Workout Report May 1

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ANY GIVEN SATURDAY/CIRCULAR QUAY/COWTOWN CAT/SCAT DADDY/SAM P.

Four of the five Todd Pletcher contenders did their last bit of exercise at Keeneland Tuesday morning. The other horse the Cat Thief colt Sam P., who's been at Churchill Downs all along, walked the shedrow at Barn 34.

At Keeneland, Any Given Saturday, Circular Quay, Cowtown Cat and Scat Daddy all went trackside for gallops of varying lengths under their regular exercise riders.

Any Given Saturday, the Distorted Humor offspring who has never been worse than third in six lifetime starts, galloped a mile and one quarter under Martin Mendoza. The colt has been stakes-placed in three of his last four outings the placings all coming in graded stakes and in the other test he won the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs. He ll have Garrett Gomez up when he goes postward Saturday in the 133rd Kentucky Derby.

Circular Quay had Tony Tamburino in the tack as he galloped around the Keeneland oval for 1 1/4 mile. The son of Thunder Gulch comes into the 10-furlong Derby off an impressive tally in the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, where he was handled by John Velazquez. The 2005 Eclipse Award winner as the nation s leading jockey will be back aboard the chestnut colt in the Run for the Roses.

Cowtown Cat galloped a mile and one half for exercise rider Loren Robson. He, too, is a Distorted Humor offspring and comes into the Kentucky Derby off back-to-back stakes scores in the Gotham at Aqueduct and the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne. A lanky chestnut gifted with natural speed, he ll have the saddle services of Fernando Jara, who rode him in the Illinois victory.

Scat Daddy galloped one mile for exercise rider Mendoza. The dark-hued son of Johannesburg gets Edgar Prado for his partner Saturday. It was Prado who was aboard the Kentucky-bred colt when he captured the Florida Derby in his most recent outing, after winning Gulfstream Park s Fountain of Youth in his prior start.

Pletcher was finalized plans to ship his crew including the three Kentucky Oaks fillies Cotton Blossom, Octave and Rags to Riches to Churchill Downs for arrival at Barn 34 at around today s 4:30 feeding time. We ll have them all out on the track at Churchill Wednesday morning, the trainer said.

BWANA BULL

The Jerry Hollendorfer-trained Bwana Bull was reported to be full of energy Tuesday morning, a day after working six furlongs in 1:14.40.

"He came out of the work great. He s getting sharper by the day," said Hollendorfer s assistant, Galen May, who reported that Bwana Bull walked the shedrow Tuesday. "You should have seen him when I brought him in after his work (Monday). He was bucking and kicking."

May, who reported that Hollendorfer will be in Louisville on Wednesday, said he s noticed a difference in the El Camino Real Derby (GIII) winner since he was shipped to Churchill Downs a week ago.

"Day by day, he s been feeling better and better," May said. I can t ask for any better. "He s going to be a handful (Wednesday) when he goes back to the track."

Javier Castellano will ride Bwana Bull for the first time in the Derby.

COBALT BLUE/GREAT HUNTER/LIQUIDITY

Great Hunter schooled in the paddock, jogged about a mile and galloped 1 mile.

"He looked awesome," O Neill said. "He s so professional. He seems like he s on his game right now."

O Neill also had high praise for Liquidity, who followed the same routine as Great Hunter, schooling in the paddock, jogging about a mile and galloping about 1 miles. "He looked great as well," O Neill said.

Cobalt Blue equipped in blinkers, jogged a mile and galloped 1 miles after schooling in the paddock with exercise rider Tony Romero.

"I was impressed with the way he galloped this morning with the blinkers," O Neill said. "It appeared to re-energize him. If it was up to me I would run him in the Kentucky Derby, but the call is with the owner, Merv Griffin, and he is concerned about the horse s well-being both mentally and physically."

Early in the afternoon, O Neill reported that Cobalt Blue would not start in the Kentucky Derby.

"The horse is doing great," O Neill said. "I talked to Merv and he thought it was in the best interest of the horse not to tax him one and a quarter miles. So we re going to slow it down, go back to California and look for a race."

Because of the defections of Cobalt Blue and Xchanger two horses that were on the bubble Teuflesberg and Imawildandcrazyguy will be entered to run in Saturday s 133rd Kentucky Derby.

CURLIN/ZANJERO/REPORTING FOR DUTY

One day after turning in their final major Kentucky Derby 133 workouts, trainer Steve Asmussen s trio of potential starters all walked the shedrow under the care of assistant Scott Blasi. Asmussen was off to Lexington to supervise his string of runners stabled at Keeneland.

The Asmussen Derby runners are slated to school in the paddock along with today s fourth- or fifth-race field, and also school in the gate as per their usual routine on Thursday of this week.

Blasi reported that all s well with the trio this morning on a very quiet day around the barn of a potential Kentucky Derby favorite.

Asmussen indicated this week that Curlin s progress from maiden to leading Derby contender hopeful has been as impressive as it has been rapid.

"The talent was obviously there in his maiden victory when he first came to us," Asmussen said. "We steadily gave him better horses (as workmates) and put him behind horses and see how he handled some circumstances.

