The winner of Sunday’s 1 1/8-mile Sunland Derby will be awarded 50 points in the Kentucky Derby qualifying system, which should be more than enough to ensure a place for him in the Derby starting gate.

[SUNLAND DERBY: Get PPs, watch Sunday's full card live]

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Always in a Tiz, who had spent about a month at Oaklawn Park, was held out of last week’s Rebel Stakes because his connections felt he wasn’t quite himself.

Back home in New York, Always in a Tiz showed signs of life Thursday morning when he worked four furlongs in 48.27 seconds over the Belmont Park training track. Working by himself under exercise rider Carl Allsop, Always in a Tiz went his first quarter in 24.11 and his final quarter in 24.16. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:00.92.

Sunland Derby favorite Shakin It Up was one of six horses who flew into New Mexico on Thursday morning to be part of a Sunday program of seven stakes worth more than $1.4  million. The card is the richest of the meet at Sunland Park.

Shakin It Up was joined on Thursday’s flight by Govenor Charlie, Saint Prado and Mudflats, all of whom are also entered in the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby. The fillies Midnight Lucky and Unusual Way also made the trip, according to a track official, to run in the $200,000 Sunland Park Oaks.

FLORENCE, Ky. – The far outside post? Many horsemen will tell you they actually prefer it for a one-turn race. But going two turns? Um, no.

FLORENCE, Ky. – The road to the Kentucky Derby rarely is smooth, as Mark Casse can attest. With a colt named Uncaptured, the trainer hit a detour that has led him to Turfway Park, where on Saturday the track’s showcase event will serve as a critical test for Uncaptured and 11 other Derby hopefuls.

FLORENCE, Ky. – There were agonizing moments when Jeff Greenhill questioned why he ever gave up the security of being a government-employed chemical engineer to become a Thoroughbred horse trainer.

“One morning a few years ago, I was driving through the split in the hills near Carrollton,” said Greenhill, referring to the monotonous drive on Interstate 71 in Kentucky. “And I broke out in a sweat. I thought, ‘Where in the world is my next win coming from?’ All I had in the barn was manes and tails.”

WHO'S HOT

CINCINNATI – What amounts to a berth in the May 4 Kentucky Derby will be up for grabs Saturday when a wide-open field of 3-year-olds goes off at Turfway Park in the 42nd running of the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes.

The Spiral is worth 50 points to the winner (85 in all) on the new eligibility system in place for the Derby, making it all but certain the winner will make the cut in case the 20-horse maximum is exceeded.

Quinzieme Monarque, fourth to Rydilluc in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream on March 3, will switch to dirt for the Grade 1 Wood Memorial on April 6, trainer Tom Albertrani said.

Quinzieme Monarque, a son of Rock Hard Ten, is winless in two dirt tries, finishing fourth in an off-the-turf maiden race last summer at Saratoga and fourth, beaten 17 1/2 lengths, in the Grade 2 Remsen here last November.

“He may prefer the turf, but we’ll take a shot and see what happens,” Albertrani said.

The Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby on Sunday takes place in the American Southwest, so it could be a shootout, and since the track is in New Mexico, hard by El Paso, Texas, it could be a border war. But, really, it’s nothing more than a schoolyard brawl.

You see, Joel Marr, who trains local hero Dry Summer, and Todd Pletcher, who is bringing in Abraham, went to school together nearly 40 years ago at nearby Zach White Elementary School, a little more than two miles from the track.

Who beat up whom on the playground?