A guy who helped change the course of racing will be running a horse in the Grade 1, $750,000 Florida Derby on Saturday, but most of the fans in the crowd at Gulfstream Park would probably not be able to identify him. Yet whenever trainer Cam Gambolati meets strangers, be it on an airplane or some other social setting, and is asked what he does, inevitably there is a follow-up question: "Ever win the Kentucky Derby?"

ARCADIA, Calif. - How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. How do you get to the May 1 Kentucky Derby? That depends. It is not a one-way street, as evidenced by the winners of the three graded Derby preps last Saturday. They could not be taking more dissimilar paths to Churchill Downs.

ARCADIA, Calif. - He's still the fastest pun in the West, quick with a laugh-out-loud one-liner, and that shock of white hair makes Bob Baffert the most recognizable figure in racing, someone who gets shout-outs from fans at Lakers games, and jets on up to Vancouver to watch his pal Bode Miller ski in the Olympics.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The mutuel field, which includes the winners of both prep races run this weekend, continued as a clear-cut favorite going into the last of three days of betting into Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager.

ARCADIA, Calif. - It never rains in California? Yeah, right. Boy, don't they warn you. It pours. Man, it pours. Twice last month, Saturday cards were washed away here at Santa Anita because heavy rain left standing water atop the synthetic Pro-Ride surface. On both days, major stakes for 3-year-olds were scheduled. The first time, the Robert Lewis Stakes was brought back a week later with five of the eight who were originally entered, and Caracortado prevailed.

There are owners who go out and spend millions of dollars looking for a Kentucky Derby horse, and trainers who stockpile prospects in the hope that one of them gets there. Mike Machowsky does not have that luxury. He trains 15 horses. Not 15 3-year-olds. Fifteen horses. Yet of those 15, two - Caracortado and Nextdoorneighbor, both homebreds - have emerged as legitimate Derby contenders, and are taking the Santa Anita-based Machowsky, 44, on the ride of his life.

Lookin At Lucky, the champion 2-year-old colt of 2009, is on course to make his 2010 debut on March 13, but whether he remains at Santa Anita for that day's Grade 2, $150,000 San Felipe Stakes, or heads to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes has yet to be determined, according to trainer Bob Baffert.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Standing along the outer rail while bracing himself against the morning chill at Gulfstream Park on Wednesday, trainer Patrick Biancone barely betrayed a hint of anger over having been suspended one year in the fall of 2007 after three sealed vials of cobra venom were found in his barn at Keeneland. He has either achieved a Zen-like peace with the outcome or has a really good poker face. Perhaps both.

"What was I going to do?" he said. "I could either shoot myself or go play poker."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - For the 12th time in as many years, the mutuel field is the favorite in Pool 1 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which closed Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern following a three-day betting window.

The field, the 24th or "all others" alternative to 23 separately listed interests, closed as the 3-2 favorite in the first of three futures pools. Juvenile champion Lookin At Lucky was next at 8-1, followed by Buddy's Saint (10-1), then by a cluster of eight horses in the 20-1 to 28-1 range.

At least one sizable bet placed just minutes after wagering opened helped to make the mutuel field a heavy early favorite in Pool 1 of the 2010 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opened Friday at noon Eastern at tracks and wagering outlets throughout North America.