1. What prep race is most likely to be misinterpreted?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Bob Baffert is holding court on the Churchill Downs backstretch these days, you'd think he has never won the Kentucky Derby and that Todd Pletcher has won it three times.

Of course, the reverse is true, although the way that Baffert keeps going out of his way to praise Eskendereya, the Pletcher-trained favorite for the 136th Derby, you wouldn't suspect that Baffert might well be on the threshold of his fourth Derby victory.

Everybody has a julep recipe, but almost no one knows for certain how the iconic cocktail of the Kentucky Derby came about.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The excuses that some trainers and jockeys give their horses for disappointing races can be rather flimsy, with traffic and track surface ranking among the most popular culprits.

But when Awesome Act regressed from a visually sensational win in the Gotham Stakes to finish a distant third behind Eskendereya in the April 3 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, there may have been a reasonable explanation for the subpar effort: The colt lost a shoe at the break and never seemed completely comfortable to jockey Julien Leparoux.

Rafael Bejarano will ride Line of David in the Kentucky Derby, trainer John Sadler said Tuesday.

Bejarano had ridden Line of David to two victories in California before the Arkansas Derby, in which Jon Court rode Line of David.

Sadler was the leading trainer at Santa Anita this past meet, and Bejarano was the leading rider. They team up often.

"We felt for this race we would go with our home-team player," Sadler. "He's one of my primary riders in California."

The 136th Kentucky Derby is now less than two weeks away, but the final 20-horse field for the race won't be solidified until at least Saturday, when two horses trying to make Hail Mary attempts to get into the Derby field run in the Grade 3, $200,000 Derby Trial on opening day at Churchill Downs.

That, combined with the unsettled nature of a couple of horses currently among the top 20 in terms of graded stakes earnings, has left several jockeys and trainers in a holding pattern, waiting to see how the dominoes fall before proceeding.

Jockey Ramon Dominguez has picked up the mount on Rule for the Kentucky Derby on May 1, according to Elliott Walden, the racing manager for WinStar Farm, which owns Rule and several other Derby runners.

Rule most recently finished third in the Florida Derby under John Velazquez, who rides favored Eskendereya in the Derby.

WinStar will also have Endorsement (Robby Albarado the rider), American Lion (David Flores), and Super Saver (Calvin Borel) in the Derby.

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - As if trainer Todd Pletcher won't have enough on his mind in the final two weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby, with as many as six potential starters in his barn including the current favorite, Eskendereya, now he has to stress about the weather too.

Wesley Ward has never run a horse in the Kentucky Derby, but that prospect seemed ever closer after Pleasant Prince finished second four weeks ago in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. In addition to running well in one of the elite prep races for the May 1 Kentucky Derby, Pleasant Prince had $162,500 in graded stakes earnings, usually enough to make the 20-horse field.

It's springtime, and trainer Nick Zito, native New Yorker, has again returned to his adopted home state of Kentucky.