As the Kentucky Derby nears, handicappers pore over mounds of statistics, historical records, breeding theories, and other information to find the winner. Each tries to figure out the most important factor or factors: recent form, ability to get 10 furlongs, trainer, sire, dam, post position, or a combination of the above.

Art Sherman figures that if he can’t do anything with the real thing right now, he might as well try to win the $150,000 California Chrome Stakes on Saturday at Los Alamitos.

“That’s kind of unusual, isn’t it?” Sherman wondered. “Trying to win a race named for a horse of yours still in training?”

Canterbury Park made a bold and popular decision when it announced last week that it was reducing the parimutuel takeout for its upcoming race meet. Its new rates of 15 percent on straight wagers and 18 percent on all others will be the lowest in the nation when the Shakopee, Minn., track opens a 69-day meet on May 20.

“We want to be the most horseplayer-friendly track in America,” said Eric Halstrom, the track’s vice president for racing operations.

In 1976, the good people at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs welcomed into their Hall of Fame a list of transcendent personalities that included Ruffian, Northern Dancer, Susan’s Girl, Woody Stephens, and Braulio Baeza.

As has been noted in this space, the last four major Grade 1, $1 million Kentucky Derby preps – the Arkansas Derby, the Wood Memorial, the Blue Grass, and the Santa Anita Derby – were all fast early/slow late races.

To put it another way, these four Derby preps fell apart late after fast early paces. And the running styles that mostly filled out the top three spots in these races were pretty much what you would expect in such races. Take a look:

Arkansas Derby – The first three finishers were deep closers.

Russell Baze won the first race at Golden Gate Fields on Saturday, April 16, aboard the 5-year-old Borrego mare Emerald Green, who was even-money in the one-mile race for $4,000 claimers. The purse was $8,513, and first place was worth $4,675, which meant Baze made around $500, less whatever he pays agent Ray Harris, his valet, Gov. Brown, and Uncle Sam.

Use him for a windbreak, a coat rack, a barn doorstop. It doesn’t matter to California Chrome as long as you set him free in his paddock for most of the day and have a bag of Mrs. Pastures horse cookies handy on demand.

In fact, the 2014 Horse of the Year and freshly minted Dubai World Cup winner has become one of the main attractions of the suddenly booming Kentucky horse-farm-tour business, which means Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville is a hot spot on the itinerary of any tour bus worth its biofuel.

If everyone agrees that the best 3-year-old filly in the land is Songbird, even though she will miss the Kentucky Oaks, and the best older mare is Beholder, even though she has yet to race this year, where do we put Tepin?

Answer: Anywhere you want.

What do the Arkansas Derby, Wood Memorial, Blue Grass, and Santa Anita Derby have in common this year aside from being Grade 1, $1 million events, and the last four major point preps for the Kentucky Derby?

They were all fast early, slow late races.

The Santa Anita Derby, Wood, and Blue Grass were run and discussed in this space last week. The Arkansas Derby was the big race of the day Saturday, and it was eerie – or perhaps fitting, if you think about it – how much it was like the trio of stakes for 3-year-olds run seven days earlier.

A year ago, the field for the Kentucky Derby shaped up as one of the best and deepest in many years. The five favorites were 13 for 13 as 3-year-olds, and all five Grade 1 preps were won by daylight in strong performances. Eight entrants had run Beyer Speed Figures of 100 or more.

This year, the story is entirely different.