Derby

Ben Perkins Jr. has his finger on the trigger. When he pulls -- or, if he pulls -- Tank will go rolling into Louisville, Ky.Perkins said a decision on whether to send Tank to the May 4 Kentucky Derby will be made "Thursday or Friday, after he works and we size up the field."The colt's owner, Mrs. Allaire duPont, "isn't overly enamored with going," said the 35-year-old trainer. "But she said the decision is up to us."The recurring "us" and "we" in Perkins' dialogue refers to himself and his father, Ben Sr. The two essentially share management duties in the powerful Perkins outfit, although Ben Jr. is named as trainer for all of the horses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- --For a split second, as the horses came out of the second turn and pointed for the finish line, it appeared no one was going to emerge from the pack and challenge front-running Hard Spun, the 10-1 shot who had led for most of the first mile. But just when a surprising ending to Kentucky Derby 133 seemed at hand, Street Sense, the 5-1 betting favorite, accelerated along the rail, passed Hard Spun and pulled away. The race was over long before Street Sense reached the finish line, and in a weird way, the favorite's triumph was even more surprising.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- D. Wayne Lukas filed an appeal yesterday for his 60-day suspension in the drug case involving the undefeated filly Flanders, and the trainer was granted a stay until after hearings are held by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.Robert Feuerstein, counsel to the board, said by telephone that the stay probably would carry past the Kentucky Derby on May 6, thereby leaving Lukas free to continue training his star 3-year-old colts, Timber Country and Thunder Gulch.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- While Dehere and Go for Gin rested for their next tests on the road to the Kentucky Derby, a strong new challenge was mounted at Gulfstream Park yesterday when the colt Patton outran other 3-year-old contenders by 8 1/2 lengths and took dead aim at the racing classics.Patton, a son of Lord At War and a grandson of Seattle Slew, led all the way in an allowance race for colts who skipped Saturday's Fountain of Youth Stakes. At the wire, he was drawing far in front of Nick Zito's Crary, the stablemate of Go for Gin, who had three-quarters of a length on Line Dance.

Brocco, a major Triple Crown contender whose physical soundness has been questioned by a veterinary official, is sure to attract a crowd when he returns to the track at Santa Anita Park today and begins training for the May 7 Kentucky Derby.William Bell, a veterinarian for the California Horse Racing Board, said the horse returned "slightly off" in his right foreleg after winning the Santa Anita Derby Saturday and placed him on the Vet's List.The horse's condition was disputed by his trainer, Randy Winick, and his jockey, Gary Stevens.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Like the editor so many of us long to be, D. Wayne Lukas stood there rattling off story ideas to a group of reporters outside his barn yesterday. The James Bond horse. The Motown horse. The almost-guilty-of-homicide horse."You guys shouldn't have any trouble this year," Lukas said, smiling that thousand-watter on a chilly morning.Someone in the bleary audience mumbled something about having no more or less trouble than usual, cough, cough, but the point was conceded. There are years when the Kentucky Derby is thin on plot, but this year's is as thick as a peanut butter, popcorn and doughnut diet.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- He stood in a chilling wind and handed out chilling news outside Barn 33 at Churchill Downs yesterday morning.Jim Ryerson, the trainer of the Kentucky Derby favorite, Unbridled's Song, submitted one lament after another to a gathering of reporters.The horse had a sore left front heel and a new shoe to help alleviate the pain.He also had a crack on the hoof, and was on antibiotics to prevent infection.L A final workout scheduled for today probably wouldn't occur.If the horse had to race now, he couldn't.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The first time Mike Smith won a race, he took the lead and never looked back.That was a dozen years ago when Smith was 16 years old and riding for his uncle at Santa Fe Downs in New Mexico."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- Excavate's odds in the Kentucky Derby future book crashed before some of the Las Vegas casinos learned how to spell his name.Probably because of a slip of the tongue by his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, the 2-year-old colt had been listed as "Excavator" by at least two Nevada race books.Minutes after Whittingham's Golden Pheasant had won this year's Arlington Million, the trainer was unexpectedly asked on national television about his Kentucky Derby prospects. Whittingham stumbled over the horse's name, it came out "Excavator," and that's the way it stayed in Las Vegas until recently.