Florida Derby

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Adore the Gold is ready to be adored. Trainer Michael Gorham said the 3-year-old Kentucky-bred sired by Formal Gold is ready to take on the favorites one more time today in the Grade I, $1 million Florida Derby. Gorham's colt faced Scat Daddy, Stormello and Nobiz Like Shobiz in the Fountain of Youth Stakes earlier this month and was beaten by just one length, despite an outside post and a tiring trip. "I think he'll run big," said Gorham, who keeps a dozen horses at Laurel Park and is a familiar name to Maryland horsemen.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. -- As trainer Michael Matz rides his pony to the track on a warm, early morning at the Palm Meadows training center, the memories of the late Barbaro ride along with him. The Florida Derby is where Barbaro stamped his ticket for last year's Kentucky Derby and set in motion a string of events that would carry him to the largest margin of victory in the race in 60 years. And this is where the media crowd began to descend on the trainer, whose previous claims to fame had been the rescue of three children from a deadly plane crash and an Olympic silver medal in show jumping.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Anyone training a top 3-year-old looking for a "good" spot, someplace his horse can win or at least hit the scoreboard, might think twice about Saturday's $1 million, Grade I Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. But trainer Bill Currin, who sends Stormello, the second choice in the morning-line odds at 3-1, said coming to the Florida Derby was an easy choice. "I'm not looking to duck anyone," he said. "I [have] one objective, and that is to win the Kentucky Derby, and you're not going to win the Kentucky Derby by picking and choosing soft spots.

Hard Spun's trainer, Larry Jones, said "it might be suicide" to take on pre-Kentucky Derby favorite Street Sense and highly respected Great Hunter in three weeks in the Grade I, $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, but Hard Spun's jockey, Mario Pino, sees it as simply the next step in the thoroughbred's development. "If those horses had been in the Lane's End with us [Saturday], it would have been hard for them to run my horse down. It's one step at a time, and his next race will simply be another obstacle to overcome."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- From the moment Barbaro reached the paddock yesterday, he was ready to get down to business. The 132nd Kentucky Derby was minutes away and the big dark bay colt was kicking. Trainer Michael Matz and jockey Edgar Prado stood in the stall, away from any errant leg, while Barbaro was saddled on the bricks. "Let's go win our first Kentucky Derby," Matz said, just before lifting Prado into the saddle. Matz made it sound easy, and Barbaro, after stumbling out of the starting gate, made it look easy, too, as he recovered and then made his big move out of the second turn.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- One of the things that has fascinated trainer Michael Matz this week leading up to Saturday's Kentucky Derby is how often he hears the same question. The question boils down to this: How in the world does he think he can win the Kentucky Derby when his horse, Maryland-based Barbaro, ran his last prep race five weeks ago? Matz would laugh if he weren't so sick of it. "I don't understand it," Matz said. "I wish you could explain it to me. You tell me what prep races have been five weeks out from the Derby before this year.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- When the $1 million, Grade I Florida Derby is run this afternoon, Barbaro will be the horse viewed as the favorite. But Flashy Bull, Sharp Humor, Sunriver or one of the other less-noticed entries could have something to say about the result. "I feel bad for [trainer] Michael Matz and Barbaro," said Flashy Bull's assistant trainer, Neil McLaughlin, who is also the brother of head trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. "Coming out of the 10 hole on this track is tough because of the shorter distance to the first turn.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Despite Bellamy Road's overpowering triumph in the Wood Memorial Stakes and his elevation to Kentucky Derby favorite, Sun King remains No. 1 in Nick Zito's Derby hierarchy. "I just think he's the catalyst of our stable," said Zito of the colt he calls "Elvis" and "Captain King." "If he does well, then the whole stable does well. I like this horse to go a long way." A son of Charismatic, who won two-thirds of the Triple Crown in 1999, Sun King has won half of his six races and is the 2-1 second choice in the morning line for the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes tomorrow at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Kiaran McLaughlin, trainer of Closing Argument, was explaining how his horse ended up in the Blue Grass Stakes. He bruised his foot before the Florida Derby and missed that race, McLaughin said, "so we had to go to Plan B - the Arkansas Derby or the Blue Grass. This looks like an easier spot, so we stayed here." For a moment, those attending the Blue Grass post-position draw yesterday remained silent. Then they burst out laughing, realizing that McLaughlin had cracked a joke - and a good one. The Blue Grass is anything but an easy spot.

After sending out Bellamy Road to put on perhaps the most brilliant performance in the 81-year history of the Wood Memorial, trainer Nick Zito will try for an encore with the upstaged Sun King in Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. In winning the 1 1/8 -mile race by 17 1/2 lengths, Bellamy Road was clocked in 1 minute, 47.16 seconds - shattering the stakes record set by Private Terms in 1988 and equaling the Aqueduct track record set by Riva Ridge in 1973, the year after he decisively won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.