ELMONT, N.Y. - After getting over a quarter crack on his right hind foot, Quality Road has developed a quarter crack on his right front foot that puts his status for the May 2 Kentucky Derby in doubt.

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens canceled Saturday's scheduled workout at Belmont Park and said Friday morning that if the horse could not breeze by Monday "then it looks like we won't be able to go."

Based on victories in the Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby, Quality Road figured to be one of the Derby favorites.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Setting the alarm clock early paid real dividends on Thursday morning at Churchill Downs, in light of the fact that the vast majority of the Kentucky Derby contenders were out and back to the barn by 7:45 a.m. including the session's lone worker, General Quarters. Much of that activity took place during the morning's first two sets, which are completed before sunrise.

Churchill Downs

Clear, track fast, 52 degrees

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As inevitably happens when several trainers choose to work their Kentucky Derby starters on the same morning, they also choose to send them out at almost exactly the same time. Such was the case here at Churchill Downs on Tuesday when four potential Derby runners all worked within approximately a five-minute span following the renovation break. Three of the four - Pioneerof the Nile, I Want Revenge, and Flying Private - worked simultaneously, with Chocolate Candy completing the hectic session several minutes later.

Churchill Downs

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rain was the major story at Churchill Downs on Monday morning. There was enough rain to temporarily close the racetrack for approximately 30 minutes just before dawn to repair several washed-out spots on the course.

Fortunately, the track was reopened at 7:15 a.m., then it was business as usual, with each of the nine likely Kentucky Derby starters currently stabled on the grounds able to get in some exercise in one form or another despite the weather conditions.

Churchill Downs

Showery, track sloppy, 52 degrees

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.