KENTUCKY DERBY CAPSULES

FLY SO FREE Post Position 1 Jockey Jose Santos Trainer Scotty Schulhofer Odds 5-1 Career Starts 10 First Place 7 Second Place 1 Third Place 1 Earnings $1,382,004 Has the champion 2-year-old of 1990 peaked too soon? Or can his second-place finish to Strike The Gold in the Blue Grass be dismissed because of a wet track and jockey Jose Santos perhaps overreacting to trainer Scotty Schulhofer’s prerace instructions? Fly So Free faces the problem of trying to become the first 2-year-old champion to win the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979. ALYDAVID Post Position 2 Jockey Corey Black Trainer Phil Hauswald Odds 18-1 Career Starts 4 First Place 3 Second Place 0 Third Place 1 Earnings $83,389 Only five horses have won the Derby Trial, then gone on to win the Derby, the last being Tim Tam in 1958. Alydavid, whose sire, Alydar, finished second in all three Triple Crown races when Affirmed swept the series in 1978, also has had only four starts and didn’t run as a 2-year-old. Derby winners are seldom that lightly raced, and only Apollo--in 1882--won the Derby after not having run the year before. WILDER THAN EVER Post Position 3 Jockey Joe Deegan Trainer John Churchman Odds *14-1 Career Starts 14 First Place 3 Second Place 2 Third Place 2 Earnings $115,373 A deserved part of the five-horse mutuel field, which consists of the horses with the least likely chance to win in the eyes of track handicapper Mike Battaglia. The last field horse to have won the race was Canonero II in 1971. Wilder Than Ever is winless in six stakes and finished last, 13 3/4 lengths behind Strike The Gold, in the Blue Grass. * Part of mutuel betting field SEA CADET Post Position 4 Jockey Chris McCarron Trainer Ron McAnally Odds 19-1 Career Starts 11 First Place 5 Second Place 2 Third Place 2 Earnings $457,050 Horses seldom win the Derby on the front end--recent exceptions being Winning Colors in 1988 and Spend A Buck in 1985--but that is the only way Sea Cadet knows how to run. Sea Cadet doesn’t have the look of a genuine 1 1/4-mile horse, although his grandsire, Damascus, was a solid horse at the classic distances. STRIKE THE GOLD Post Position 5 Jockey Chris Antley Trainer Nick Zito Odds 4-1 Career Starts 7 First Place 2 Second Place 2 Third Place 1 Earnings $378,810 His trainer, Nick Zito, won’t be able to talk himself hoarse if he wins, because Zito sounds like a cross between Clint Eastwood and Aldo Ray. This is another son of Alydar trying to do what his sire couldn’t. He will be doing his serious running late in the race and will need to avoid traffic to win. HANSEL Post Position 6 Jockey Jerry Bailey Trainer Frank Brothers Odds 9-5 Career Starts 9 First Place 5 Second Place 1 Third Place 2 Earnings $811,336 It’s hard to have a clear assessment of this horse. He won the Jim Beam against second-rate opponents and broke a Turfway Park record for 1 1/8 miles, but the track was like a speedway that day, with cheap horses also running extraordinary times. In his last start, the Lexington Stakes, Hansel won by nine lengths, but it was in a four-horse field and amounted to not much more than a workout with purse money. Before those two races, Hansel couldn’t beat Fly So Free or Strike the Gold in the Florida Derby. FORTY SOMETHING Post Position 7 Jockey Andrea Seefeldt Trainer Reggie Vardon Odds *14-1 Career Starts 6 First Place 2 Second Place 1 Third Place 0 Earnings $39,160 Because Mark Johnston couldn’t break his commitments in Maryland, Andrea Seefeldt rides this field horse, becoming the third woman to ride in the Derby. Diane Crump was 15th aboard Fathom in 1970 and P.J. Cooksey finished 11th astride So Vague in 1984. Forty Something has as many last-place finishes--two--as victories in his six starts. * Part of mutuel betting field GREEN ALLIGATOR Post Position 8 Jockey Corey Nakatani Trainer Murray Johnson Odds *14-1 Career Starts 7 First Place 2 Second Place 4 Third Place 0 Earnings $221,500 He is trying to become the first California Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby. If this field horse wins, the Churchill Downs program printer, who has dropped the E in Nakatani’s first name, may get