"Carl has him on the right track," Borel said afterward.

Imawildandcrazyguy was scheduled to fly to New York on Wednesday along with stablemates Storm in May and Emma's Candy.

Curlin, who is among the likely contenders for the Belmont Stakes, walked the shedrow at trainer Steve Asmussen's Churchill barn one day after working five furlongs in 1:03.20 under regular exercise rider Carmen Rosas.

Asmussen's assistant, Scott Blasi, said the muscular Smart Strike colt appeared to be strong on Tuesday morning.

Nafzger said he had spoken to owner Jim Tafel on Sunday, and would do so again at mid-week.

Asmussen watched as Curlin left the Preakness Stakes barn at 6 a.m. and was walked onto a van to be taken to Baltimore-Washington International Airport for the flight to Kentucky.

"He looked good as he was loaded on the trailer, but he definitely knows he ran (Saturday)," Asmussen said.

Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense ran past Curlin at the top of the stretch of the Preakness and appeared to be on his way to victory when Curlin rallied again under jockey Robby Albarado. Curlin surged in the final few yards and beat Street Sense by a head while matching the stakes record of 1:53.46 for the 1-3/16-mile Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Curlin picked up his fourth victory in five lifetime starts with a performance that Asmussen said was the most stressful of the colt's short career.

"I think that was obvious from the race," Asmussen said. "He had to dig down deep and find more."

While Asmussen did not commit to going on to the Belmont Stakes or the Travers at Saratoga, he said Curlin is headed to racing's marquee events.

"This is the stage this horse deserves and those are the caliber of races he is intended for," Asmussen said. "It will all be up to him physically, but that is the stage that he deserves to be on. Our job is to make sure he is prepared for it."

Curlin had a troubled trip in the Derby, but showed interest in the later stages of the race and was able to finish third. Asmussen and his staff quickly realized that Curlin was fresh and could handle the quick turnaround from the Derby to the Preakness.

"He came out of the race unlike any of my other previous Derby starters," Asmussen said. "With the possibility of running him back in two weeks, if you're going to run one, he was the one you wanted to run."

By Sunday morning, Asmussen, who scrapped a plan to return home Saturday night, had seen video of Curlin's run in the Preakness.

"He wasn't away as clean as we were hoping for," Asmussen said. "He was off the bridle early. Personally, I was worried about a replay of the Derby. Robby got him in position. Street Sense, and he's an excellent horse, kind of got the jump on him. He dug down deep and found more and is a deserving winner of a classic.

"I couldn't be any prouder of the horse or for the horse. It's just a grand stage for everybody to see what everybody involved with the horse believed all along."

From his vantage point, Asmussen couldn't be sure whether Curlin would be able to catch Street Sense.

"I watched the race from well up the racetrack, pretty close to the starting gate," Asmussen said. "As they came around the turn Robby was having to navigate him. The horse drifts out a bit and he was having to guide him quite a bit. So you knew that wherever he was in the stretch and was able to go back to his right lead that he'd be able to find more. How much more, obviously, was in question. I didn't feel that he was done, but whether it would be enough or not was the question to be asked at that point."

As a record crowd of 121,263 people at Pimlico roared, Curlin and Street Sense turned in a classic battle to the wire.

"The last three-sixteenths goes in 18 (seconds) and change," Asmussen said. "Covering that much ground, they both came home extremely well."

The Preakness was Asmussen's first victory in an American classic race and turned out to be a well-timed personal milestone.

"I'm extremely proud that my family was able to enjoy it with me," he said. "It's a very special feeling, having my parents being able to be here. My father's mother passed away this week. It prioritizes what family means to you, for them to be a part of a very special moment for me.

STREET SENSE -- The Preakness runner-up flew back to Churchill Downs early Sunday morning before trainer Carl Nafzger and wife Wanda began their long car ride back to Kentucky.

"He's good; he's already home," Nafzger said by phone shortly after 11 a.m. "There won't be a decision on the Belmont until Mr. Tafel and I have a meeting. That will probably take place two or three days or maybe a week. Right now, I don't think we probably will. There's not really any reason to go there right now. These three horses ran their guts out the last two races. I don't know what Curlin’s gonna do and I don't know what Hard Spun's gonna do."

