With the strongest racing stable in America, Todd Pletcher comes into the Kentucky Derby in a position of extraordinary strength. He will saddle 25 percent of the field: Verrazano, the undefeated colt who is the probable favorite; Revolutionary, the formidable stretch-runner who won the Louisiana Derby; Overanalyze, runaway winner of the Arkansas Derby; and two others.

Dallas Stewart doesn’t much care about all the dominoes that had to fall for Golden Soul to finally make it into the Kentucky Derby field. All along, Stewart has trained the colt as if a Derby run was next on the agenda, and now that that’s happening, it’s up to Golden Soul to prove he belongs.

“He’s a nice, nice colt,” said Stewart, the former longtime assistant to D. Wayne Lukas who went on his own in 1997. “He finished up well against some good ones down at Fair Grounds. Plus I believe he’s improving and loves this racetrack.”

In the run-up to the Kentucky Derby, Goldencents, the Santa Anita Derby winner, has been referred to in most media circles as Rick Pitino’s horse, but saying that is like saying the Brooklyn Nets were Jay-Z’s team.

Pitino owns 5 percent of the Derby runner, while three other men own 95 percent, and it was one of them, Dave Kenney, whose graciousness allowed Pitino into the partnership long after Goldencents was purchased at auction a little more than a year ago.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The phone calls would come often from the school Kevin Krigger attended, with the same message for his father, Albert.

“Mr. Krigger, your son and daughter are out on the road with the horses,” he was told. “They’re supposed to be in school.

[DERBY WATCH: Top 20 Kentucky Derby contenders with odds and video]

Albert Krigger would come home and remind his son about the importance of going to school.

“But, tomorrow, same thing,” he remembered.

Falling Sky displayed a bit of eagerness during his Tuesday morning training session, galloping at a brisk clip under exercise rider Cassie Garcea. Trainer John Terranova would have been surprised if he hadn’t.

“He’s into it. He likes to move along but he’s comfortable doing it. That’s him,” Terranova said. “He covers the ground fantastic. He’s really a nice horse, I just don’t know about the distance. He’s going to give his all for us.”

[bc_video_id:290940:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The major work has been done. All that remains for the trainers of the 20 prospective Kentucky Derby starters is to maintain their horses’ form over the next several days and hope fortune smiles down upon them during Wednesday’s post-position draw.

Churchill announced on Tuesday that the guarantee for its Derby Day pick six will be $1 million, double the $500,000 guarantee from last year, while the guarantee for the Oaks Day pick six would be boosted $50,000 to $250,000.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. had his hands full simply trying to walk his Kentucky Derby hopeful Itsmyluckyday around the shed row at feed time on Monday. His exercise rider, Peter Shelton, had a similar problem trying to keep the Florida Derby runner-up from running off during  training hours the following morning.

Plesa said Itsmyluckyday couldn’t have adapted any better to his new surroundings at Churchill Downs or, even more important, the racetrack itself, following his arrival from Calder on Saturday.

The city of Pleasanton seeps racing tradition. It has the oldest one-mile track in the United States, the track where 1922 Kentucky Derby winner Morvich trained before heading east. The town was known for its horse farms before urban sprawl swallowed up land.

The people of Pleasanton, naturally, are excited about the Kentucky Derby, and on Saturday they will be able to relive a season when one of their own made a big impact on the Triple Crown.

When he went to Churchill Downs last year, trainer Doug O’Neill said, “I felt like the luckiest guy in the world to be part of the Kentucky Derby.” But after he saddled I’ll Have Another to win America’s most famous race, he could scarcely have imagined what the success would be like.