NEW YORK – The long road to the Kentucky Derby is nearing the end as two more major final Derby preps – the Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby – will be checked off the list Saturday. The Grade 1, $1 million Wood Memorial tops a card at Aqueduct that includes four other graded stakes, the biggest being the Grade 1, $400,000 Carter Handicap. The Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby heads a card that includes three other graded events, the most notable being the Grade 1, $300,000 Santa Anita Oaks.

[bc_video_id:288404:]OZONE PARK, N.Y. – If one were to drive the 771 miles from Aqueduct to Churchill Downs, the route would include a trip over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, an imposing double-suspension structure that leads from Brooklyn to Staten Island and points south and west.

Dell Hancock/courtesy Claiborne FarmWar Front

Ted Aroney likes to think he’s learned the secret of winning the Kentucky Derby, although it’s not much of a secret. More like fortune-cookie wisdom, so obvious that to deny its truth is nothing more than a waste of time.

Anybody can win.

His first lesson came in 1971, when Canonero II, the colt from Venezuela, came from out of the clouds – and the mutuel field – to win the 97th Kentucky Derby by 3 3/4 lengths despite a nightmarish experience in quarantine and a jockey-trainer combination that needed a guide and translator just to find Louisville, Ky.

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Texas Bling on Wednesday put in his penultimate work for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13, going five furlongs in 1:01.60. Trainer Danele Durham said his final prep would come Tuesday, with plans for a three-furlong blowout at Oaklawn.

Texas Bling worked under jockey Calvin Borel, with Oaklawn head clocker Jim Hamilton carrying him through fractions of 12.80 seconds for the opening eighth of a mile, 25.20 for the first quarter, and 38.40 for three furlongs. Hamilton had the horse’s final quarter in 23.20 and had him galloping out six furlongs in 1:14.40.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Tiz a Minister earned a start in Saturday’s $750,000 Santa Anita Derby when he closed from last of eight in the final half-mile of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on March 9 to finish a competitive third.

That performance has left owner Stephen Young of nearby Monrovia, Calif., in an unusual position – starting his first horse in a Grade 1, and in California’s top race for 3-year-olds.

“This is big time,” he said.

[SANTA ANITA DERBY: Get PPs, watch Saturday's full card live]

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Corey Nakatani was asked Wednesday morning about his record in the Kentucky Derby, and answered just how you would expect the typically blunt Nakatani to answer.

“I suck,” he said.

Then he laughed.

“I guess the good thing is people know I have the ability to ride in the race,” Nakatani said. “The positive is that I’ve ridden in the Derby 16 times. I really do think there’s one with my name on it. Look at my idol, Laffit Pincay Jr. He just won it once. Pat Day won it once, and both had had multiple opportunities to win.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Flashback, the beaten favorite in the San Felipe Stakes last month, and Hear the Ghost, who upset him in that race, drew the inside two post positions in a field of nine on Wednesday for the Grade 1, $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on Saturday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - These should be giddy times for David Wilkenfeld, owner of the undefeated Vyjack, who enters Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct as the second choice on the morning line to fellow undefeated 3-year-old Verrazano.