Blue Grass

After watching Strong Contender work in the starting gate and gallop around Keeneland, John Ward walked back to his car a satisfied trainer. "You don't have to tinker with talent," Ward said yesterday. The talent may be there, but Strong Contender still needs a near-flawless performance in Saturday's $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes for a chance to run in the Kentucky Derby 3 weeks later. "We have a finite target," Ward said. "We have to be there. " The lightly raced Strong Contender is 2-for-2 and is running in his first stakes race.

Bolshoi Boy, a distant second to Badger Land in the Flamingo Stakes, heads a field of 12 today for Keeneland Race Course's Blue Grass Stakes, the next- to-last prep race for the Kentucky Derby. Bolshoi Boy, who will be ridden by Richard Migliore, drew the outside gate for the 1 1/8-mile $200,000 Blue Grass at the Lexington, Ky., track. He was listed at 3-1. Just inside him will be Bold Arrangement, the British invader for the American classic races. Bold Arrangement, who will be making his first start on a dirt track, is 12-1 in the Keeneland betting line.

The Grade I $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct takes center stage Saturday as two big hitters make their final prep for the May 5 Kentucky Derby. Todd Pletcher's Circular Quay and Barclay Tagg's Nobiz Like Shobiz head the field for the 11/8-mile race (live on ESPN, same-day replays on ntra.com). "I can't do much more now except get out there and ride him myself," said Tagg. "He's done everything I've asked. " Pletcher also has Cowtown Cat in Saturday's Grade II $500,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne.

Carl Nafzger's story invariably starts the same way, in a box at Churchill Downs, watching a horse he had trained run away from the rest. ABC captured the moment, with Nafzger describing the 1990 Kentucky Derby for an elderly lady, the 92-year-old owner of Unbridled, Frances Genter. It ends with him telling her, "You've won the Kentucky Derby, Mrs. Genter! I love you. " Then he gave her a kiss. Seventeen years later, Nafzger is back for a little more history. His 3-year-old Street Sense is trying to become the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner to take the Run for the Roses.

It was formally announced yesterday that Atlantic City's United Nations Handicap (Aug. 9) will be part of ESPN's "Racing Across America" series. The series presently consists of 22 races and more might be added. Representatives of Thoroughbred Sports, which produces the series, and track management spoke at a press conference at the Atlantic City Country Club. The United Nations, which was started as an invitational race in 1953, is a 1 3/16-mile grass race with a purse of $150,000.

Fobby Forbes drew the outside slot in the 16-horse Kentucky Derby field, which is dumb luck. Then the oddsmaker stuck Fobby Forbes in the mutuel field, which is just plain dumb. "I grabbed him," said Due Process Stables manager John Perotta, "and I said, 'You just cost me a Jaguar.' "The field will be 8-to-1 or so. By himself, he'd have been 20-1. " You can't count your Jaguars until they're in the garage, but the lack of respect shown for the winner of the Garden State Stakes is startling.

Pat Day and Chris McCarron were the winning riders in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, respectively. No reason to think the pair can't sweep Garden State Park's major races as well. Day will ride American Chance in Monday's $300,000 Jersey Derby. McCarron is in Cherry Hill today to ride favored Desert Orchid in the $150,000 Budweiser Breeders' Cup. These are Hall of Fame riders, but neither is better than the horses they ride. Be certain that they don't travel from their home bases unless they are fairly certain they are going home with a substantial portion of the purse.

I LOVED A Little Warm in the Travers. The colt had not run a poor race in a year. Each race was a step forward, culminating with a dominant win in the Jim Dandy Stakes. The colt's trainer, Tony Dutrow, an honest man in a sport filled with spin, loved the colt more than I did. He was convinced A Little Warm was sitting on the race of his life. A Little Warm was 9-2 in the Aug. 28 Travers. Seemed like more than a fair price. I got involved. A Little Warm ran fifth, beaten by 8 3/4 lengths.

Sam Bowie was 18 when he arrived at the University of Kentucky in 1979. It didn't take long for him to smell the Blue Grass. "I found I really liked horses," the retired NBA player and Lebanon, Pa., native said in a telephone interview Friday. "Since I was 7-foot-1 and 250 pounds, nobody was going to put me on top of a thoroughbred. But I went over to the Red Mile [harness track in Lexington] and got into one of those carts, and away we went. I was hooked. " Since then, Bowie has owned hundreds of standardbreds, purchasing his first in 1984, his rookie season in the NBA. But it wasn't until another visit to the Red Mile, 23 years later, that he finally scored a slam dunk.

