a Kentucky Derby fixture as spilled bourbon and bad bets. The Derby takes thousands of horses in their 3-year-old years and whittles them down to a field of 20 through a series of races run across the country, and no trainer has been there at the end more often than Lukas. His two starters entered in Saturday's race, 30-1 Oxbow and 20-1 Will Take Charge, would be his 46th and 47th.

The most visually stunning probable entrant in the upcoming Kentucky Derby could also become the favorite with a good showing at the Blue Grass Stakes this weekend. Hansen, a nearly all white colt trained by Mike Maker, is the 6-5 favorite in Lexington . He'll be challenged by Howe Great, trained by Maryland-based Graham Motion and owned by Team Valor International. Motion and Team Valor, of course, won last year's Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, and have another possible Derby horse in Went the Day Well.

He was on the golf course Tuesday evening when the call came to ride in the Kentucky Derby. "Getting the assignment was the easy part," said jockey Jeremy Rose. "Now, I just have to capitalize on it." Rose became the latest in a line of former Maryland apprentice standouts - Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux immediately come to mind - to burst into the national spotlight when trainer Tim Ritchey informed him he had gained the assignment on Afleet Alex for the world's most famous race on May 7. At Pimlico's opening day yesterday to race aboard two Michael Gill-owned horses, Rose was reveling in his good fortune after steering Afleet Alex to a convincing, eighth-length victory Saturday in the Arkansas Derby, the same steppingstone used by Smarty Jones to reach Churchill Downs last year.

Animal, plan it Neil Milbert Chicago Tribune Granted, Animal Kingdom outran a relatively weak field when he made his dirt racing debut and won the Kentucky Derby as a 20-1 long shot. Going into the Derby with six weeks of rest, he proved to be the best and raced the final quarter in a razor-sharp 24.55 seconds. All of that suggests the well-bred colt is capable of a comparable performance at Pimlico — where he will be facing an even weaker field than the one he dominated at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Standing outside of his barn at Churchill Downs, leaning against a temporary fence that seems more invitation that blockade, D. Wayne Lukas is as much a Kentucky Derby fixture as spilled bourbon and bad bets. The Derby takes thousands of horses in their 3-year-old years and whittles them down to a field of 20 through a series of races run across the country, and no trainer has been there at the end more often than Lukas. His two starters entered in Saturday's race, 30-1 Oxbow and 20-1 Will Take Charge, would be his 46th and 47th.

The wheat and chaff have parted company. Though they didn't win with the panache that Bellamy Road did in claiming leadership among the Kentucky Derby candidates with his victory in the Wood Memorial, Afleet Alex and Bandini took positions immediately behind the division leader Saturday with wins in the Arkansas Derby and Blue Grass Stakes, respectively. Only one race of significance remains in the culling process that will determine the pecking order among Derby-bound horses - Saturday's Lexington Stakes at Keeneland in which the injury- and illness-hindered Rockport Harbor will attempt to resuscitate his flagging fortunes, exactly what Afleet Alex and Bandini accomplished Saturday.

When the connections of Smarty Jones were plotting their potential path to the Kentucky Derby, the prospect of ultimately receiving a $5 million bonus check wasn't even an afterthought. "That was no factor whatsoever," trainer John Servis said yesterday after returning to Pennsylvania following Smarty's rousing victory Saturday in the Churchill Downs mud. "Arkansas was the path of least resistance, and we really liked the way the distances progressed [from 1 1/16th miles in the Rebel Stakes to 1 1/8 in the Arkansas Derby to 1 1/4 in Kentucky]

Bob Baffert calls his son, Bode, over for the cameras. The boy, a shy 7-year-old, relents as his mother brushes a mess of brown hair from his eyes. Then the boy shows what he's learned from his father, the witty trainer whose hard-driving style has led to three trips to the winner's circle at the Kentucky Derby. "Who are you rooting for?" Bode is asked as he stares at a giant microphone hovering near his head. ("Looks like a rat," Baffert had exclaimed.) "I don't know," Bode says, scratching his head and twisting his face to look confused.

