Arkansas Derby

Mi Preferido will miss Saturday's Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs because of deep muscular soreness in the hip suffered in the April 23 Arkansas Derby. Trainer Laz Barrera, who owns the Island Whirl colt with Amin Saiden, said the horse was treated for the injury after his return to Hollywood Park from Hot Springs, Ark. The speedy Mi Preferido chased the filly Winning Colors in the April 9 Santa Anita Derby before fading to third, nearly nine lengths behind the winning filly.

Philadelphia-area TV viewers tuned into Smarty Jones' Kentucky Derby victory more than anything else on Saturday afternoon. Local ratings for the broadcast, which ran from 5 to 6:45 p.m., crushed golf on Channel 3, the hockey playoffs on Channel 6, NASCAR on Channel 29, and the 6:00 news on Channels 3 and 6. But nationally, 19 cities had a larger percentage of households tuned to the Derby telecast than Philadelphia, according to preliminary Nielsen...

"Obsession" might be too strong. But it's close. Horse owner John Ed Anthony just had one of the best pre-Triple Crown springs since the heyday of Calumet Farm in the '40s and '50s. And he doesn't much care. Three of his Loblolly Stable horses won a total of eight Kentucky Derby prep races. Prairie Bayou won four. Marked Tree won three. And Dalhart won one. "Next year, you can ask anybody who won any of this year's dozen or so prep races and most of them won't be able to tell you," said Anthony, the Arkansas lumberman.

Bob Baffert's Arkansas Shuttle keeps rolling, likely carrying a couple of his 3-year-old colts to the Kentucky Derby in less than seven weeks. The Hall of Fame trainer had another successful weekend at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., with Secret Circle winning the $500,000 Rebel Stakes by three-quarters of a length over fast-closing Optimizer on Saturday. The bay colt will return to California this week but is scheduled to be shuttled back for the $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 7 and shoot for an Oaklawn sweep.

The road to the 2005 Kentucky Derby took an intriguing twist yesterday when Gulfstream Park revamped its racing schedule for 3-year-olds. The Florida Derby, traditionally run the second weekend in March, now will be held 3 weeks later on April 2, competing for top horses with three prominent Kentucky Derby preps on April 16 - the Arkansas Derby, Blue Grass Stakes and Wood Memorial. The Kentucky Derby is May 7, with the major preps at Oaklawn Park, Keeneland and Aqueduct remaining in their usual slot of 3 weeks before the run for the roses at Churchill Downs.

For many years, the glory of winning the Kentucky Derby and then going on to take the Triple Crown far exceeded the immediate monetary rewards. In 1973, Triple Crown winner Secretariat raced - by today's standards - for peanuts. Big Red earned only $375,070 from the three victories. But this year, the Derby horses are going for the gold as well as the glory. Under a bonus program instituted by Triple Crown Productions Inc. - sponsored by Churchill Downs, Pimlico and Belmont Park, the sites of the three races - a sweep will be worth $5 million.

John Silvertand schedules his life around the horse now. Silvertand's life isn't an easy one. Chemotherapy comes every other Monday; that knocks him out for a couple of days. But he mapped out this plan weeks ago. He won't have any chemo today, since it's Kentucky Derby week, and Silvertand will be at Churchill Downs. He'll have a rooting interest of a lifetime, as the breeder of Afleet Alex, the Delaware Park-based horse that will be one of the favorites Saturday in the Derby.

No cheering in the press box. It's the first rule of sports journalism. Covering horse racing is different. Cheering is commonplace. It happens every day. People bet. They cheer. If Olympio wins today's Preakness (Channel 6, 4:30 p.m.), the unwritten rule likely will be broken for reasons having little to do with winning wagers. If Olympio wins, his trainer, Ron McAnally, 58, will have won his first Triple Crown race. To know Ron McAnally is to like him. To watch him work is to be in the presence of an artist.

The Triple Crown bug is hard to shake. When Kentucky Derby favorite Hansel checked in a badly beaten 10th in Louisville, trainer Frank Brothers was not thinking about Saturday's Preakness. The colt was shipped to Chicago, where, Brothers said, he would race at Arlington International Race Course. Everything changed yesterday when Brothers announced that Hansel was being put on a van and would arrive in Baltimore today. The colt worked yesterday morning and Brothers liked what he saw. "He was more aggressive than before the Derby and that is one of the reasons (to try the Preakness)