FLORENCE, Ky. - Many of Rick Pitino's Cardinals will be running at full speed this weekend - including one with four legs.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - This has been the driest winter in south Florida in more than 100 years. There hasn't been a significant rainfall in the area in the longest time. At least not until Wednesday morning, when heavy showers put a damper on training throughout the region, and forced trainer Jimmy Jerkens to cancel his plan to work his Kentucky Derby prospect Quality Road at the Palm Meadows training center in Boynton Beach.

Mine That Bird, last year's champion 2-year-old of Canada and a close runner-up in last month's Borderland Derby here, will make his next start in the $800,000 Sunland Derby on March 29, according to trainer Chip Woolley.

"He's doing super," Woolley said from his Sunland Park barn Tuesday morning. "We just worked him five-eighths [1:01.80] and are real pleased. He has never been much of a work horse, more of a laid-back cruising type, but he looked sharp."

Life is a series of logical progressions, according to Kelly Breen. And through small, sometimes undefinable, steps, great things can ultimately result.

And so it is that Breen is one step away from the Kentucky Derby. As the trainer of West Side Bernie for owners George and Lori Hall, one of the favorites for the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes on Saturday, he is doing everything in his power not to make the mental leap from the mundane tasks required of him and his stable star this week at Turfway Park to the paddock on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Square Eddie, runner-up in last fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, has been made the 5-2 favorite in the annual winter book for the June 21 Queen's Plate here at Woodbine.

The winter book, a hypothetical exercise compiled by Woodbine oddsmaker Jennifer Morrison, lists odds for all of the 123 nominees currently eligible for the $1 million Queen's Plate, a 1 1/4-mile race that is the first leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

ARCADIA, Calif. - U S Ranger will be between starts in Grade 1 races when he runs in Saturday's $65,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes at Santa Anita.

Fifth in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Mile here last October, U S Ranger will use the Hernandez as a prep for the Grade 1 Maker's Mark Mile at Keeneland on April 10, trainer Neil Drysdale said.

The Hernandez is run over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course.

"I think it will be a nice place to start him up," Drysdale said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Royale Michele has made it from low-level claimer to Grade 2 winner. Perseverance, it seems, is a family trait.

Royale Michele, who seeks her fifth consecutive victory in Saturday's Grade 2, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct, is out of the dam Michele Royale, who nearly died five years ago. She had suffered from severe colic and was bleeding internally so badly that the decision was made to euthanize her. She was in foal to Favorite Trick at the time. However, Jo Pollock, who along with her husband, Sam, owned Michele Royale, said not to put the mare down.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Big Drama won't run next Saturday in the Florida Derby. But there's a good chance the once-beaten 3-year-old may still compete on Florida Derby Day in the Grade 2 Swale Stakes at seven furlongs.

Hollywood Park officials committed the track to a fall race meet this year at a meeting of the California Horse Racing Board at Golden Gate Fields in Albany on Thursday.

Commissioners had asked Hollywood Park officials to clarify their position on holding a fall meet because of concerns that the track would be torn down later this year in order to begin redeveloping the property. Jack Liebau, president of Hollywood Park, told commissioners that the track will definitely run the meet this year, but would not provide any other information about Hollywood's long-term future.

STICKNEY, Ill. - When the 3-year-old filly Hello Again lines up in the starting gate for the featured sixth race at Hawthorne, she may look up and down the stalls, and breathe a sigh of relief: No Rachel Alexandra.