around to spelling Corey correctly. LOST MOUNTAIN Post Position 9 Jockey Herb McCauley Trainer Thomas Bohannan Odds 60-1 Career Starts 10 First Place 1 Second Place 2 Third Place 3 Earnings $269,936 A second-place finish, three lengths behind Cahill Road, in the Wood Memorial encouraged trainer Tom Bohannon to bring this colt to the Derby. Lost Mountain ran third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the race that Fly So Free won, but he’s on a six-race losing streak and hasn’t won in almost seven months. MANE MINISTER Post Position 10 Jockey Alex Solis Trainer Paco Gonzalez Odds 60-1 Career Starts 8 First Place 3 Second Place 0 Third Place 2 Earnings $154,700 One of the most educated horses in the race. Trainer Paco Gonzalez has schooled Mane Minister three days in the Churchill Downs paddock, which despite being larger than the old one can still be unnerving for horses, who are surrounded by thousands of fans, many of them deep in their mint-julep cups by race time. PAULRUS Post Position 11 Jockey Shane Sellers Trainer Steve Penrod Odds *14-1 Career Starts 13 First Place 3 Second Place 2 Third Place 4 Earnings $62,638 Warner Jones, the chairman of Churchill Downs, is starting his first horse in the Derby. Paulrus’ last four races were on the grass, including a six-length victory that was wiped out by a stewards’ disqualification at the Duelling Grounds, Kentucky’s one-day-a-year track not far from Nashville, Tenn. Last November, Paulrus won twice on dirt at Churchill, the first victory in a $30,000 claiming race. * Part of mutuel betting field CORPORATE REPORT Post Position 12 Jockey Pat Day Trainer Wayne Lukas Odds 7-1 Career Starts 4 First Place 2 Second Place 2 Third Place 0 Earnings $153,000 This is the 19th Derby starter for trainer Wayne Lukas, who won with Winning Colors, the filly, three years ago. Corporate Report is saddled with that never-raced-at-2 bugaboo, and even Lukas is picking Best Pal to win the race. Pat Day, Corporate Report’s jockey, is a Hall of Famer, but he has failed with eight Derby mounts and been second the last three years. ANOTHER REVIEW Post Position 13 Jockey Art Madrid Trainer Johnny Campo Odds *14-1 Career Starts 8 First Place 2 Second Place 1 Third Place 2 Earnings $78,384 Trainer Johnny Campo, who came into the 1981 Derby with another colt that had been originally trained by someone else and found himself in the winner’s circle with Pleasant Colony. Campo got Another Review the day after he ran seventh in the Wood. * Part of mutuel betting field HAPPY JAZZ BAND Post Position 14 Jockey Cash Asmussen Trainer Phil Gleaves Odds 99-1 Career Starts 9 First Place 2 Second Place 2 Third Place 2 Earnings $310,730 The Wood was such a good race for Cahill Road, who came back to the winner’s circle lame, that trainers of horses who finished well back that day still saw something positive about the experience. Phil Gleaves, Happy Jazz Band’s trainer, used to help Woody Stephens, who won the Derby with Cannonade and Swale. Jockey Cash Asmussen won’t be able to give much of an interview if he wins; his Concorde back to France is double-parked. BEST PAL Post Position 15 Jockey Gary Stevens Trainer Ian Jory Odds 6-1 Career Starts 10 First Place 6 Second Place 2 Third Place 1 Earnings $1,148,695 Jory was already a big name in Louisville, because the son of Victor Jory--the old character actor--runs the fine theater company in town. Ian Jory, a distant relative of Victor, would like to make a name for himself locally as well by improving on the fourth-place finish that Video Ranger gave him in the trainer’s Derby debut a year ago. Best Pal’s sterling workouts at Churchill could be negated by his bad post position. QUINTANA Post Position 16 Jockey Angel Cordero Trainer David Cross Odds 23-1 Career Starts 7 First Place 2 Second Place 1 Third Place 0 Earnings $114,000 Gary Stevens got off this horse after a troubled trip and a fourth-place finish in the Arkansas Derby and told trainer David Cross that this colt belongs in the Derby. That should count for something, because Stevens rides Best Pal, Quintana’s gate-mate, on the outside of the field. Quintana has distance written all over his pedigree.