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.

I Want Revenge, one of the early favorites for the 135th Kentucky Derby, was driven through the Churchill Downs stable gate early Tuesday morning following a van ride from New York.

Churchill officials reported that I Want Revenge arrived at 5:45 a.m. Eastern and was bedded down in Barn 24. The colt is one of the first prospects for the May 2 Derby to be shipped to Churchill. Musket Man, winner of the Illinois Derby last weekend, arrived Sunday at the Louisville, Ky., track.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The results of the three significant Kentucky Derby prep races run last Saturday all went as expected, with favorites I Want Revenge, Musket Man, and Pioneerof the Nile all keeping their winning streaks, and their Derby dreams, alive. But much surrounding the Kentucky Derby the past 48 hours wasn't quite as neat and efficient.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Quality Road, considered among the top three candidates for the May 2 Kentucky Derby, has a quarter crack in his right hind foot, making his status for the Run for the Roses a bit uncertain.

Trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Monday morning that he is "very concerned" about the situation but that it would be premature to say the horse can't make the Derby,

"You hope it was resolved by now, that's for sure, but he's not out of it yet,"said Jerkens, who trains Quality Road for owner/breeder Ed Evans. "The fact that he's not lame from it is a good thing."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The impressive victory by I Want Revenge in the Wood Memorial was enough to make him the favorite when the third and final pool in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Future Wager closed Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern after the customary four-day run.

I Want Revenge closed as the 9-2 choice on the strength of his last-to-first score in the Wood on Saturday. He was followed by Quality Road (6-1), Friesan Fire (8-1), Pioneerof the Nile (9-1), Dunkirk (11-1), and Old Fashioned (12-1).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Florida Derby winner Quality Road was a 5-1 favorite in the opening hours of betting into Pool 3 of the 2009 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opened Thursday at noon Eastern.

At 4:30 p.m., and after a relatively light handle of $11,885 in the win pool, Quality Road was favored over the mutuel field, the 24th or "all others" entry, which stood at 9-1. Then came Friesan Fire (10-1), I Want Revenge (10-1), The Pamplemousse (11-1), and Old Fashioned (12-1).

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The third and final pool in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Future Wager opens its customary four-day run Thursday at noon Eastern with nine new names from the previous pool and with Quality Road as a lukewarm morning-line favorite.

Quality Road, an impressive winner of the Florida Derby last Saturday, is pegged as a 6-1 choice by Churchill Downs linemaker Mike Battaglia. He is followed by a trio of horses at 8-1: Dunkirk, Friesan Fire, and I Want Revenge.