Kentucky Derby

It's hot - but not too hot - and humid - but not too humid - here as 150,000 people make their way toward Churchill Downs, where the 138 th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place at about 6:30 tonight. Hard rain fell overnight, leaving the track sloppy in the morning and preventing any of the Derby's 20 contestants from going to the track (it has since been upgraded all the way up to fast). Graham Motion, the Fair Hill trainer who won the Derby last year with Animal Kingdom, had told me he hoped to take Went the Day Well out there.

On a cool Saturday morning, Hamilton A. Smith - the programs call him that, but most every acquaintance calls him Ham or Hammy - is doing his best to do as he always has. He moves around his barn at Laurel Park, working his staff. His rapid-fire delivery is steady, always, and his humor wry. But he can be sarcastic, too. "You're never quite sure how to take him," says Sheldon Russell, the 24-year-old who is Maryland's leading jockey. Smith does this on purpose, keeping his riders and other workers - he's never had an actual assistant, like many trainers - on edge.

PP Horse Trainer Jockey Record Earnings Last race Tom Keyser's comment Odds 1... Songandaprayer... John Dowd... Aaron Gryder... 6: 3-1-0... $369,480......... 2nd Blue Grass Stakes... Inside post forces him to fire from gate; he'll flame out... 20-1 2...Millennium Wind... David Hofmans... Laffit Pincay Jr.... 5: 3-2-0... $769,920... 1st Blue Grass Stakes... Never worse than second, he's overcome cracked heels, skin rash... 6-1 3...Balto Star... Todd Pletcher Mark Guidry... 8: 4-0-1...

The most visually stunning probable entrant in the upcoming Kentucky Derby could also become the favorite with a good showing at the Blue Grass Stakes this weekend. Hansen, a nearly all white colt trained by Mike Maker, is the 6-5 favorite in Lexington . He'll be challenged by Howe Great, trained by Maryland-based Graham Motion and owned by Team Valor International. Motion and Team Valor, of course, won last year's Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, and have another possible Derby horse in Went the Day Well.

Under a cloudy sky -- and before the eyes of dozens of curious trainers and jockey -- Kentucky Derby-bound Done Talking had his final workout at Laurel Park early this morning. The Hamilton Smith-trained colt went five furlongs in just over a minute under Sheldon Russell, his regular rider and the top jockey in Maryland. Both Smith and Russell said they felt the horse handled the work well. Smith, 67 and a Maryland regular for more than 30 years, has never had a Triple Crown horse.

As Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another vanned out of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport with a police escort Monday afternoon, he was greeted by local horse fans trying to make him feel instantly at home. "People were lined up and chanting, 'I'd love another,'" said assistant trainer Jack Sisterson, who accompanied the horse on a flight from Louisville, Ky. "His ears are pricked and he's bobbing his head, 'Yeah, that's me!'" At Pimlico Race Course , cameras from local television stations were lined up along print media to record the arrival of the gorgeous, Doug O'Neill-trained chestnut as he came off the trailer and pranced to his stall.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Standing outside of his barn at Churchill Downs, leaning against a temporary fence that seems more invitation that blockade, D. Wayne Lukas is as much a Kentucky Derby fixture as spilled bourbon and bad bets. The Derby takes thousands of horses in their 3-year-old years and whittles them down to a field of 20 through a series of races run across the country, and no trainer has been there at the end more often than Lukas. His two starters entered in Saturday's race, 30-1 Oxbow and 20-1 Will Take Charge, would be his 46th and 47th.

Bob Baffert calls his son, Bode, over for the cameras. The boy, a shy 7-year-old, relents as his mother brushes a mess of brown hair from his eyes. Then the boy shows what he's learned from his father, the witty trainer whose hard-driving style has led to three trips to the winner's circle at the Kentucky Derby. "Who are you rooting for?" Bode is asked as he stares at a giant microphone hovering near his head. ("Looks like a rat," Baffert had exclaimed.) "I don't know," Bode says, scratching his head and twisting his face to look confused.

Graham Motion shrugs his shoulders when asked, then offers, as usual, a dirt-honest appraisal of his horse, Went the Day Well . "He's a good horse, deserves to be here," the trainer of last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom , said about his entrant in the 138th running of the Triple Crown's first leg. "We'll find out if he's good enough to win it. " It takes a few seconds, but Motion then realizes it: he didn't feel...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- There's no such phrase as "horse shortage" at this year's Kentucky Derby.A field of 19 3-year-olds, three more than the recent 10-year average of 16 starters, appears fairly certain to be entered Thursday for the 121st running of the race.It's an eclectic group: one filly (Serena's Song), a horse from Japan (Ski Captain), a Canadian champion (Talkin Man), a pair of English-breds (Jumron, In Character) and not a single U.S.-hyped superhero, although Serena's Song, the lone female, heightens interest and star quality.