The computer program came up with Hansen, and he certainly has a shot. However, Hansen's last prep race was very telling, and not in ways that suggest he can win. Many observers felt his Breeders' Cup Juvenile victory last fall demonstrated some distance limitations, and those concerns seem to have been validated in the Blue Grass Stakes, where he gave up the lead in the stretch. Additionally, his owner suggested that he would not go to the lead in the Blue Grass, but he surged to the lead and carved out fairly solid fractions.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All along, Bob Baffert has said that he fought the urge. He didn't allow even an idle moment to be filled with the blurry, soaring dreams that can be ignited by training a horse as promising as Bodemeister. He insisted on waiting until the post position draw and the announcement of the morning line. When, on Wednesday, Bodemeister drew the No. 6 spot and was named the initial 4-1 favorite, Baffert relented only partially. “I'm just relieved I didn't draw the one hole,” he said.

The most visually stunning probable entrant in the upcoming Kentucky Derby could also become the favorite with a good showing at the Blue Grass Stakes this weekend. Hansen, a nearly all white colt trained by Mike Maker, is the 6-5 favorite in Lexington . He'll be challenged by Howe Great, trained by Maryland-based Graham Motion and owned by Team Valor International. Motion and Team Valor, of course, won last year's Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, and have another possible Derby horse in Went the Day Well.

Animal, plan it Neil Milbert Chicago Tribune Granted, Animal Kingdom outran a relatively weak field when he made his dirt racing debut and won the Kentucky Derby as a 20-1 long shot. Going into the Derby with six weeks of rest, he proved to be the best and raced the final quarter in a razor-sharp 24.55 seconds. All of that suggests the well-bred colt is capable of a comparable performance at Pimlico — where he will be facing an even weaker field than the one he dominated at Churchill Downs.

Calvin Borel's Triple Crown prediction notwithstanding, horse racing connections were busy Monday lining up for a shot at Super Saver in the 135th Preakness Stakes. Officials for Pimlico Race Course said 17 horses were under consideration for the race, including two who already are confirmed: Super Saver, who won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, and Dublin, who finished seventh. The Preakness has a 14-horse limit. But the big news of the day was that Noble's Promise, who fleetingly held the lead at the quarter pole in Louisville, Ky., before finishing fifth, might head to Baltimore instead of England, as originally planned.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Bill Mott listened to his first Kentucky Derby on the radio of a horse van at Fort Pierre, a bush league track in South Dakota.He was 13, working his first job -- walking horses and mucking stalls. The year was 1967. Proud Clarion won the Kentucky Derby.Now, Mott is one race away from marching into Churchill Downs with the possible Kentucky Derby favorite. Favorite Trick, the reigning Horse of the Year, competes tomorrow in the Arkansas Derby here in Hot Springs, the boyhood home of President Clinton.

PP Horse Trainer Jockey Record Earnings Last race Tom Keyser's comment Odds 1... Songandaprayer... John Dowd... Aaron Gryder... 6: 3-1-0... $369,480......... 2nd Blue Grass Stakes... Inside post forces him to fire from gate; he'll flame out... 20-1 2...Millennium Wind... David Hofmans... Laffit Pincay Jr.... 5: 3-2-0... $769,920... 1st Blue Grass Stakes... Never worse than second, he's overcome cracked heels, skin rash... 6-1 3...Balto Star... Todd Pletcher Mark Guidry... 8: 4-0-1...

Stately Victor stunned the field Saturday at the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes in Lexington, Ky., surging to the front in the stretch then pulling away to beat Paddy O'Prado by 4 1/4 lengths and secure an unlikely spot in next month's Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old bay colt went off at 40-1, the longest shot in the nine-horse field filled with Derby hopefuls. He didn't look like an underdog as he recovered from a slow start to win the 1 1/8 -mile race at Keeneland and collect the $450,000 winner's check.

General Quarters is heading home to the Kentucky Derby. The 3-year-old colt overtook pacesetter Join in the Dance at the top of the stretch, then held off favorite Hold Me Back by 1 1/2 lengths to win the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky. General Quarters, owned and trained by retired Louisville principal Thomas McCarthy and ridden by Eibar Coa, covered the 1 1/8 miles on Keeneland's Polytrack in 1 minute, 49.26 seconds...