ARCADIA, Calif. - For a guy who had been halfway around the world and back in a little more than a week, trainer Eoin Harty looked remarkably fresh on Wednesday morning. But with a victory in the $6 million Dubai World Cup with Well Armed in his rearview mirror, and a chance to win the Santa Anita Derby for the second straight year on the immediate horizon, Harty had plenty of reason to have some spring in his step.

"It's a fantastic week to be in the middle of," Harty said at his Santa Anita barn on Wednesday morning.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Larry Jones will be entering uncharted territory when he starts Friesan Fire in next month's Kentucky Derby. No horse has won the Kentucky Derby off a six-week layoff since Needles in 1956, and Jones will attempt to do Needles one better when he runs leading Derby hopeful Friesan Fire on the first Saturday in May off a seven-week break.

Money can't get everything, it's true, but it can get you a spot in the Kentucky Derby. For the connections of Dunkirk, that's all they want.

A berth in the Derby will be on the line for Dunkirk on Saturday, when the unbeaten colt competes in the Grade 1, $750,000 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Because he has yet to earn a penny in a graded stakes, and because the Florida Derby is scheduled to be his final race before the Kentucky Derby, the money Dunkirk makes Saturday will be paramount as to whether he is in the starting gate May 2 at Churchill Downs.

Kempton Park outside London won't make anyone's top 10 list of must-see European racetracks. Alan Shuback, in his excellent recent book, "Global Racing," said the sport at Kempton "has always been of a rather tasty meat-and-potatoes variety." But on Wednesday night, Kempton became a rather important, though out-of-the-way, detour on the road to the Kentucky Derby. It was the site of the inaugural Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, a race that, for the first time this year, guaranteed a horse a spot in the May 2 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.

A little less than seven weeks out from the Kentucky Derby, trainer Larry Jones is sitting in a good spot. Sure, it could be better. Had Old Fashioned won the Rebel Stakes on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, Jones unquestionably would have the top two contenders for the Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs. But the ascension of Friesan Fire, who turned in a career-best effort in the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds, more than made up for any subsequent disappointment later Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS - In this Kentucky Derby election cycle, the early returns have been encouraging for California. It is a trend trainer Gary Stute is hoping continues Saturday, when he sends out Papa Clem, the runner-up in last month's Robert Lewis Stakes, in the Grade 2, $600,000 Louisiana Derby here at Fair Grounds.

Churchill Downs has suspended all win and exacta wagering in Pool 2 of the Kentucky Derby Future Wagering involving Big Drama (No. 3), who was declared out of consideration for the May 2 race by trainer David Fawkes this week. Big Drama missed too much training time after undergoing minor surgery for a bone bruise earlier this year, according to Fawkes. His defection leaves 22 separately listed entries, plus the mutuel field, in Pool 2 of the Derby futures, which run Thursday through Sunday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - By most accounts, and simply by looking at wagering trends, the Kentucky Derby Future Wager had become a bit passe as a win-only wager. Now in its 11th year, the bet had seen no variation whatsoever in its wagering format since 1999, the first year Churchill Downs offered parimutuel futures.

That all changes Thursday at noon Eastern, when exacta wagering joins win wagering as part of Pool 2 of the Derby futures. Derby Pool 2 will coincide with the only available future wager for this year's Kentucky Oaks.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Bobby Frankel says that one of the first times he met Richard Dutrow Jr., Dutrow "asked if I'd let him bet $200 on a football team."

"The team lost," Frankel recalled Wednesday morning at Santa Anita. "And he never paid me back."

Frankel was smiling as he said this because, perhaps as a result of this winter at Santa Anita, they'll now have to call it even.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The road to the 135th Kentucky Derby veered into several lanes over the weekend, an autobahn for stakes winners Quality Road and The Pamplemousse, potholes for Capt. Candyman Can and This Ones For Phil, and a stop sign for Midshipman and Notonthesamepage.