Brother Derek

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The evening is peaceful. Outside Barn 42 on the Churchill Downs back side, the fading sun dapples the green grass, the evening treat for Brother Derek and a number of his barn mates. Brother Derek, big and beautiful, puts his muscular right leg forward and stretches his neck and head down for a mouthful of the greenery as trainer Dan Hendricks looks on. Kentucky Derby First leg of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky., Saturday, 6:04 p.m., chs. 11, 4

Step Brothers at its best is a smarter Dumb and Dumber. Out of two wacky main characters and a few slightly less addled supporting ones, it conjures laughs by the dozens. The problem is, they come in clumps. Will Ferrell and some of his favorite collaborators (including director Adam McKay, who did Anchorman and Talladega Nights) indulge their improvisational talents at their peril. They might as well be putting the film together with a stopwatch - 15 minutes for spastic fights, 20 for inventive profane insults, another 10 for out-of-left-field coups, including an operatic climax almost as uproarious and sublime as the ratatouille in Ratatouille.

Questions have been swirling for more than three weeks about how Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke his right rear leg in the May 20 Preakness Stakes. The biggest one is: What happened? Yesterday, Maryland Jockey Club president and chief operating officer Lou Raffetto showed The Sun the stewards' video of the Preakness frame by frame in his Pimlico Race Course office. The tape shows what could have happened as Brother Derek got a late start from the gate and trailed Barbaro down the track.

Questions have been swirling for more than three weeks about how Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro broke his right rear leg in the May 20 Preakness Stakes. The biggest one is: What happened? Yesterday, Maryland Jockey Club president and chief operating officer Lou Raffetto showed The Sun the stewards' video of the Preakness frame by frame in his Pimlico Race Course office. The tape shows what could have happened as Brother Derek got a late start from the gate and trailed Barbaro down the track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Sitting among the other trainers and owners at Fourth St. Live in downtown, waiting his turn to select Sweetnorthernsaint's starting spot for the 132nd Kentucky Derby, Maryland trainer Mike Trombetta feared he'd wind up way outside in the starting gate. Instead, Trombetta was able to select the 11th post, between A.P. Warrior and Private Vow. "Selecting 13 deep, to wind up 11th, I feel we wound up lucky," Trombetta said. Nerves, held at bay for weeks, finally struck not only Trombetta, a rookie, at this draw, but veterans too, as the trainers for morning-line favorite Brother Derek and Lawyer Ron had to cope with making the 15th and 16th picks, respectively.

Brother Derek and Sweet- northernsaint have Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro surrounded for the start of the 131st Preakness Stakes on Saturday, but trainer Michael Matz said he doesn't feel hemmed in. "Not at all," Matz said. "I'm not concerned about Brother Derek or Sweetnorthernsaint. I have enough on my plate training Barbaro, and I like where I am for the start." Choosing third in yesterday's draw, Matz was able to get the No. 6 post, but the drama built for his pick. With a minute to walk to the podium and make his selection, Matz continued to sit at his table with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson and discuss the choice.

Trainer Bob Baffert told Preakness officials yesterday that neither Maryland-bred Point Determined nor Bob and John will run in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown on Saturday. That leaves the Preakness field holding at six entries: Barbaro, Sweetnorthernsaint, Brother Derek, Like Now, Bernardini and Hemingway's Key. Ah Day, the Tesio Stakes winner, is still a possibility, said trainer and part owner King Leatherbury, after he worked Ah Day yesterday morning. Ah Day traveled five furlongs in 59 seconds at Laurel Park.

There will be no threat to the position occupied by Brother Derek since early in the culling process that will ultimately result in 20 or so survivors that reach the first Saturday in May with the Kentucky Derby hopes of their human connections intact. The pedigree does not jump off the page or cause breeding experts to rave. Benchmark, his sire, is not on the thoroughbred social register. Nor is Siyad Kalem, his maternal grandsire. For the time being, he will not be embraced by residents of the 606 area code, where the planet's most expensive breeding stock roams the rolling terrain that surrounds Lexington, Ky., and the term Cal-bred is considered vulgar.

Around the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course this week, they've been talking about Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro as if he were a worn-out basketball. Will he bounce or won't he? "We're all hoping he bounces," Like Now trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. In horse racing, "to bounce" means to regress after a hard race. To listen to the horsemen sending their thoroughbreds to post in the 131st Preakness Stakes today against Barbaro, it would appear to be their best chance of beating him. "I think the big horses have a big, big chance to regress off two weeks' rest," McLaughlin said.

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro had better keep his eyes focused on the road ahead of him, because if he happens to look back Saturday in the 131st Preakness, he'll see at least two horses - Sweetnorthernsaint and Brother Derek - aiming for the bull's-eye on his rump. "We all know who the target is now," said Mike Trombetta, Sweetnorthernsaint's Laurel Park-based trainer. "The focus of the whole race in the Kentucky Derby was the big speed race up front that never really materialized but had everyone looking to conserve their horses.

