Derby Winner

John Servis, trainer of Smarty Jones, said yesterday that "all systems are go" for the Preakness after the Kentucky Derby winner trained in the morning at Philadelphia Park. Smarty Jones trained in the company of his pony, as he did the previous morning. Today, Servis said, "I'm going to turn him loose and let him gallop without the pony." Once Smarty Jones begins galloping, Servis said he'll have a better feel for how the undefeated colt emerged from the Derby. Servis said that Smarty Jones is "dead fit" and that he doesn't plan to breeze him before the Preakness.

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]

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.

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."

Bernardini will not be overlooked again. The 3-year-colt outclassed the field in the $500,000 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. yesterday, proving that his victory in the Preakness Stakes was no fluke. "There was a lot of doubt in people's minds about the Preakness," winning trainer Tom Albertrani said. "Today, he showed us what a really good horse he is." Albertrani has been raving about Bernardini ever since the colt's 5 1/4 -victory in the May 20 Preakness, a race that will be remembered as the one in which Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro shattered his right hind leg. Bernardini, with jockey Javier Castellano, took the lead around the first turn and was never challenged by Minister's Bid or Sunriver.

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.

Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another is one regal-looking horse, a real show-stopper with a distinctive white, diamond-shaped patch on his forehead. As he moved around a back barn at Pimlico Race Course on Wednesday, the chestnut colt trained by Doug O'Neill made the other horses look like fly-ridden plow nags. Now the question is: is he just another attractive Derby winner that will wilt in the pressurized environment of the Preakness a week from Saturday? Or can he duplicate the amazing run he had at Churchill Downs five days ago and make the Preakness special by giving us a legitimate Triple Crown hope?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Sometimes, a horse just doesn't have it. Yesterday, stuck in far outside posts, neither Brother Derek, starting 18th, the morning-line favorite, who came into the Kentucky Derby as a California star, nor Lawyer Ron, in the 17th hole and the impressive Arkansas Derby winner, could get the job done. "I never got a chance to drop in," said Brother Derek's jockey Alex Solis after his horse finished in a dead heat for fourth. "Not the whole race. It was rough out there. He ran hard.

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.

Trainer Nick Zito's expression of disbelief as he faced television cameras moments after having watched Birdstone founder in the mud at Turfway Park as the odds-on favorite in Saturday's Lane's End captured the chaos into which the chase toward Churchill Downs has lapsed. Zito's incredulity is widely shared. The pile of dented armor grows and the emerging possibilities previously unforeseen multiply with each weekend. Thirty different horses have won 38 stakes races for 3-year-olds run since Jan. 1. In fact, the horses that did well in this week's edition of the Triple Crown Ratings were those that didn't run. Only two horses received top 10 votes from all five panelists - Eurosilver, rated first, and Florida Derby winner Friends Lake, who is third.