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STORMELLO

The Stormy Atlantic colt finally had an easy ship from his California home, and arrived at Churchill Downs Monday afternoon bucking and playing. He got his first look at the Churchill Downs track Tuesday morning, when he went out for a light gallop under exercise rider Michelle Nevin.

"I don t have any excuses this time," said trainer Bill Currin, who arrived from Hollywood Park Monday night to supervise Stormello s preparation.

This was such an easy ship, compared to the 14-hour ordeals he went through getting to Florida.

Currin is still smiling over Stormello s final Derby workout five furlongs in 1:00.80 at Hollywood Park Sunday morning, with his Derby rider, Kent Desormeaux, in the irons.

"He s coming off the best work of his life," Currin said. "Not just the final time, but the way he did it. We had him behind his workhorse (the Currin-trained Eyesalrite) for a while, then he moved up inside, then he moved outside, and then he dropped back again. When Kent moved on him at the end, he just devoured the other horse. A perfect 10 workout," Currin said.

STORM IN MAY/IMAWILDANDCRAZYGUY

After working three furlongs at Churchill Downs on Monday under jockey Juan Leyva, Storm in May and stablemate Imawildandcrazyguy walked the shedrow Tuesday and were getting in-stall massages, part of their regular therapy.

Storm in May already had a spot in the Kentucky Derby, and Imawildandcrazyguy just earned a berth Tuesday afternoon with the defections of Xchanger and Cobalt Blue.

"We are officially running (Imawildandcrazyguy)," said Kaplan on Tuesday afternoon from the Churchill Downs racing office after hearing the news of the defections.

The owners (Lewis Pell and Michael Eigner) are ecstatic. It s been a harrowing, nervous time, but we re very happy now. The owners have been dreaming about this.

"For me, I never thought I d have one in the Derby, let alone two. For this horse, if there s a good pace in front of him, it will be good. He ll run all day long." Kaplan has selected Mark Guidry to ride Imawildandcrazyguy.

Meanwhile, Calder-based jockey Juan Leyva is named on Storm in May. Kaplan spoke highly of Leyva, who returned to South Florida after the works Monday and will come back to Louisville on Friday evening. He is partially responsible for the success of these horses, Kaplan said. We ve worked together for a while now. I call him the New Iceman , a nod to George Woolf, who was one of the premier jockeys during his career (1928-46) and a rider of Seabiscuit.

Indeed, Leyva is cool and collected and more experienced than his age of 23 years would suggest. That s because the native of Mexico City got his start with horses at age 12 by riding in unsanctioned match races in California for his father.

After getting his jockey license, he went to Arizona where he rode his first winner at Turf Paradise, but immediately returned to the Southern California circuit. After breaking his foot in September 2004, he found it difficult to get started again in one of the country's most competitive jockey colonies, so he moved his tack to Northern California - for about a week, by his own estimation. Not liking it there, he decided to head east with his girlfriend, fellow jockey Kristi Chapman, in the summer of 2005.

That s when he met Kaplan. A year later, Leyva was introduced to Storm in May and rode the colt in his first four races. Then in late November 2006, Leyva broke his left elbow in a spill at Calder and he was out of action for a few months. The mount on Storm in May went to other riders. But Kaplan put Leyva back aboard for the Arkansas Derby last month, where Storm in May finished a distant second to Curlin.


STREET SENSE

With jockey Calvin Borel up, James Tafel s champion Street Sense put in his final pre-Kentucky Derby work on a clear Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs by working five furlongs in 1:01. The solo work, the fifth-fastest of 22 at the distance, was accomplished over a track labeled as fast before the renovation break.

Churchill Downs clockers timed the move in :13.60 for the first eighth, :26 for the first quarter, :38 for the three-eighths, :49.80 for the half and a gallop out time of 1:13 for the six furlongs.

Jerry Hissam, Borel s agent, reported that his rider was ecstatic after the work. You go in 1:01 and out in 13, you can t do any better than that, Hissam said.

The mood was also ecstatic back at Barn 26 where trainer Carl Nafzger was holding court with the media.

"I'll be disappointed Sunday if all of you are not here," Nafzger said with a laugh. "I hate withdrawal."

