Horses

Kentucky Derby champion Big Brown returned to the track at Churchill Downs on Wednesday, four days after his 4 3/4-length win in the Run for the Roses. Trainer Rick Dutrow watched from the rail as Big Brown walked a lap around the track with exercise rider Michele Nevin. Dutrow said the 3-year-old colt has shown no ill effects from the Derby, in which Big Brown became the first horse in nearly 80 years to win from the No. 20 post. The two-week turnaround for the May 17 Preakness Stakes remains the trainer's main concern. "Coming back in two weeks, he is stacked up against it," Dutrow said. "He's not a robot. He has run fast races and ...

Does the lady have a chance? On Saturday at Churchill Downs, Eight Belles will attempt to become the fourth filly to win the Kentucky Derby, joining Regret (1915), Genuine Risk (1980) and Winning Colors (1988). Thirty-five other fillies have tried to win the Derby and failed (although none have tried since 1999). While that sounds daunting, remember that a filly won last year’s Belmont Stakes: Rags to Riches. So don’t completely rule out Eight Belles, the daughter of Unbridled's Song. “It (fillies defeating males) can be done. They do it all the time in Europe,” said Eight Belles' trainer, Larry Jones, who saddled the colt Hard Spun to a second-place finish in last year's Derby. ...

It’s often said a horse can’t win the Kentucky Derby from the far outside post, but Big Brown will test that theory Saturday. Undefeated Big Brown, the 3-1 favorite, will start from No. 20. Only one Kentucky Derby winner, Clyde Van Dusen in 1929, came from there. Only 11 Derbys since then had a field of at least 20, but only one horse (Caveat, third in 1983) finished in the money. But the post position statistic is misleading because it wasn't until the last 16 years that fields of 18 or more became the norm. During that span, two horses — Thunder Gulch in 1995 and Charismatic in 1999 — came from post 16 to win, but neither ...

All you need to know about Gayego heading into the Kentucky Derby is that the colt won the (Grade II) Arkansas Derby. In the last four years, three Arkansas Derby winners — Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and Curlin — have gone on to become America's best 3-year-old. Smarty Jones won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2004, Afleet Alex won the Preakness and Belmont in 2005 and Curlin won the Preakness last year. And when they didn't win, they were in the mutuel money — Smarty Jones was a close second in the Belmont; Afleet Alex was third in the Derby; and Curlin was third in the Derby and a photo-finish loser to Rags to Riches in the ...

Behindatthebar will not run in Saturday's Kentucky Derby, paving the way for Denis of Cork to be part of the field. Todd Pletcher, who trains Behindatthebar, said Monday that after talking it over with owners Satish and Sasha Sanan, "We all thought 16 days between two races was a lot of pressure to put on a horse." Behindatthebar, winner of the Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 19, was 17th on the Derby's graded-stakes earnings list, which determines who runs in the race if more than 20 are entered. Denis of Cork, fifth in the Illinois Derby in his last start, was No. 21 on the list. Pletcher still has two three-year-olds for the Derby, Blue Grass ...

Colonel John ran the fastest 5 furlongs Sunday in his last major workout before the 134th Kentucky Derby, when the California colt will race on dirt for the first time. Colonel John was one of five prospective Derby starters to work over a fast track Sunday. He was joined on a busy tab by the Bill Mott-trained duo of Court Vision and Z Humor, Adriano and the filly Eight Belles. Colonel John completed 5 furlongs in 57.80 seconds, quickest of 62 workouts at the distance, without any urging from exercise rider Karine Lhuillier. "It wasn't my intention to go that fast, but it wasn't my intention the track was going to be this fast," trainer Eoin Harty ...

Undefeated War Pass, last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner and the No. 1 horse in The Associated Press' latest Run to the Roses Top 10, headlines the nominations for Saturday’s Grade III Tampa Bay Derby. Trained by Nick Zito, War Pass is 5-for-5 in his career and is coming off a 7 1/2 -length romp at Gulfstream Park in his 3-year-old debut. In his short career, he has never been behind a horse. "He's undefeated right now, and I think he is a special horse. ... I don't have any other explanation than that," Zito said. "He is a tremendous horse, and he has taken care of everyone he was supposed to take care of. I love the ...

Saturday’s Grade II, $600,000 Louisiana Derby features a field of nine, with Pyro clearly the horse to beat. In fact, this may be the week that Pryo, who won the Risen Star Stakes on Feb. 9 in his 2008 debut, stamps himself as the best 3-year-old in the country not named War Pass. Trained by Steve Asmussen, Pryo is the 7-5 morning-line favorite and will start from Post 3 with Shaun Bridgmohan again in the saddle. Following a win in his first-ever start, Pyro was third in an allowance race and then posted two straight second-place finishes in the Champagne Stakes and Breeders' Cup Juvenile. It was War Pass, incidentally, who got the best of Pyro in ...

A full field of 14 is entered for Saturday’s 1¼-mile, $1 million Grade I Santa Anita Handicap, a race that has long been the signature event of Santa Anita's Winter/Spring meeting.  Awesome Gem drew the No. 5 post position and was established as the 4-1 opening-line favorite the 71st running. Awesome Gem, trained by Craig Dollase and to be ridden by David Flores, hasn't won in five starts since an allowance race June 23 at Hollywood Park. But those five starts have all come in graded stakes, and Awesome Gem has produced second-or third-place finishes each time.   The 5-year-old gelding strung together second-place finishes in the San Diego Handicap and Pacific Classic in July and August at Del Mar ...

The key Kentucky Derby prep race this weekend is at Miami’s Gulfstream Park with the $250,000 Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes. Court Vision, Monba and Anak Nakal are the top  three prospects racing. While Court Vision, who captured his final three starts of last year, is the likely favorite, keep an eye on the Todd Pletcher-trained Monba. Monba had two wins and a fourth-place finish in the CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park to complete his 2007 campaign. That has put Monba on the short list of top contenders for the Kentucky Derby. Monba’s best race to date actually may have been that fourth-place finish in the Grade I CashCall, when he was slammed into at ...