I LOVED A Little Warm in the Travers. The colt had not run a poor race in a year. Each race was a step forward, culminating with a dominant win in the Jim Dandy Stakes. The colt's trainer, Tony Dutrow, an honest man in a sport filled with spin, loved the colt more than I did. He was convinced A Little Warm was sitting on the race of his life. A Little Warm was 9-2 in the Aug. 28 Travers. Seemed like more than a fair price. I got involved. A Little Warm ran fifth, beaten by 8 3/4 lengths.

Pennsylvania 1220 Friendship St. , $350,000. 258 S. 46th St. , $350,000. 766 S. 18th St. , $337,000. 3159 Halsey Pl. , $335,000. 8122 Winthrop St. , $334,400. 223 1/2 S. Umac St. , $334,000. 1826 S. Broad St. , $325,000. 1707 Green St. , $325,000. 1006 S. Cleveland St. , $321,240. 2001 Hamilton St. unit 301 , $310,000. 3135 Winchester Ave. , $306,900. 145 Fitzwater St. , $305,000. 1600 Arch St. unit 804 , $304,900.

Sam Bowie was 18 when he arrived at the University of Kentucky in 1979. It didn't take long for him to smell the Blue Grass. "I found I really liked horses," the retired NBA player and Lebanon, Pa., native said in a telephone interview Friday. "Since I was 7-foot-1 and 250 pounds, nobody was going to put me on top of a thoroughbred. But I went over to the Red Mile [harness track in Lexington] and got into one of those carts, and away we went. I was hooked. " Since then, Bowie has owned hundreds of standardbreds, purchasing his first in 1984, his rookie season in the NBA. But it wasn't until another visit to the Red Mile, 23 years later, that he finally scored a slam dunk.

Carl Nafzger's story invariably starts the same way, in a box at Churchill Downs, watching a horse he had trained run away from the rest. ABC captured the moment, with Nafzger describing the 1990 Kentucky Derby for an elderly lady, the 92-year-old owner of Unbridled, Frances Genter. It ends with him telling her, "You've won the Kentucky Derby, Mrs. Genter! I love you. " Then he gave her a kiss. Seventeen years later, Nafzger is back for a little more history. His 3-year-old Street Sense is trying to become the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner to take the Run for the Roses.

When Great Hunter enters the starting gate for tomorrow's Blue Grass Stakes, don't blame Phil Fanning if he ducks out of a wedding that afternoon to view the race. "It's like waiting to see what one of my children is doing," said Fanning, the Chester County breeder of the Kentucky Derby hopeful. Fanning, 83, was born in Philadelphia and raised in West Orange, N.J., where his lifelong love of horses began. He lives now in Unionville. "They'd deliver milk on wagons drawn by horses, and I'd go out to see them all the time as a child," he said.

Chester-bred colt Great Hunter was made the 9-5 second choice and will start from the No. 7 post position in Saturday's Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. Street Sense, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner, was made the 4-5 favorite in the seven-horse field for the 1 1/8-mile race to be run on the Polytrack surface for the first time. Great Hunter, winner of the March 3 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita in his only start this year, will be ridden by Corey Nakatani. "Not bad to draw the lucky number seven; and to be able to load last is always a positive," trainer Doug O'Neill said.

Larry Jones, trainer of Hard Spun, said that in a lot of ways, the pressure is off after the Pennsylvania-bred 3-year-old impressively won the Lane's End Stakes 10 days ago. Hard Spun has the graded-stakes earnings he needs to take his place in the Kentucky Derby without running another race. So he may not. "We feel that his next race could be a big, big race," Jones said yesterday. "We're debating whether to make the Derby his next race. I'm not saying we're not running in the Blue Grass.

The Grade I $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct takes center stage Saturday as two big hitters make their final prep for the May 5 Kentucky Derby. Todd Pletcher's Circular Quay and Barclay Tagg's Nobiz Like Shobiz head the field for the 11/8-mile race (live on ESPN, same-day replays on ntra.com). "I can't do much more now except get out there and ride him myself," said Tagg. "He's done everything I've asked. " Pletcher also has Cowtown Cat in Saturday's Grade II $500,000 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne.

After watching Strong Contender work in the starting gate and gallop around Keeneland, John Ward walked back to his car a satisfied trainer. "You don't have to tinker with talent," Ward said yesterday. The talent may be there, but Strong Contender still needs a near-flawless performance in Saturday's $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes for a chance to run in the Kentucky Derby 3 weeks later. "We have a finite target," Ward said. "We have to be there. " The lightly raced Strong Contender is 2-for-2 and is running in his first stakes race.