Losing a Kentucky Derby hopeful is never easy, although in some cases, it can be reasoned away. George and Lori Hall recently sold Sweet Ducky to foreign interests for “a lot of money,” according to their private trainer, Kelly Breen, in a move primarily intended to maintain a semblance of fiscal feasibility in their multi-million dollar Thoroughbred operation.

“In a way, it’s a shame because we had a horse that could go a distance and was all set to have a big spring,” Breen said. “But when you can turn a profit, you need to turn a profit.”

ALBANY, Calif. – Jockey Kevin Krigger is used to making big splashes.

In June 2001, he left his native St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands at age 18, came to the United States to begin his career as a jockey and won 50 races at Thistledown in his first meet, riding his first race on Aug. 29.

He came west three months late and made the Top Ten in the jockey standings at Golden Gate Fields, recording 54 victories.

Krigger, now 27, returned to Golden Gate earlier this year and has been on fire of late.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Always a Princess continues to improve from a sesamoid injury suffered in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Invitational on March 12, but a decision on whether she will be bred this year or in 2012 depends on the filly’s condition in coming weeks, owner Arnold Zetcher said.

Always a Princess underwent successful surgery March 13 to stabilize the leg at an equine hospital in Cypress, Calif., and has since been transferred to an equine hospital in Chino, Calif., to continue her recuperation.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A comfortable victory in a $32,000 claimer at Hollywood Park last December was the start of a three-race winning streak for Startjumpin Marnie, who could extend that streak to four in an optional claimer at Santa Anita on Thursday.

Trained and co-owned by Jerry Hollendorfer, Startjumpin Marnie, 6, followed the win in a $32,000 claimer with a victory in a $50,000 claimer here Jan. 7 and a win in the Super Bowl Party Handicap over a mile on turf here Feb. 6, her most recent start.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Haynesfield, last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup winner, worked five furlongs in 1:03.41 Sunday morning over Belmont Park’s training track. It was his third work since March 8 as his connections look toward a mid-to-late spring return to the races for the 5-year-old New York-bred.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The Factor put up his third triple-digit Beyer Figure in a row Saturday with a 6  1/4-length win the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn, and in the process stamped himself as a leading candidate for the Kentucky Derby.

The Rebel was his first test at two turns, and he earned a Beyer of 103.

KENTUCKY DERBY NEWS: Track all the 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Soldat pretty much had everything his own way on the front end in each of his two victories here this winter, including the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. But trainer Kiaran McLaughlin knows things are going to be different as Soldat moves further along the Kentucky Derby trail, and especially if he’s fortunate to make it into the Derby itself.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Temperatures were in the mid-30s Monday morning, and it was raining with the occasional snow flurry mixed in. If you need further evidence spring hasn’t truly sprung, consider there is one more week of racing over Aqueduct’s inner track.

The first of the final five inner track cards will likely be run under wet conditions with more rain forecast for Wednesday. A wet track shouldn’t hamper Dawly, who stretches out around two turns for the first time in the day’s featured entry-level optional $75,000 claimer for 3-year-olds going one mile.

In Robert Burns’s poem, To a Mouse, the author notes “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley [often go awry].”

We shall hope, for Elite Alex’s sake, that trainer Tim Ritchey’s decision to bypass last week’s Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park in favor for this Saturday’s Grade 2, $1,000,000 Louisiana Derby does not prove the old saying correct.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Two days after the March 5 Gotham Stakes, the connections of the runner-up, Norman Asbjornson, and third-place finisher, Toby’s Corner, indicated they would look more at the Illinois Derby than the Wood Memorial for their horses’ next starts.

Two weeks later, there appears to be a change of heart.