LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite having won five times in eight starts, including the Louisiana Derby and the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, Peace Rules is becoming the forgotten horse of next Saturday's Kentucky Derby.

His trainer, Bobby Frankel, has been wearing a hat with the name of his highly regarded stablemate Empire Maker, the Derby favorite. Empire Maker has the better pedigree, and his jockey is better known. When Frankel is asked about his two Derby horses, the question is usually along the lines of, "What about your other horse?"

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - And on Friday it rained.

What was expected to be a quiet day for Kentucky Derby hopefuls stabled at Churchill Downs became even quieter after rain turned the racetrack sloppy from the start of training at 5:15 a.m. until the conclusion four hours later.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Between the routine gallops and occasional workouts that punctuate a training regimen, there are numerous details that a trainer must tend to leading up to a race. When you are training a colt for the Kentucky Derby, and that horse is the acknowledged favorite, the process is magnified.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Thursday was the first of two consecutive mornings during which none of the 18 prospective Kentucky Derby starters was scheduled to work. Even gallop activity was relatively light, the bulk of it coming after the renovation break.

Empire Maker was the first horse out on the track following the break, and anybody looking to find a chink in the Derby favorite's armor would have been hard-pressed to do so after watching him gallop 1 1/2 miles under his regular exercise rider, Jose Cuevas.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Three times in the last six years, Bob Baffert has trained the winner of the Kentucky Derby. The horses have varied widely, ranging from the powerful Silver Charm to the wiry Real Quiet to the mercurial War Emblem, but the way in which Baffert has prepared them for the race has been decidedly similar.

WHO'S HOT

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With less than two weeks to the race, it is crunch time at Churchill Downs for horses training for the Kentucky Derby.

Last spring, Proud Citizen stood out on a daily basis in the mornings leading up to the Derby, then went out to finish second behind War Emblem at odds of 23-1. Harlan's Holiday, on the other hand, turned in a disappointing work five days before the race, and finished a non-threatening sixth as the Derby favorite.

ELMONT, N.Y. - It was a dreary Tuesday morning in New York, where two Kentucky Derby hopefuls were scheduled to put in workouts. One got his breeze in because he had to, while the other did not work because he couldn't.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Fund of Funds, runner-up to Ten Most Wanted in the Illinois Derby, was withdrawn from consideration for the Kentucky Derby with a tear in the tendon of his left foreleg, trainer Rick Violette said Tuesday.

Violette said he noticed something amiss with Fund of Funds on Monday after the horse galloped at Aqueduct. An ultrasound revealed "a small tear," Violette said.

Fund of Funds will get some time off and the foreleg will be ultra-sounded again in several weeks. Violette said the injury could be career threatening.

The last significant Kentucky Derby prep race was run last weekend, yielding the final runners for the May 3 Derby, and wouldn't you just know that D. Wayne Lukas pulled another rabbit out of the cowboy hat he wears most mornings.

Seemingly down to his last chance to have a horse in this year's Derby, Lukas came through with Scrimshaw, who won Saturday's Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland while earning a moderate Beyer Speed Figure of 99.

"We flew under the radar and got 'em," Lukas said.