Florida Derby

Snow Chief, undamaged in his front-running Florida Derby victory, walked soundly from his Gulfstream Park stall yesterday morning and into the favorite's role for this year's Kentucky Derby. The obscurely bred colt, winner of his last four races and more than $1.4 million, will remain at the Miami-area track until Saturday, before his return trip to California. His next start will be on the West Coast, in the Santa Anita Derby on April 6, trainer Mel Stute said. Gulfstream Park's press office promoted Saturday's 35th running of the 1 1/ 8-mile Florida Derby as a clash of East and West.

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.

Twice before, David Seidman had been correct about Admiral's Image, the exceptional 3-year-old gelding he owns with business partner Bruce Goldblatt. Trainer John Lenzini Sr. had been leery of running the little horse in Philadelphia Park's $100,000 Heritage Stakes in November. Seidman decided that he should run. Admiral's Image mastered a sloppy track and won. Lenzini also was wary of running Admiral's Image right back in the Pennsylvania Futurity at the Bucks County track in early December.

Peyton Manning threw his first passes to his newest Broncos teammate Wes Welker during a workout Wednesday at Duke. Welker and Denver receivers Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker joined the veteran quarterback, working with Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who was Manning's quarterbacks coach at Tennessee and oversaw much of the quarterback's work when he was recovering from his neck surgeries. Welker left the Patriots and signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Broncos this offseason.

JOHN VELAZQUEZ has won nearly 5,000 races and is closing on 750 stakes wins. He has won 22 riding titles at New York's three major tracks, nine Breeders' Cup races and two Triple Crown races. He was just elected to the Horse Racing Hall of Fame. If you said he was the best jockey in America today, you really would not get much of an argument. If "Johnny V" had not been committed to ride another horse this spring, he would have ridden Union Rags in his Florida campaign and the Kentucky Derby.

The Golden State Warriors yesterday acquired forward Donyell Marshall from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for forward Tom Gugliotta. The 6-foot-9 Marshall was the fourth player selected in the 1994 NBA draft out of Connecticut. With the Timberwolves this season, he has averaged 10.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 40 games. The Warriors got Gugliotta and three first-round draft picks in a Nov. 17 trade that sent Chris Webber, last season's NBA rookie of the year, to Washington.

The unofficial start of the annual Kentucky Derby horse-yard debating season is scheduled for this afternoon at Gulfstream Park with the 39th running of the 1 1/8-mile, $500,000 Florida Derby. This is supposed to be the high point of the winter racing season on the East Coast, the first Grade I race for 3-year-olds, the race that brings together the glamour colts. Tim Tam came this way. Needles. Spectacular Bid. Bold Ruler. Northern Dancer. But this year, most of the glamour colts have fallen apart like cheap toys and are trying to recover in time for the Triple Crown races that start May 5 with the Kentucky Derby.

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.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Normandy Invasion, runner-up in the Wood Memorial, is named for the pivotal Allied assault in World War II. Rick Porter, the colt's owner, decided he could do more to honor that effort than simply naming a horse. He has arranged for four veterans of that campaign to join him at the Derby. "Three of them were on the beaches for the D-Day invasion," said Porter, a Wilmington native who has two-second place finishes in the Derby with Hard Spun (2007) and Eight Belles (2008)

Alexis Solis rides Snow Chief, the California comet. Solis's wife is Sheila. Her daddy, Burt Sonnier, trains Meadowlake. "I asked her," Sonnier said, "what would happen if we're head-and-head at the Kentucky Derby, turning for home, who would she root for? "She said, 'Don't ask me that, Daddy, don't ask me that.' " It's an intriguing question, one of many left in the wake of Snow Chief's dazzling victory in the Florida Derby on Saturday. Forget the turtle time of 1:51 4/5, slowest in 31 years.