"We came out of that race (Oaklawn s Rebel) with more confidence, and I think we put a little bit more on him and he responded with a better race in the Arkansas Derby.

Curlin's three-race resume puts him behind the historical eight-ball, but his trainer knows that you can t change the past. If he could, Curlin would have one more stablemate next to him in Saturday's starting gate.

"You work from the position you re in and feel great about who he is and where he's at," Asmussen said. "We're very fortunate. Circumstances have come to mind for us. Starting the year, we probably had one of the favorites in Tiz Wonderful. It didn t work out for him, and it doesn t make him any less of a horse. It just makes him miss his chance at the Derby."

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DOMINICAN/SEDGEFIELD

The Silverton Hill colorbearers had an easy day Tuesday, with Dominican taking an easy jog over the main track, and Sedgefield playing in the sand at the end of the stable area.

Trainer Darrin Miller s two charges have completed their hard work for the Derby, and will just gallop up to Saturday s main event.

Miller was aboard Dominican, who went out before the break this morning.

"I just walked him on the track, and then jogged him a mile and a half," Miller said.

Sedgefield, who had his final Derby breeze Monday morning (a half-mile in :48.40) had an easy morning.

"We just walked him to the end of the stable area and let him kick some sand around," Miller said. "He came out of yesterday's work really well."

Dominican put up the bullet work on Sunday when the gelded son of El Corredor breezed five furlongs in :59.40. Rafael Bejarano, who won the Blue Grass Stakes (GI) last out aboard Dominican, has the mount again for the Derby. This will be the jockey s third try for the roses. Bejarano rode Andromeda s Hero (eighth) in 2005, and Point Determined (ninth) last year.

Sedgefield will be the first Derby mount for Julien Leparoux, who has quickly become one of the superstars of racing. The 23-year-old native of Senlis, France, won the Eclipse Award last year as the nation s outstanding apprentice, and has continued that success as a journeyman, winning the riding title at the recently concluded Keeneland spring meet for the second straight year.

Miller is already plotting strategy for Wednesday s post position draw.

"I'll get with the two riders today to discuss all the possibilities of the draw," Miller said. "When they assigned post positions, you only had to talk about it afterward. Now you have to anticipate making the right moves. There s a little more stress involved."

HARD SPUN

The day after putting in the fastest Derby work in 28 years, Hard Spun took it easy Tuesday.

"It was his day off, " said trainer Larry Jones. "He just walked the shedrow this morning. Tomorrow, we ll take him out of his stall and see what he wants to do. They say good horses train themselves, and he s a good horse."

The son of Danzig turned a lot of heads Monday morning when he flew five furlongs in :57.60 under jockey Mario Pino. It was the fastest Derby Week work since General Assembly drilled five furlongs in :57.40 in 1979. General Assembly finished second behind Spectacular Bid that year.

"He came out of the work really well, Jones said. Everything is wonderful with him. Yesterday, his breathing was back to normal within 15 minutes of the breeze."

Jones said it was a different kind of workout for a horse of his.

"I m not usually involved with works like this. In general, most people say I work horses slow. But I think he's just handling this track super and feeling good."

Hard Spun, owned by Fox Hill Farms, is coming off a 3 -length victory over Sedgefield in the Lanes End Stakes (GII) on Turfway Park s Polytrack. Before that, he had finished fourth in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

"We weren t getting this kind of result from him at Oaklawn," Jones said. "He just didn t handle that track at all.

"I asked him to work fast at Oaklawn back in February, and he came back breathing hard, like he d just run a route race. That s when I knew he wasn t doing well on that track.

"We had been pointing for the Rebel (March 17), but I knew we d have to find something else for him, so I brought him back to Kentucky for the Lanes End.

"After that, I worked him here at Churchill (five furlongs in a bullet 1:00.20 on April 12) to find out if he liked this track, and then he got a mile maintenance work over the Polytrack at Keeneland (a 1:42.40 clocking on April 23), which apparently you re not supposed to do, but I think it helped him.

"And after yesterday s work, I have to think he likes this track."

NOBIZ LIKE SHOBIZ

Elizabeth Valando s Nobiz Like Shobiz jogged once around the Belmont Park track under execise rider Derek Sturniolo Tuesday in his first morning back to the track after working five furlongs on Sunday.

The Wood Memorial (GI) winner is scheduled to be sent to the track for a morning gallop on Wednesday before boarding a Louisville-bound plane at a still unspecified time in the afternoon.

Trainer Barclay Tagg, who used the same schedule for his 2003 Kentucky Derby winner, Funny Cide, said that he d prefer to ship even later in the week.

"For one thing, it s logistics. I have a lot to do here and nothing to do there," Tagg said. "For another thing, I don t see any sense in having him there more than one day."

Cornelio Velasquez has the return mount on Nobiz Like Shobiz.

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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.

[Rileyoriley]

Thanks for the reports!

[Danzig]

lol @ hard spuns peeps STILL biatching about him not liking oaklawn. give it a rest already fellas!

second fastest work behind forego's 57 back in 1973. yikes.