LEXINGTON, Ky. - Friesan Fire will have had seven weeks off when he steps into the starting gate for the 2009 Kentucky Derby. So trainer Larry Jones needed to do something a little more serious with the Louisiana Derby winner just two weeks prior to the big event. That serious work came Sunday morning at Keeneland, where Friesan Fire worked a mile with regular rider Gabriel Saez aboard.

Keeneland

Rainy, track fast, 52 degrees

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - On April 18, 2008, Big Brown worked five furlongs shortly after dawn in the near anonymity of the Palm Meadows Training Center here. Two weeks later, Big Brown was standing in the winner's circle at Churchill Downs after the Kentucky Derby.

On Saturday, almost a year to the day of Big Brown's penultimate Derby workout, Dunkirk followed a similar routine before just a handful of spectators at Palm Meadows. The colt's work kicked off the final two weeks of training for the 20 3-year-olds who will line up in this year's Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Opening day of the Churchill Downs spring meet invariably brings inescapable reminders that the Kentucky Derby is but a week away. That's not only because of the overt clue gleaned from what is staged late that afternoon - the Derby Trial - but also because of what usually transpires earlier that morning.

True to form, a slew of final prerace workouts for Derby 135 are scheduled for an eventful Saturday morning, just a few hours before Churchill opens for its 52-day spring meet.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Following a whirlwind morning on Tuesday that featured workouts by five potential Kentucky Derby starters, including possible favorites I Want Revenge and Pioneerof the Nile, Wednesday was the calm after the storm with little more than very routine activity among the half-dozen or so Derby runners who went to the racetrack to train.

Churchill Downs

Cloudy, track fast, 43 degrees

In races at tracks across the country every day, a horse racing for the first time in five weeks, or making his third start off a layoff, would not invite much curiosity. Yet handicappers often treat the Kentucky Derby as something other than just another race.

The long-term friendship between owner Paul Reddam and jockey Corey Nakatani came into play again on Wednesday when Nakatani decided to pass on riding Mr. Hot Stuff in the May 2 Kentucky Derby to ride instead the Reddam-owned Square Eddie.

It was a domino-like series of events that put Nakatani on Square Eddie.

Square Eddie finished third in the Coolmore Lexington Stakes on Saturday with Edgar Prado, but Prado on Sunday opted to ride Dunkirk when Garrett Gomez picked Pioneerof the Nile over Dunkirk.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bob Baffert spent his first morning at the racetrack as Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert on Tuesday at Churchill Downs, watching with delight as Pioneerof the Nile turned in an impressive-looking workout in preparation for the 135th Kentucky Derby on May 2.

Pioneerof the Nile was one of five potential Kentucky Derby starters to work on a cold, overcast morning at Churchill Downs over a drying-out racetrack that was labeled fast but was on the laboring side following two days of soaking rains.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Advice was the winner of the Coolmore Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland, but it was third-place finisher Square Eddie who was the revelation in his first start since suffering a minor fracture in February. Despite an effort in which he broke poorly and then circled the field on the far turn, Square Eddie came out of the race well, according to trainer Doug O'Neill, and will try to complete his improbable comeback in the 135th Kentucky Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs.

It is looking more and more as though Godolphin Racing will run both Regal Ransom and Desert Party, the one-two finishers in the United Arab Emirates Derby, in the May 2 Kentucky Derby. On Monday, Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford said jockeys Alan Garcia and Ramon Dominguez had been retained to ride the colts, who worked at Churchill Downs on Saturday morning.

Giant Oak, the second-place finisher in the Illinois Derby, will be kept out of the May 2 Kentucky Derby and will be pointed to a campaign on turf, trainer Chris Block said Monday.

"Physically, he's fine, but we don't think he's seasoned enough for a race like the Derby," Block said from Chicago, where he is based. "We're going to go back to the grass with him."

Block said the next likely start for Giant Oak would be the Arlington Classic at Arlington Park on May 23.