"The work was good. Everybody saw it. He got his first quarter in 26 and picked it on up and galloped out. That s him. If we had slowed him down, we d have gone too slow. He wanted to have fun and we let him. We d have really messed him up if I had told Calvin now don t let him run down the lane. He wants to do this. He loves to do what he is doing.

"He set the program; he brought us here and we are going to go with him all the way. If he gets us there, he gets us there and that s horse racing. We only have 19 to beat, so it looks pretty easy now."

Tuesday s work almost mirrored the one Street Sense put in the Tuesday before the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (GI) in which Street Sense ran second, beaten a nose by Dominican. That day he worked five furlongs in 1:04, six days after working a bullet five-eighths in :58.40.

The only difference was he got his first quarter the last time in 27 and 4 and today it was 26 flat, Nafzger said of the move that came seven days after Street Sense worked a bullet five-eighths in :59.

Street Sense came off the track quiet and composed, which is normal for the son of Street Cry.

"He looks like somebody had just put their grandkids on Old Nelly and took them down to the lake bottom to ride around a while," Nafzger said.

"His attitude; that s a big thing. It s up to him now; it has been all the time. He has brought us here and it is up to him on Saturday. Just show me some daylight at the head of the lane, and I'll rest my case."

Street Sense most likely will return to the track in the morning for light exercise with Thursday a walk day with paddock schooling in the afternoon and then gallop up to Derby 133

TEUFLESBERG

After Teuflesberg returned from his 1 1/4-mile gallop, trainer and co-owner Jamie Sanders showed off her buckskin lead pony, Chopper, who performed several tricks for a small audience gathered at Barn 40. When Sanders asked, Is Teuflesberg going to run in the Derby?, Chopper moved his head up and down several times to indicate yes. Perhaps the performance further justified Sanders belief that Teuflesberg will run in the Kentucky Derby (G1). To do so would require the defection of one horse ahead of him on the graded stakes earnings list, which determines eligible starters.

On Tuesday, Sanders again was aboard Teuflesberg, who walked through paddock and galloped about 1 miles. He was scheduled to school in the paddock early in the afternoon.

"He s peaking right now. I keep telling everybody he's sitting on the best race of his life," Sanders said. "He's been improving every race and he s going to throw in his best effort if he gets in."

Sanders learned at noon that Teuflesberg was in the Derby when she received a call from Doug O Neill, trainer of Cobalt Blue.

He said, "Jamie, you're in. We're going to skip this one," Sanders said about 1:30 p.m. O Neill also wished Sanders luck.

"Doug O'Neill s our hero," said Donnie Kelly, who works with Sanders and is another co-owner of Teuflesberg with Gary Logsdon.

Sanders said in the morning that if Teuflesberg races in the Derby, she said Chopper would be enlisted to pony the colt to the starting gate. Chopper is a veteran of such assignments, having accompanied Flower Alley to the starting gate in the 2005 Kentucky Derby (G1) and another Derby horse Sanders couldn t remember.

TIAGO

Santa Anita Derby (GI) hero Tiago got his first taste of the Churchill Downs racing strip Tuesday morning following his ship via plane from Los Angeles

"He shipped fine," the 61-year-old ex-Marine stated at Barn 41 on the Churchill backstretch Tuesday morning.

Shirreffs directed Tiago through the six-furlong gap at 7:45 led by his forman and chief groom Frank Leal with exercise rider Frankie Herrarte up. Those two, who have worked for the trainer for more than a decade, keep the Giacomo vibe alive headed into Derby 133. For Derby 131 in 2005, Shirreffs brought Tiago s half-brother, Giacomo, to Churchill. That colt was owned and bred by Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Moss, the current owners and breeders of Tiago. Giacomo s rider was Hall of Famer Mike Smith, who will handle Tiago this Saturday. And he was groomed by Leal and exercised by Herrarte.

Tiago and Herrarte did a little jog up the mile chute to work out any travel kinks that might have existed, then did an easy gallop once around the big Churchill oval well out from the rail.

"He liked it real good," the exercise rider reported afterward.

His trainer did, too. So far so good, Shirreffs reported.