Arkansas Derby

  1. Verrazano (Todd Pletcher, trainer; John Velazquez, jockey): Worked 5 furlongs in 1:00.20 Sunday at Churchill Downs, third fastest of 40 at the same distance. ... Wood winner is unbeaten in all four starts and will try to become the eighth unbeaten Derby winner. ... Final Derby future wager odds: 7-1. 2. Orb (Shug McGaughey, Joel Rosario): Fountain of Youth, Florida Derby winner worked five furlongs in 1:02.20 Sunday at Payson Park. ... Gets original rider back now that Johnny V has chosen Verrazano.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Losing the Kentucky Derby was bad enough. Letting down his son was even worse for Bob Baffert. Bodemeister, the bay colt named after the trainer's 7-year-old son, rocketed to the front on Saturday and led by as many as three lengths. But he couldn't hold on in the furiously fast pace and was overtaken by winner I'll Have Another. "He was there," Baffert said of his horse. "He just got tired. " Baffert broke down, too, when he thought about his son's disappointment, tearing up and walking away in the paddock.

If you've spent much time around Fly So Free this week, you might think last year's 2-year-old champion had a communicable disease. It's hard to remember a horse with better credentials getting less respect before the Kentucky Derby. It seems as if almost nobody likes the most accomplished horse in the 16- horse field. Except his trainer - cool, low-key Scotty Schulhofer. "Ain't too many of them ever beat him," Schulhofer said with impeccable logic. "So why shouldn't I be confident?

A year ago, Phil Hauswald saddled the longest shot in the 112th Kentucky Derby. Bachelor Beau lived up to the 60-1 odds and finished 14th. What a difference a year makes. On Saturday, the trainer will saddle Demons Begone, who most likely will be the odds-on favorite to win this year's Derby. The same colt who will run for the most valued prize in American horse racing in two days, barely won his maiden start at Philadelphia Park 10 months ago. Recently, though, no one has gotten close to Demons Begone.

The 2012 Kentucky Derby will have more consistent, talented 3-year-olds in the starting gate on May 5 than any Derby in years. An incredible nine of the 14 horses that ran in the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile have won 2012 stakes races. And three horses that did not even run in the Juvenile, the super fast Bodemeister, unbeaten Gemologist and Santa Anita Derby winner I'll Have Another, will all be taking major action at the betting windows. Union Rags, the horse with all the Pennsylvania connections, may not have won his most recent start.

Jeremy Rose watched the race from the jockeys' room the only time he wasn't on Afleet Alex's back. Maybe it had to play out that way, to get Rose where he is now, riding the favorite in the Belmont Stakes, coming off a highlight-film performance in the Preakness Stakes. Maybe Rose had to lose the ride on Afleet Alex, the best horse he'd ever seen. The 26-year-old didn't blame a soul, even said he agreed with it. After it happened, he kept riding other horses for Afleet Alex's trainer, Tim Ritchey.

Menifee, the hard-knocking Kentucky-bred colt who missed winning the Kentucky Derby by a shrinking neck, yesterday was named the prerace favorite for Saturday's 124th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course at 1 3/16 miles. Charismatic, the 30-1 long-shot Derby winner, is the 6-1 fourth choice in the morning line odds in a maximum field of 14. Ten of the 14 ran in the Derby, which has produced the last 15 Preakness winners. "We're still raving [about Charismatic]

Is Meadowlake the biggest, handsomest myth since Dean Miraldi, the Eagles' phantom tackle? We won't find out today. Meadowlake, unbeaten in two starts at two, is not entered in the $500,000 Florida Derby at 9 furlongs, which has drawn a clogged field of 16, including California millionaire Snow Chief. Nor is he entered in the seven furlong Swale Stakes, which has attracted 14 including once-beaten Admiral's Image, Philadelphia's speedball. He may not run until opening day at Hialeah, next Friday, seven weeks and a day before the Kentucky Derby.

Dave Monaci is not a guy without confidence. The trainer who burst onto the local scene a few years ago with winner after winner thinks he's going to win Monday's Jersey Derby at Garden State Park. Guess what? He might be right. "If Subordinated Debt runs his race, he wins," Monaci said. Sounds reasonable. Subordinated Debt has met many of the best horses of his generation. He was a model of consistency until the Jim Beam and Arkansas Derby, when he finished far back. Was it the competition or an illness Monaci said the horse contracted?

Kentucky Derby contender With a City was euthanized yesterday after his condition from an unknown illness deteriorated. Trainer Mike Maker said the colt became ill Thursday. He was taken to the Hagyard Equine Medical Institute in Lexington, Ky., on Friday, but his condition worsened, Maker said. "They treated him for everything and ran tests on everything," Maker said in a statement. Officials may never determine what killed the Derby contender, he said. Equirace.com owned With a City, who would have been the first Kentucky Derby starter for Maker.