Derby Winner

BELMONT, N.Y. -- The last time a horse who was unraced as a 2-year-old won the Belmont Stakes was 1918. You can look it up. But Johren, who won that day, could have company by tonight if Curlin can stand up to the punishing, 1 1/2 -mile "Test of the Champion." Curlin's trainer, Steve Asmussen, took his colt to the main Belmont Park track at 6:30 a.m. yesterday for his last warm-up for the Grade I, $1 million endurance test. Then, with prayer beads attached, but hidden from view on his belt, he told a large crowd of reporters that he's taking nothing for granted.

Real Quiet arrived at the scene of his last victory yesterday and settled in to mount a challenge against a hard-luck member of the 1997 Triple Crown series, Free House, in Saturday's $500,000 Pimlico Special.The 1998 Preakness winner -- who was nudged out of a Triple Crown by Victory Gallop in the Belmont Stakes -- was flown from Kentucky to Baltimore and took up in Stall 27 of Pimlico's stakes barn for a race that has been reduced to five starters by defections.The son of Quiet American was given a nine-month layoff after last year's Belmont, returned March 7 to finish second to Precocity by a half-length in the New Orleans Handicap, then lost by a neck to Littlebitlively in the Texas Mile on April 18.His most recent win was in the blackout-marred Preakness.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- D. Wayne Lukas says play it up, sensationalize it, blow it out of proportion.Bitter Derby rivalry: Lukas vs. Nick Zito. Cape Town vs. Halory Hunter.Trouble is, it's not true."Actually, we don't feel any rivalry," Lukas said of his relationship with fellow trainer Zito. "We're just trying to do our job and win some races. But if people think we've got this big rivalry going, that'd be great for the sport."If a personal rivalry doesn't exist, then a rivalry of statistics does.

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Seven of the past 12 winners of the Kentucky Derby trained in California. So when seven 3-year-olds slip into the starting gate today in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, the Kentucky Derby winner may be among them.Randy Bradshaw, a former assistant to reigning Kentucky Derby master D. Wayne Lukas, trains Artax, the likely favorite in the Grade I race. He is a pleasant, articulate horseman from Utah, 47 years old, who trained the Maryland-breds Urbane and Latin Dancer.Bradshaw has never saddled a Kentucky Derby starter, but he worked for Lukas 10 years ago, when the filly Winning Colors won the Santa Anita and Kentucky derbys.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A walnut podium stands at one end of the Churchill Downs press box, where, traditionally, the owner, trainer and jockey of the winning Kentucky Derby horse field questions about what is perhaps their single greatest achievement.Yesterday, Bill Mott stood at the podium moments after the announcement that he had been selected for induction into the National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame. At 44, Mott is the youngest trainer ever chosen for the honor.He has won Breeders' Cup races, Eclipse Awards and the Dubai World Cup. He trained Cigar.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario -- Three weeks after his sister, Dawn, was found strangled, jockey Corey Nakatani won two million-dollar Breeders' Cup races."This is for Dawn," Nakatani said. "I've got an angel on my side."The California trainer Jenine Sahadi, 33, became the first female trainer of a Breeders' Cup champion."Women are just as capable as men," Sahadi said. "I wouldn't trade places with anyone today."The trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the owner-breeder William T. Young teamed again to produce a potential Kentucky Derby winner.

At 12: 10 p.m. yesterday, on a cool, breezy day at the track, a silver van pulled up to the Pimlico stakes barn.Handlers led out four horses, nice-looking, glistening animals fit for a photographer's lense. But the photographers weren't interested. They wanted shots only of the fifth horse, the last one off the van.That would be Cavonnier, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, the likely betting favorite in Saturday's Preakness -- but still something of a mystery to gamblers on the East Coast.But the California-bred gelding was not looking his shiny best.

Preakness runner-up Oliver's Twist got a break yesterday when Da Hoss, the highly regarded second choice in today's $300,000 Ohio Derby in Cleveland, was scratched.Michael Dickinson, who trains the Jersey Derby winner at the Fair Hill Training Center in Cecil County, said some mucus showed up after Da Hoss worked three-eighths of a mile at Fair Hill yesterday."He's not sick. He has no fever," said Dickinson, who decided after the workout to withdraw the Gone West gelding. "But when mucus shows up, he's not likely to run well."

Activity at Pimlico's Preakness barn was to be stepped up considerably today when a planeload of at least 13 horses, including five starteres in the Preakness, arrives at BWI Airport from Standiford Field in Louisville, Ky.Included in the shipment is Kentucky Derby winner Thunder Gulch, as well as his two D. Wayne Lukas-trained stablemates, Timber Country and Serena's Song.Track oddsmaker Clem Florio is ranking Thunder Gulch, sent off at 24-1 odds in the Derby, as the 2-1 Preakness favorite.