On a day so glorious that the sun seemed to be shining only on Old Hilltop, everyone connected to Preakness winner Bernardini should have been basking in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown. Except that no one was in a great mood to celebrate. Jockey Javier Castellano had just scored his greatest victory, but he was almost subdued as he took questions during the post-race news conference. Same for trainer Tom Albertrani and John Ferguson, who represented Darley Stables and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai.

All day, right up until the start of the race, it was one of the best Preakness Saturdays. The weather was magnificent, the crowd colossal, the mood euphoric. Bettors sent Barbaro off as the 1-2 favorite, thinking they might see a piece of Triple Crown history. Life was so good. And then, suddenly, it was awful. Absolutely awful. Barbaro pulled up 200 yards into the race, his right rear ankle flapping as if it were barely connected to the rest of the leg. There was never any doubt that he was injured and that it was serious and that he would never race again.

This time, the luster of the Preakness Stakes was darkened by what happened shortly after the start, not what happened when the field turned into the stretch run. When Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro broke down before reaching the finish line the first time, the tenor of the race was completely altered, with no overwhelming favorite to look for when the running turned really serious. "With Barbaro in there, I don't know what margin he would have won by if he didn't have the injury," said Bernardini's trainer, Tom Albertrani.

Around the stakes barn at Pimlico Race Course this week, they've been talking about Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro as if he were a worn-out basketball. Will he bounce or won't he? "We're all hoping he bounces," Like Now trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said. In horse racing, "to bounce" means to regress after a hard race. To listen to the horsemen sending their thoroughbreds to post in the 131st Preakness Stakes today against Barbaro, it would appear to be their best chance of beating him. "I think the big horses have a big, big chance to regress off two weeks' rest," McLaughlin said.

The Belmont Stakes is where Triple Crown bids go to die, but today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course could be the event that decides whether Barbaro is the first horse in 28 years to sweep the three spring classics. "This is the toughest hurdle for him," said trainer D. Wayne Lukas, a five-time Preakness winner. "If he gets by this one, you have to love him." Since 1997, six horses have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness only to run out of gas at the end of the Belmont. Most of those six cruised at Pimlico, giving rise to the perception that the Preakness was little more than a formality, a low hurdle easily cleared as a prelude to New York's taller (actually longer)

1 Like Now -- The name of owner John Dillon's first horse 25 years ago, he was given the same name because the time limit for no duplication had expired. 2 Platinum Couple -- Both owner-trainer Joe Lostritto and his wife have platinum hair, so this gray-roan colt runs in their name. 3 Hemingway's Key -- Bred in Florida where George Steinbrenner's racing operation is based, his name is a tribute to writer Ernest Hemingway's love of Key West. He is a grandson of Island Whirl. 4 Greeley's Legacy -- A son of Mr. Greeley, he is one in a line of offspring named in honor of a prolific sire.

Finally, after 16 weeks and 43 prep races - after dominating performances by the likes of Brother Derek and Lawyer Ron and shocking upsets by the likes of With a City and Like Now - the road to the Kentucky Derby has reached the gates of Churchill Downs. With just two weeks remaining until the May 6 Kentucky Derby and with the top 20 graded-stakes earners qualifying, you're either in by now or you're out. Trainer Nick Zito, who saddled five Derby starters last year, and D. Wayne Lukas, who has saddled four Derby winners, are out. Trainer Todd Pletcher, who nominated 38 colts, is in with two starters while three-time Derby-winning trainer Bob Baffert has three starters.

This time, the luster of the Preakness Stakes was darkened by what happened shortly after the start, not what happened when the field turned into the stretch run. When Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro broke down before reaching the finish line the first time, the tenor of the race was completely altered, with no overwhelming favorite to look for when the running turned really serious. "With Barbaro in there, I don't know what margin he would have won by if he didn't have the injury," said Bernardini's trainer, Tom Albertrani.

Take it from a couple of guys who should know: Barbaro is the real deal. NBC's Gary Stevens and ESPN's Jerry Bailey, both recently retired from the ranks of the nation's best jockeys, expressed no doubt about Barbaro's ability to add the Preakness to his Kentucky Derby victory. "Barbaro appears like he's one of those unbeatable horses," Bailey said this week. " ... For somebody else to win, Barbaro has to run a weak race." "Barring anything unforeseen, [Barbaro] should win again," Stevens said.

Brother Derek and Sweet- northernsaint have Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro surrounded for the start of the 131st Preakness Stakes on Saturday, but trainer Michael Matz said he doesn't feel hemmed in. "Not at all," Matz said. "I'm not concerned about Brother Derek or Sweetnorthernsaint. I have enough on my plate training Barbaro, and I like where I am for the start." Choosing third in yesterday's draw, Matz was able to get the No. 6 post, but the drama built for his pick. With a minute to walk to the podium and make his selection, Matz continued to sit at his table with owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson and discuss the choice.