Kentucky Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- With 100,075 fans jamming into Churchill Downs yesterday, Rags to Riches sat off the pace in the Grade I, $500,000 Kentucky Oaks, waiting to make her point. Rags to Riches, the California filly who has been criticized for building her resume against less than the strongest contenders, shut everyone up with her charge down the stretch to victory. With mud flying, the A.P. Indy 3-year-old drew away from the field and beat Octave to the finish by 4 1/4 lengths. "She hadn't been in these conditions before and to be between horses was a concern, but we know she's a very good filly and we were hopeful," said owner Michael Tabor, who won the Kentucky Derby with Thunder Gulch in 1995.

Invasor was named 2006 Horse of the Year at last night's 36th Eclipse Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. Preakness winner Bernardini won 3-Year-Old Male of the Year. Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stables, who campaigned 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, shared Owner of the Year honors with Darley Stable, which owns Bernardini. Edgar Prado, who spent most of his career riding in Maryland before moving to New York in 1999, earned the Eclipse as the top jockey. Prado, 39, rode Barbaro and is credited with helping to save the horse's life when Barbaro took a catastrophic misstep and broke his leg in the early moments of the Preakness.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Trainer Carl Nafzger said he was going to "sleep in" the morning after his 3-year-old charge, Street Sense, had won the Kentucky Derby. But Nafzger couldn't sleep and was at his Churchill Downs barn early serving coffee and doughnuts before 7 a.m. "You never get tired of winning the Kentucky Derby," he said. "You never get tired of reaching the higher pinnacle. In life it's hard to do and you never get tired of it." More Inside How the Preakness field is shaping up. PG 5D

Gretchen Jackson said yesterday that she and her husband, Roy, have yet to make a decision about the future resting place for late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. "We just haven't, for some reason, come up with where we want him to be," said Gretchen Jackson, who declined to say where Barbaro's ashes are now. Shortly after Barbaro was euthanized Jan. 29 after an 8 1/2 -month battle to recover from multiple breaks in his right rear leg suffered during the Preakness and the ensuing complication of laminitis in his left foot, both the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington offered grave sites at their facilities.

Gretchen Jackson was just about to go out and help trim the hooves on some of her cows at Lael Farm yesterday afternoon when the telephone rang. It was the Kennett Square Florist saying it was about to deliver 178 Easter baskets to the New Bolton Center, where her late Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, had lived the last eight months of his life. "All those gifts are from Barbaro fans," said Jackson, who owned Barbaro with her husband, Roy. "The florist wanted me to come over, but I just can't.

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.

It used to be that the arrival of mint in the Maryland spring brought julep season, which was reinforced by the Maryland Hunt Cup and picked up steam with the running of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. And with the big race today at Pimlico, I wonder how many folks will be holding a chilled silver cup from Stieff or Kirk, loaded with rye or bourbon, as the horses barrel around the clubhouse turn. This is a drink that seems to have a lot of adherents, but I wonder how many folks who say they enjoy juleps actually drink or bother to make them.

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 bird pooped on Arthur Hancock III in the paddock at Keeneland. It was a big load, splattering on Hancock's shoulder.This was two days before the Blue Grass Stakes, the race in which Menifee, whom Hancock bred and co-owns, would prove whether he belonged in the Kentucky Derby. Hancock's aunt had always said that a bird pooping on you meant good luck."I thought, `Well, that's interesting,' " Hancock said yesterday in his Kentucky drawl. " `Maybe we'll be lucky in the Blue Grass.' "About 30 minutes later, back in his seat at Keeneland, Hancock heard a startled voice in the next box: "Oh my God, will you look at that."

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Lisa Lewis spotted the penny in the dirt and considered picking it up. But first, she wanted to know, was it heads or tails?When you've done the best you can with the first good 3-year-old you've ever had, you resort at last to superstition.That's where Lewis, a 29-year-old native of Maryland, finds herself on the eve of the Santa Anita Derby. And that's exactly where she wants to be."This is what you want all the time, the 3-year-old going to the big races," Lewis said outside her barn at Santa Anita Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Chip Woolley waited patiently Wednesday morning for Mine That Bird's name to be called at the Belmont Stakes post-position draw. Woolley, though, isn't the most patient man on the planet. So when racing announcer and master of ceremonies Tom Durkin paused to ask Woolley which of the two remaining positions he would prefer - the six or the seven - Woolley shot him a look that contained equal parts bemusement and impatience. "It don't matter none," Woolley said. Mine That Bird ended up with the seventh position and will begin the week as a 2-1 favorite in the 141st running of the Belmont Stakes.

