Betting on the Kentucky Derby and the 13-race Derby card at Churchill Downs rebounded on Saturday after three years of declines, according to figures released by Churchill, despite heavy pre-race rains, a bet-processing malfunction, and the lack of any standout favorite in the 20-horse field.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - On Sunday morning, trainer Todd Pletcher made the same walk from his barn to the Churchill Downs Backside Media Center that he had made exactly one week earlier. Only this time, the feeling was completely different.

On April 25, a dejected Pletcher held a morning press conference to announce that the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby, Eskendereya, would have to miss the race due to an injury to his left foreleg.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hattiesburg has never known anything quite like it, unless you count their favorite son playing in Super Bowls and such. So when Ike and Dawn Thrash and their ample brood from a southern Mississippi town of some 45,000 send out a colt named Line of David under their royal blue silks Saturday in the 136th Kentucky Derby, it will be a special day indeed.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. The plan to run the filly Devil May Care in Saturday s 136th Kentucky Derby may have been finalized Monday, but its origins date back to last summer.

On the morning of Aug. 16 at Saratoga, the then-unraced Devil May Care worked five furlongs in 59.65 seconds out of the gate at Saratoga. It was the fastest of 40 works recorded that morning.

She galloped out as strongly as any 2-year-old I ve ever had, Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Devil May Care, said this week. At that point, I said, Wow, this is a very talented filly.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The field in the Santa Anita Derby hit the far turn, and there came Garrett Gomez and favored Lookin At Lucky creeping up along the fence. Lookin At Lucky was the race favorite, the horse with a target affixed. His run was clean till midway around the turn, where Victor Espinoza on Who's Up dropped over toward the rail. Garrett Gomez found himself in trouble.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ahmed Zayat was home in New Jersey when he heard the news about the ankle injury suffered by Endorsement on Wednesday morning that prevented that horse from being entered in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

"It's heart-wrenching, you lose your horse hours before the draw," Zayat said by phone. "It's really sad."

The expiration this year of the broadcast contracts for the three Triple Crown races and the decision by Churchill Downs to install permanent lighting has raised suggestions that Churchill might run the Kentucky Derby at night in the near future.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Steeplechase champions, turf champions, a 2-year-old champion, even a sprint champion in Informed Decision, who won her Eclipse in 2009: Jonathan Sheppard has trained top-class runners of widely divergent types. One thing Sheppard has not done is start a horse in a Triple Crown race, but if things go well over the next two weeks, that will change in the Preakness Stakes, the race to which Sheppard is pointing lightly raced and promising Bushwhacked.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Jeremy Noseda, the trainer of Gotham Stakes winner Awesome Act, said he believes a wet track would benefit his horse in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

"I hope the heaven's open," Noseda said. "I'd love to see the race be run on a sloppy track. I have a hunch he'd love a sloppy track. I might be sitting here Saturday afternoon 'Why did I think that?' but I think it might suit my horse and compromise others."

Part of Noseda's hunch was confirmed Tuesday when Awesome Act worked a solid half-mile in 48.44 seconds and galloped strongly over a wet track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Regardless of their post-time odds, there has been plenty of buzz concerning three of trainer Todd Pletcher's four Derby starters. There has been virtually no discussion of the Pletcher-trained Discreetly Mine.