LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As of Wednesday, only five of the 20 horses expected to compete in the 2007 Kentucky Derby were stabled at Churchill Downs. The others were scattered about the country, with Nobiz Like Shobiz in New York, Stormello and Tiago in California, and nearly a dozen more based up the road at Keeneland.

But among that handful of Derby hopefuls training at Churchill are the two likely favorites, Curlin and Street Sense, who both went to the track Wednesday for the first time since turning in impressive five-furlong works earlier in the week.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Trainer Jamie Sanders entered Teuflesberg in Saturday's Derby Trial Stakes at Churchill Downs, where he would run if it appears he is going to be excluded from an oversubscribed Kentucky Derby the following Saturday. If there are defections from the Derby field before Saturday, Teuflesberg would be scratched from the Derby Trial in favor of the Derby, Sanders said.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The connections of Lexington Stakes winner Slew's Tizzy are "very much leaning toward not running" the colt in the May 5 Kentucky Derby, said trainer Greg Fox on Wednesday.

"The horse is doing great, but unless something radically changes in the next day or two, we have pretty much decided against running," Fox, a licensed veterinarian, said from his farm adjacent to the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Ky. "We expect to make a firm decision by Friday."

Joe LaCombe owns and bred Slew's Tizzy,

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - There is a scene depicted in the baseball book, "Ball Four," where author Jim Bouton watches a young teammate taking imaginary swings in the clubhouse before the Seattle Pilots' first game of the 1969 American League season.

Bouton, an aging veteran, later wrote that he caught himself thinking something like this: "If you don't have it down by now, son, you never will."

With all the graded stakes races preceding the May 5 Kentucky Derby now having been run, far more than the maximum of 20 horses are still pointing for the race, leading to the likelihood that several horses will be excluded from the Derby when entries are taken May 2 at Churchill Downs.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It has been a cold last month for trainer Doug O'Neill, so he was more than happy to escape the morning chill in the stands at Keeneland on Friday and head to the warmth of the press box, where he sat alongside the clockers while putting several of his horses, including two prospects for the May 5 Kentucky Derby, through their drills.

When Dominican ran last Saturday in the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, handicappers were trying to assess whether he measured up. Those closest to him already knew he did.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Bill Kaplan fell in love with Storm in May the moment he saw him at the Ocala 2-year-old sale last April. But Kaplan believed that this gray son of Tiger Ridge would almost certainly command a final bid beyond the price range for him and his girlfriend, Felicity Waugh - until he learned Storm in May was blind in one eye.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The 10 1/2-length romp by Curlin in the Arkansas Derby led bettors to make the colt the clear-cut favorite in the third and final pool in the Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which ended a four-day run Sunday evening.

Curlin closed as the 7-2 favorite in Pool 3, which drew $465,123, third-highest in the nine-year history of Churchill Downs offering parimutuel futures. The aggregate total handle for the three Derby future pools this year was $1,365,424, fourth-highest in history.

If you thought the Apollo mission ended in the 1970s after several trips to the moon, think again. By virtue of his runaway victory in the Arkansas Derby on Saturday at Oaklawn Park, Curlin emerged as the favorite for the May 5 Kentucky Derby, quite an accomplishment for a colt who had not even raced before Feb. 3. Now, a year after Barbaro ended one of the Derby’s seemingly iron-clad handicapping angles, Curlin will try to smash another one that has lasted 125 years.