Garrett Gomez has chosen to ride Pioneerof the Nile over Dunkirk in the Kentucky Derby, his agent, Ron Anderson, confirmed Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Edgar Prado has picked up the mount on Dunkirk, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed via a text.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Whatever else he does on the racetrack, General Quarters already has served as an object lesson in the vagaries of racing luck, bad and good.

The 3-year-old Sky Mesa colt is headed for the Kentucky Derby after a win in the April 11 Blue Grass Stakes.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Rival trainers hoping that the quarter crack sustained by Quality Road in the Florida Derby would derail his chances of making it to the Kentucky Derby were probably glad they were not at Belmont Park on Friday morning.

Had they been, they would have seen Quality Road work a strong six furlongs in 1:12.03, a move in which he completed his last three furlongs in 35.10 seconds, according to Daily Racing Form. He galloped out seven furlongs in 1:25.55 under exercise rider Juan Moreno.

Midshipman, the division's champion, is out. So too Vineyard Haven. This past week, Old Fashioned left the trail to the Kentucky Derby. Many of the prominent 2-year-olds from last year will not be in the Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Joe Talamo had been to Churchill Downs once before, when he was 15. He and his family drove up from Louisiana as spectators for the 2005 Kentucky Derby.

Things have changed dramatically for Talamo in the nearly four years that have passed. On Tuesday morning, Talamo took in the Twin Spires from the Churchill backstretch when riding I Want Revenge from Barn 24 to the racetrack for the colt's first of three scheduled workouts leading up to the 135th Derby on May 2.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Between them, Gary Stute and Tom McCarthy train exactly seven horses. But one of Stute's six is Papa Clem, who on Saturday won the Arkansas Derby here at Oaklawn Park. McCarthy's one-horse stable consists of General Quarters, who on Saturday won the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Both trainers, and their horses, secured berths in the May 2 Kentucky Derby, whose ranks of top contenders took a hit when Old Fashioned suffered a career-ending injury when finishing second in the Arkansas Derby.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Twelve hundred miles and 150 minutes apart, Quality Road and Dunkirk, the two-top finishers from the Florida Derby, recorded workouts Friday morning in preparation for what their connections hope will be starts in the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

For the first time in the 135-year history of the Kentucky Derby, the USO will host American soldiers and their families from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, May 2. The day at the races is being co-sponsored by West Point Thoroughbreds and Churchill Downs Inc.

Kentucky Derby hopefuls Quality Road and Dunkirk both completed their first workouts since the Florida Derby on Friday. Quality Road worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Belmont Park, while Dunkirk went the same distance in 49.06 at the Palm Meadows training center.

Quality Road put himself back on schedule for the May 2 Kentucky Derby with a solid workout. Quality Road galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.95, according to Daily Racing Form, and was credited by Belmont clockers with a five-furlong move in 1:02.19.

It was the end of the sale. A long, hard slog. Two weeks of looking at horses in September 2007. Those who were still interested, like trainer Mac Robertson, were bleary-eyed. The high-priced yearlings, the ones with fancy pedigrees and the flawless conformation, were long gone. By now, it was bargain time.

"I was looking for one more colt," Robertson recalled.

Into the ring came a gray colt by Monarchos, a Kentucky Derby winner, out of a mare by Carson City, the damsire of another Derby winner, Barbaro.