Kentucky Derby

BALTIMORE - On the first Saturday of February, I'll Have Another was not on any list of Kentucky Derby contenders. On the second Saturday of June, I'll Have Another will be going for the elusive Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby winner needed just about every yard of the Pimlico stretch Saturday to run down Bodemeister and win the Preakness by a neck. It was nearly 9 lengths back to the third horse, Creative Cause, as the top two staged a near copy of their Derby stretch duel. The Preakness, at a mile and three sixteenths, is 110 yards shorter than the Derby.

] ELKTON, Md. - Michael Matz entered a horse in the Preakness Wednesday. It just wasn't the horse he had been thinking for months he would be running in Saturday's race at Pimlico. If you had just dropped by Matz' barn at the Fair Hill Training Center Wednesday morning with no context, it all looked so routine. Sets of horses came off the track as the next group was readied for the track. Some horses walked the shed row. Others were outside getting cleaned up. After the outside work was done, Matz took to the phone to call racing offices to enter horses for weekend races.

BALTIMORE — Bodemeister ran the first quarter mile of the Kentucky Derby in a preposterous 22.32 seconds. He ran the final quarter mile over the exact same piece of Churchill Downs real estate in 27 seconds. The dazzling winner of the Arkansas Derby ran like a quarter horse the first time through the stretch, a Clydesdale the second time. He outsprinted two really fast horses, Trinniberg and Hansen, for the early lead and really looked like a winner when he got away from the field at the top of the stretch.

BALTIMORE - As the Kentucky Derby preps played out through the winter and spring, it seemed clear that the Breeders' Cup Juvenile was a strong race that would have major impact on the first Saturday in May. Nine of the 13 Juvenile horses had won stakes in 2012. Then, they ran the Derby and only one horse from the Juvenile even hit the board. Dullahan was third. The other eight who ran finished fifth, seventh, ninth, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th and 20th. The first, second and fourth Derby finishers were late developers who were nowhere near Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, 2011.

The Union Rags team had dreams of more than the Kentucky Derby. They really thought they might have a horse that could win the Triple Crown. That dream went away when the stall doors opened for Saturday's Derby. Instead of, say getting position and making it into an eight-horse race, with more than half the field behind him, Union Rags, 18th early, was in a 20-horse race and eventually finished seventh. The team of owner Phyllis Wyeth, trainer Michael Matz and Wyeth advisor Russell Jones met Tuesday at Matz's Fair Hill (Md.)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday, barely 12 hours after a Kentucky Derby that had been 6 months in the planning went very wrong in less than a second. Michael Matz was walking a horse named Welcome Dance around the Barn 42 shedrow, passing a sedate Union Rags, peering out from his stall. As he rounded the corner, Matz called back over his shoulder: "We did everything we wanted except the last 2 minutes and that was the part we couldn't help. " In horse racing, you can be prepared, organized and make rational decisions.

Less than four weeks to go and there's still no clear favorite for the May 4 Kentucky Derby. Not to worry: Intrigue is what makes these Derby preps so much fun. Take the Wood Memorial at Aqu-educt in New York, one of three major 1 1/8-mile preps tomorrow, along with the Blue Grass at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., and the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. There's so much uncertainty in the Wood that five of the eight 3-year-olds...

  Here is the field for Saturday's 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, post time: 6:23 p.m. NBC10. All carry 126 pounds. Distance: 11/4 miles. Purse: $2,219,600 if 20 start. First place: $1,459,600. Second place: $400,000. Third place: $200,000. Fourth place: $100,000. Fifth place: $60,000. Advance wagering available Friday.   1. Daddy Long Legs    O'Brien         O'Donahue      30-1 2. Optimizer . . .                Lukas            Court            50-1 3. Take Charge Indy . . .          Byrne            Borel            15-1 4. Union Rags             Matz            Leparoux      9-2 5. Dullahan . . .                Romans         Desormeaux   8-1 6. Bodemeister             Baffert         Smith            4-1 7. Rousing Sermon          Hollendorfer Lezcano         50-1 8. Creative Cause . . .          Harrington      Rosario         12-1 9. Trinniberg                Parboo         Martinez         50-1 10. Daddy Nose Best . . .       Asmussen      Gomez         15-1 11. Alpha . . .                   McLaughlin      Maragh         15-1...

Ramon Dominguez was the leading jockey in the nation last year with 453 victories, and his mounts earned over $11 million. He set a record last season at Delaware Park with 254 victories, 98 more than his nearest rival, shattering the mark set by perennial leader Mike McCarthy. On Saturday at Churchill Downs, the soft-spoken 27-year-old from Venezuela will ride Tapit in the Kentucky Derby for trainer Michael Dickinson, and the gray colt will likely be among the three favorites.