The list of stakes races for 3-year-olds run before the Kentucky Derby has grown to an arm's length in recent years and several are important, but only the three run over 9 furlongs during April are pivotal.The first of these was run this past Saturday and Larry The Legend's victory over Afternoon Deelites, Jumron and Timber Country in the Santa Anita Derby leaves the connections of the first four with well-grounded reasons for optimism. The Wood Memorial and Blue Grass will be run this coming Saturday.

Horse racing Draw for $1.25M Haskell, featuring 'Rachel,' is today The field for Sunday's 42nd running of the $1.25 million Grade I Haskell Invitational has started to assemble at Monmouth, and the race will be drawn on at 11:30 a.m. today. The Haskell draw can be seen live on the Monmouth Park website, www.monmouthpark.com. Already on the grounds are Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird, Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem, Long Branch Stakes winner Atomic Rain, Continental Mile stakes winner Bunker Hill and Iowa Derby winner Duke of Mischief.

In what is likely to be the most closely watched maiden race in recent thoroughbred history, Nicanor - the full brother of Barbaro - will get his first start Saturday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla. The 3-year-old dark bay - who has the same sire, Dynaformer, and dam, La Ville Rouge, as the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner - is in the eighth race, a one-miler on dirt with a field of 12. The timing of Nicanor's debut coincides with two Barbaro milestones....

The plane bringing Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown to the Preakness was idling on the runway in Louisville, Ky. Trainer Rick Dutrow was hanging on his cell phone, waiting for owner Mike Iavarone to give him the news. Where would Big Brown start in the 133rd Preakness? "He couldn't be happier now," Iavarone said. "He was convinced we were going to draw the No. 13 or the No. 1. When he heard it was the No. 7, he was delighted. It is the right spot. If no one wants to go for the lead, Big Brown can take the lead if he wants."

The Preakness added two new starters yesterday when connections for Recapturetheglory and Racecar Rhapsody told Pimlico racing officials they are headed for Baltimore. Recapturetheglory, owned by Ronnie Lamarque and Louis Roussel, will be the only Kentucky Derby competitor to take on Derby winner Big Brown in the May 17 race. It is only the third time in the past 59 years a Derby winner has gotten off so lightly. "We know that we belong," Lamarque said. "Big Brown is a bear, but we're not going to [the Preakness]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Rick Dutrow is worried. Does anyone believe him? When he said his horse was the best of the Kentucky Derby field and everyone should bet him, the only ones who seemed to believe him were the bettors. Now, he says he can't promise Big Brown, his Derby winner, will run a great race May 17 in the Preakness Stakes. "We're going to hope and go and we'll see," he said. "But with just two weeks to prepare, I won't really know." It is a face unseen. The smiles are weaker. The "babes" on the end of his sentences fewer.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The rumors were flying around the backstretch barns yesterday morning. Big Brown, the favorite for today's 134th Kentucky Derby, was having foot problems, and trainer Rick Dutrow was being slow to answer questions about the horse's feet. But over at the Dutrow barn, Big Brown was out in front of his stable having a bath. Looking unconcerned. And there beside him was Dutrow, showing his usual smiley face. "Have you checked his hooves today?" he was asked. "Of course," he said.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- People are still bringing trainer Michael Matz photos of his late, 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, asking him for autographs. Almost every day someone asks him about Barbaro's little brother, Nicanor, who is in Ocala, Fla., being broken and will return to Matz late this month for his 2-year-old season. And Matz said yesterday that he still reflects on the horse that won so many hearts. "There was never a doubt about Barbaro's ability to go the Derby distance of 1 1/4 miles," Matz said.

OCEANPORT, N.J. -- As the trainers of the nine entries in the Breeders' Cup Classic hunkered down in their barns yesterday and looked out through fog and mist at a sloppy track, it seemed a cruel trick. For months, the weather has been warm and dry at Monmouth Park as the best horses in the country and the world built their cases for entry into today's Breeders' Cup races. And when the field for the $5 million Classic was set, it was described by many longtime observers as the best in the event's 23-year history.

BELMONT, N.Y. -- The last time a horse who was unraced as a 2-year-old won the Belmont Stakes was 1918. You can look it up. But Johren, who won that day, could have company by tonight if Curlin can stand up to the punishing, 1 1/2 -mile "Test of the Champion." Curlin's trainer, Steve Asmussen, took his colt to the main Belmont Park track at 6:30 a.m. yesterday for his last warm-up for the Grade I, $1 million endurance test. Then, with prayer beads attached, but hidden from view on his belt, he told a large crowd of reporters that he's taking nothing for granted.

The owners of Circular Quay informed Pimlico Race Course officials yesterday that their horse will run in Saturday's Preakness, bringing the field to nine. Sixth in the Kentucky Derby, Circular Quay joins King of the Roxy as entrants to be saddled by trainer Todd Pletcher, who has started only one horse in a Preakness, Impeachment, the third-place finisher in 2000. Bloodstock agent Demi O'Byrne and owners Michael and Doreen Tabor made arrangements for Circular Quay, the Louisiana Derby winner and runner-up to Street Sense in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile.