LOUISVILLE, Ky. - John Geider will be in good company if his namesake, Colonel John, comes through Saturday in the 134th running of the Kentucky Derby. In recent years there has been a discernable trend. Smarty Jones was the childhood nickname of the owner. Giacomo honored the son of the owner's friend. And while Barbaro was named for a dog, it was a real good dog.

Funny thing is, though, if anything ever was going to be named for Geider, it was more likely to be a freshly paved street or an electrical grid located somewhere in the heart of Baghdad.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Larry Jones, the shy Kentucky cowboy who trained 2007 Derby runner-up Hard Spun, was only thinking about the welfare of the vast Derby media when he and owner Rick Porter made the decision to run Fantasy Stakes winner Eight Belles against the boys on Saturday.

"I was afraid everybody would not have anything to criticize," he said Monday morning, tongue nestled snugly in his cheek. "At least if they're second-guessing us this time, they're doing it behind our back."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As Louie Roussel III and Ronnie Lamarque return to Churchill Downs this week, many people will remember them from 1988 as one of the oddest trainer-owner combinations ever involved in the Kentucky Derby.

In contrast to most trainers, Roussel was insecure, constantly racked by self-doubt. He once told interviewers, "What I know about training you could put under a gnat's armpit."

Lamarque was an effusive, glad-handing, hard-partying car dealer who was the cheerleader bucking up Roussel's confidence.

NEW YORK - Kentuckians have similar taste in their Derby favorites and their mint juleps: heavy on the syrup and almost unbearably sweet.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - At around 8 o'clock Friday morning, in a stall at Doug O'Neill's barn at Hollywood Park, Noe Garcia was preparing Lava Man for a routine gallop. Already, this is an unlikely scenario.

Nine months ago, Garcia was lying helplessly in his capsized van near the Del Mar exit of Interstate 5 thanks to some drunken fool who tried to run him off the road. Garcia's left arm was gone and he was bleeding profusely from the shredded stump left behind. Only heroic emergency efforts saved his life.

NEW YORK - Horseplayers following Del Mar, Keeneland, and Woodbine may be sharply divided over the replacement of dirt with Polytrack at those ovals, but they are virtually unanimous in their support for another innovation at those three tracks: the Trakus system, which uses radio tags embedded in horses' saddlecloths to provide real-time positioning for each runner. Much as players like what the system currently does, it's about to get even better.

One of the most vivid play-by-play racing reports ever read by these eyes was published right after the running of the 1975 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap, a race that pitted the best fillies and mares in the West.

"Tizna broke alertly," the story began, "then eased back off the pace to be positioned on the rail, found a large opening into the three-sixteenths pole, responded to get the lead from Susan's Girl, drew clear and ran hard to hold and win in full stride."

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Counter-programming begins in earnest this weekend, when tracks around the country attempt to distract horse owners and horseplayers from that shiny bauble called the Kentucky Derby, dancing on the horizon.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The Hollywood Park season opens Wednesday, kicking off a meet that will feature the return of Lava Man, groups like Smithereens and English Beat at Friday night concerts, and two red-hot jockeys fresh from fabulous closing-day afternoons at Santa Anita last Sunday.

One of them, of course, is Rafael Bejarano. The 25-year-old native of Peru seized his first Santa Anita title with a flourish by winning four races Sunday, including the San Juan Capistrano aboard Big Booster, to beat Garrett Gomez 67-63.

NEW YORK - Now that it's clear that the Kentucky Derby is perpetually going to attract more than the 20 entries to which it is limited, Churchill Downs needs to reconsider both how horses qualify for the race and what to do with the overflow. The entry procedures are set in stone for this year, but it's time to consider some alternatives for 2009.