N ews item: : Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird might run in the Belmont Stakes with his third jockey in three races because Preakness rider Mike Smith was already committed to a race in California that day. My take: : I guess when you come out of nowhere to win the Derby and come within a length of running down the best filly in decades at the Preakness, you just have to take pot luck. The only thing that could make this story better would be if trainer Chip Woolley Jr. threw away his crutch and rode the horse himself in the Belmont.

With his Black-Eyed Susan win Friday, trainer Larry Jones is in position to take the rare double-double he came close to winning last year. Payton d'Oro easily gave Jones the victory, holding a steady lead throughout after setting the pace early along the rail. Jones will run Friesan Fire in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, a horse that was a favorite to win the Kentucky Derby before struggling in the mud at Churchill Downs. If Friesan Fire wins, it will mean personal vindication for Jones.

On the eve of the Preakness, if there is any part of you that believes a Triple Crown is still a possibility, then you should probably view Mine That Bird's improbable victory in the Kentucky Derby this way: The horse, the scion of Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, never had a trainer or jockey who understood what he was capable of before Chip Woolley and Calvin Borel. Sure, he was a 50-1 long shot going into the Derby and he had never won a Grade I stakes race, but he had run well and been right there in the Sunland Derby.

Nearly two weeks after the Kentucky Derby, Mike Smith still can't believe what he saw Mine That Bird and Calvin Borel do at Churchill Downs. He also can't believe that he, not Borel, will be riding the Derby winner Saturday in the 134th Preakness at Pimlico Race Course. For the first time in history, a jockey will jump off a Derby winner to ride another horse - and a filly at that - in the Preakness. And thanks to Borel's decision, Smith could get the ride of his life in the Preakness, a race he last won in 1993 aboard Prairie Bayou.

There have been distractions this week - Rachel Alexandra's new owners deciding to enter the filly in the 134th Preakness and creating buzz among horse fans, and the owners of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird talking about how to keep her out. But Tuesday evening, when Mine That Bird arrived by van at Pimlico Race Course surrounded by a police escort, the eyes of the racing world were back on the petite Kentucky Derby winner. Mine That Bird clearly enjoyed his stardom. After being unloaded, fed and watered, Mine That Bird was brought out of Stall 40, traditional home of Derby winners, and walked into the light and evening air. To the surprise of photographers, he stood and posed for pictures like a model.

Friesan Fire rubbed and bumped against trainer Larry Jones' riding pony early Tuesday morning on his way to the Pimlico Race Course track, seemingly unafraid of the contact and fully recovered from his rough trip in the Kentucky Derby. "He looks good," said Jones, who had jockey Gabriel Saez work the horse over five furlongs in a swift 58.40 seconds. "I'm very pleased with the way he's healed up. If you didn't know how bad he was, you wouldn't know it. We're really happy with the way he's come along, and we're ready to go."

After a curious weekend of horse maneuvering, the Preakness Stakes field began to firm up Monday. Hull, one of the few speed horses targeted for the race, dropped out. Friesan Fire, the Kentucky Derby favorite, checked in. Co-owner Barry Irwin couldn't reach a comfort level with the re-formed field - and the arrival of Rachel Alexandra - so he pulled out Hull. "When I committed to run in the race, I liked the way it was setting up," he said. "I think the pace is going to be too hot. I don't like the way it's shaping up for our horse."

Rachel Alexandra isn't quite in the field yet for the 134th running of the Preakness, but she does have a plane ticket to Baltimore, and her owners seem to have every expectation that she's going to run. They announced Saturday that the final decision to put her on the plane will be made in the next few days and that it's not expected until after a workout Sunday or Monday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. It's looking more like there will be...

When the race was over and the victory lap was just getting started, you could hear Calvin Borel's high-pitch Cajun squeal 10 rows deep in the Churchill Downs grandstand. It was a wail of joy, a mixture of exuberance and pride, and every last word sounded as though it were being shouted through tears. "Woooo! Woooo! Did ya see me ride that sucker! Yes, sir! Fifty to one! Oww! It's all in the hands, baby!" If it were any other jockey, the celebration might have felt like a gauche, over-the-top display of emotion.