LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Ernie Paragallo bluffed. Rock Hard Ten folded, at least temporarily. Sinister G folded, for good. St Averil called. And Smarty Jones raised the stakes. Seven days out from the 130th Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs on Saturday became the newest site of the World Poker Tour.

On a day filled with intrigue and subterfuge, Song of the Sword secured a spot in the Derby field when Sinister G officially was dropped from consideration. But Paragallo, the owner of Song of the Sword, might have cost Rock Hard Ten a spot in the race with his cunning.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The racetrack is open for training for more than four hours every morning. But as is so often the case in the days leading up to a major race like the Kentucky Derby, most of the important action takes place within a span of less than 10 minutes following the renovation break.

On Saturday morning, Sinister G's trainer, John Toscano Jr., said the horse would not run in the Kentucky Derby because he is still ailing from a respiratory infection.

"It would be insanity to run if he's not 100 percent," Toscano said.

Sinister G, who finished 10th in his last start in the Wood Memorial on April 10, was sick after the race and treated with antibiotics. He was taken off antibiotics after several days of treatment, but was put back on them again last Thursday when he began coughing.

NORTH EAST, Md. - Michael Dickinson is a celebrity in England, where his training exploits have landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records and afforded him audiences with Prince Charles and Her Majesty the Queen.

In just four years of training steeplechase runners, Dickinson was the champion trainer three times, won 12 races in one day, and - the most impressive of all his accomplishments - saddled the first five finishers of the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Kentucky Derby of steeplechase racing.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If April showers bring May flowers there ought to be roses aplenty on May 1, because Churchill Downs has been saturated for three days by a steady, soaking rain that forced a number of trainers to adjust the schedules of their Kentucky Derby contenders on Friday.

Nine days before the 2000 Kentucky Derby, a camera crew for Television Games Network captured that year's Derby favorite, Fusaichi Pegasus, gleefully tossing his exercise rider to the ground at 6:30 a.m. on Churchill Downs's main track.

Track: Sloppy
Weather: Raining
Temp: 60

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Keeping dry was the order of the day at Churchill Downs on Friday where heavy rain had everyone ducking for cover before the mid-morning renovation break.

The majority of the other Kentucky Derby contenders stabled on the grounds managed to beat the worst of the rain, getting their morning gallops in early. Only BORREGO and ROCK HARD TEN went out after the break and both splashed along eagerly over the wet track.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Action This Day has disappointed in his three starts since capturing the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall. His trainer, Richard Mandella, has sought the reason for Action This Day's subpar performances, and now says he believes he has found it. And after a sharp drill on Thursday morning at Churchill Downs, Mandella says he hopes Action This Day can reverse his fortunes when it will count most, May 1, the day of the 130th Kentucky Derby.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - It was a match that racing fans only dream about. The reigning Juvenile Eclipse Award winner and reigning Juvenile Filly champion going head to head through the stretch, battling on even terms right down to the wire.

Such a match finally took place at Churchill Downs on Thursday. Unfortunately the only ones able to witness the unique encounter were those in attendance during training hours at Churchill Downs when champion stablemates Action This Day and Halfbridled worked six furlongs in company shortly after the renovation break.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Preachinatthebar, who won the San Felipe Stakes but beat just one horse in the Blue Grass Stakes, was taken out of consideration for the May 1 Kentucky Derby following a workout Thursday morning that was not to the satisfaction of trainer Bob Baffert.

"It was OK, but it wasn't what I was looking for," Baffert said at his barn after Preachinatthebar worked five furlongs under exercise rider Dana Barnes. "I don't want to run unless he's got a shot to win it.