HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Elite Alex and J P’s Gusto are horses with natural speed, but you would not have known it watching their last starts. Both raced farther off the pace than usual and as a result will add blinkers for the Arkansas Derby. Elite Alex worked in the equipment Wednesday morning at Oaklawn, when he covered six furlongs from the gate in a bullet 1:11.60.

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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The hard part may be over for Uncle Mo as far as Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial is concerned.

He got here.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The draw for the Santa Anita Derby had just taken place Wednesday morning when trainer Bob Baffert came barreling into the Santa Anita racing office and found out that, only seconds earlier, Jaycito had drawn the far outside post in the field of 11.

“Seriously? Really?” Baffert said, briefly disappointed. Then, in typical Baffert fashion, he joked, “You guys need to re-draw,” then added, “He likes the outside rail, anyway,” referring to Jaycito’s flirtation with the outer rail in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

Myung Kwon Cho had been in the United States for 10 years when his curiosity finally got the best of him and he announced to his wife, Lydia, “Let’s go to the races.”

Horse races, that is, Santa Anita style, and a beautiful day it turned out to be, that sparkling Saturday morning in April 1988. Only problem was, the Chos arrived a bit late, and wherever they tried to penetrate the main racetrack parking lot they were turned away for lack of space. Oh well, Cho thought, there’s always another day.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Smith says that the Kentucky Derby can weigh on a rider’s mind each spring.

“I don’t know when you want it the most – after you’ve won it once or if you’ve never won it,” he said on a recent morning at Santa Anita. “When you’ve won it, you want to win it again. You can imagine all you want, but until you do it . . . It feels like it’s a life changer.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rosie Napravnik was supposed to make a 10-hour drive from Delaware to Keeneland on Tuesday, but a nasty case of food poisoning delayed the trip by a day.

“It was horrible,” said Napravnik. “Four of us went to our favorite restaurant near Delaware Park [Monday night], and I had what everybody else had, except for the salad dressing. I was the only one who got sick, so I guess that was it.”

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Twenty-four hours later than scheduled, but none the worse for wear, undefeated champion Uncle Mo arrived in New York at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday morning for his engagement in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Uncle Mo arrived from south Florida on a Tex Sutton flight that had been delayed one day due to weather concerns.

"He shipped in really well and everything went smoothly," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "Im glad we waited the extra day and let the weather clear up. We had an uneventful trip."

Churchill Downs and NBC Sports announced Wednesday that they once again will offer a $100,000 win bet on the Kentucky Derby to one fan, a marketing experiment that paid off wildly in its first try last year when a Houston man hit for $900,000 by placing his wager on Super Saver, the Derby winner at 8-1.

Patrick Valenzuela will ride Sway Away in the Arkansas Derby, trainer Jeff Bonde said Monday. The horse, who was the runner-up to The Factor in the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita in February, finished a troubled sixth last out in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn. (The Factor won the race and on Monday worked six furlongs in 1:11.40 at Santa Anita.)

OZONE PARK, N.Y – Uncle Mo could face as many as 10 opponents in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and as far as the champion 2-year-old’s connections are concerned, the more the merrier.

“I want to get him around more horses,’’ owner Mike Repole said earlier this week. “In the Derby there’s going to be 20 horses. I’d like to see him get an outside post and not see him on the lead, but be able to rate and relax.’’