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.

BALTIMORE - On the first Saturday of February, I'll Have Another was not on any list of Kentucky Derby contenders. On the second Saturday of June, I'll Have Another will be going for the elusive Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby winner needed just about every yard of the Pimlico stretch Saturday to run down Bodemeister and win the Preakness by a neck. It was nearly nine lengths back to the third horse, Creative Cause, as the top two staged a near copy of their Derby duel. The Preakness, at a mile and three- sixteenths, is 110 yards shorter than the Derby.

BALTIMORE - On the first Saturday of February, I'll Have Another was not on any list of Kentucky Derby contenders. On the second Saturday of June, I'll Have Another will be going for the elusive Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby winner needed just about every yard of the Pimlico stretch Saturday to run down Bodemeister and win the Preakness by a neck. It was nearly 9 lengths back to the third horse, Creative Cause, as the top two staged a near copy of their Derby stretch duel. The Preakness, at a mile and three sixteenths, is 110 yards shorter than the Derby.

BALTIMORE - Chester County trainer Michael Matz, whose Teeth of the Dog finished fourth in the Preakness, learned a thing or two about expectations while guiding Barbaro. With Bodemeister, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness favorite who finished a close second in both races, headed to the sideline for the Belmont, Matz's bay colt, Union Rags, might provide the toughest competition for I'll Have Another. Union Rags will also be fresh, having skipped the Preakness after a rough trip in the Derby resulted in a seventh-place finish.

BALTIMORE — Bodemeister ran the first quarter mile of the Kentucky Derby in a preposterous 22.32 seconds. He ran the final quarter mile over the exact same piece of Churchill Downs real estate in 27 seconds. The dazzling winner of the Arkansas Derby ran like a quarter horse the first time through the stretch, a Clydesdale the second time. He outsprinted two really fast horses, Trinniberg and Hansen, for the early lead and really looked like a winner when he got away from the field at the top of the stretch.

BALTIMORE - As the Kentucky Derby preps played out through the winter and spring, it seemed clear that the Breeders' Cup Juvenile was a strong race that would have major impact on the first Saturday in May. Nine of the 13 Juvenile horses had won stakes in 2012. Then, they ran the Derby and only one horse from the Juvenile even hit the board. Dullahan was third. The other eight who ran finished fifth, seventh, ninth, 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th and 20th. The first, second and fourth Derby finishers were late developers who were nowhere near Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, 2011.

] ELKTON, Md. - Michael Matz entered a horse in the Preakness Wednesday. It just wasn't the horse he had been thinking for months he would be running in Saturday's race at Pimlico. If you had just dropped by Matz' barn at the Fair Hill Training Center Wednesday morning with no context, it all looked so routine. Sets of horses came off the track as the next group was readied for the track. Some horses walked the shed row. Others were outside getting cleaned up. After the outside work was done, Matz took to the phone to call racing offices to enter horses for weekend races.

ELKTON, Md. - Michael Matz entered a horse in the Preakness on Wednesday. It just wasn't the horse he had been thinking for months he would be running in Saturday's race at Pimlico. If you had just dropped by Matz's barn at the Fair Hill Training Center on Wednesday morning with no context, it all looked so routine. Sets of horses came off the track as the next group was readied for the track. Some horses walked the shed row. Others were outside getting cleaned up. After the outside work was done, Matz took to the phone to call racing offices to enter horses for weekend races.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Bodemeister is headed to the Preakness to challenge I'll Have Another after their memorable finish in the Kentucky Derby. Bodemeister set a blistering early pace in the Derby only to be caught in the final 100 yards by I'll Have Another and finish second, giving owner Ahmed Zayat his third runner-up finish in the race in the last four years. Zayat was on hand Monday to watch Bodemeister to make sure the horse was ready to travel to Baltimore for Saturday's race.

THE UNION RAGS team had dreams of more than the Kentucky Derby. They really thought they might have a horse that could win the Triple Crown. That dream went away when the stall doors opened for Saturday's Derby. Instead of, say, getting position and making it into an eight-horse race, with more than half the field behind him, Union Rags, 18th early, was in a 20-horse race and eventually finished seventh. The team of owner Phyllis Wyeth, trainer Michael Matz and Wyeth adviser Russell Jones met Tuesday at Matz' Fair Hill, Md., barn and decided that since the Triple Crown is out, the horse could really use more time between races.