Street Sense appeared destined to be on his way to the Belmont with a chance to become racing's 12th Triple Crown champion and first since Affirmed in 1978, but Curlin nailed him in the final stride to win by a head and end the dream of the Kentucky Derby winner's camp.

"This was one of the Preaknesses to remember," said Nafzger, who also finished second with Derby winner Unbridled in the 1990 Preakness. "It was a spectacular race. Winning isn't everything in this game. That was a field of very nice horses. You don't want anybody to get beat, but there's got to be a winner. I thought Curlin ran an unbelievable race, but you've got to remember Asmussen ain't never won the Derby. I have twice. He got a Preakness."

HARD SPUN -- Trainer Larry Jones reported that his third-place finisher in Saturday's Preakness Stakes emerged from the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown in good order.

"Everything looks good. He ate well, his legs are cold. He's seems like he's OK. He's tired, but he came out of the race OK," said Jones, Sunday morning before putting his colt on a van bound for Delaware Park.

Hard Spun took over the lead leaving the backstretch and showed the nine-horse field into the stretch before being passed by eventual winner Curlin and Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense.

"We got beat by two really good horses who tied the stakes record (1:53.46) in order to do it. We're disappointed because we wanted to win, but I'm disappointed that I had two thirds at Delaware (Saturday). I wanted those horses to win, too," Jones said.

"But we sure don't have anything to be ashamed of. When you run third in one of the classics, you've got to be happy. It wasn't our day, but we don't know if we'll get a day. But Carl and Steve are both very nice guys, and I'm sure if all three go to Belmont, they're going to feel sorry for him and let me have one."

Jones said the Belmont is a distinct possibility for his colt's future, depending on how he bounces back from his Preakness effort in the next week.

"When we saw (1:09 4/5) for three quarters, it started to look like we were in a dangerous situation," said Jones of Saturday's fast fraction Hard Spun had put on the board while wresting a two-length lead from early pace-duelers Xchanger and Flying First Class.

Jones said the way the race set up put Hard Spun and jockey Mario Pino in a tough spot, with C P West and jockey Edgar Prado making their presence felt along the backstretch.

"We had schooled the horse eating dirt, and as soon as we'd tip him out from behind the horses and show him racetrack, we'd sort of gun him to go. So, I think it probably was what the horse may have been thinking with Mario (Saturday). He said he knew those horses were going to stop. He could tell they were starting to slow down, and he didn't want to take a chance of Edgar race-riding him up to a blocked spot," he said.

"As soon as he tipped him out to make sure that he had a place to go when Edgar comes, I think the horse just took off on him, the way he talked. He said he took all the hold on him that he could without starting to fight with him."

Hard Spun, who finished a solid second behind Street Sense in the Kentucky Derby, is the first Triple Crown campaigner of Jones' career, which took a decided upturn when Fox Hill Farm's Richard Porter transferred Hard Spun to his stable shortly after the Western Kentucky native ventured to Delaware Park for the first time last year.

"The chances of getting the second one are far greater than getting the first one. It's like making a million dollars. It's making the first million is the hardest; the other million comes around a lot easier," Jones said. "That's kind of the way it is with these classic horses. You've got to get there with the first, before anyone's going to give you a shot."

C P WEST -- Trainer Nick Zito was packing up for the trip back to New York shortly after 8 a.m. on Sunday, still more than pleased with his colt's fourth-place finish and ready to reward him with a rest. Zito said the son of Came Home will bypass the Belmont Stakes.

"He came out of it very good," said the Hall of Fame conditioner. "He's a different type of horse. He shouldn't be a Belmont Stakes horse right now. We took a giant step with a horse that just ran two races (this year), one a mile race. He didn't even have a two-turn race before a classic race like the Preakness."

Zito said the next target in terms of major stakes for C P West would be the Travers at Saratoga on Aug.. 25.

"Everything we hoped would happen happened," Zito said. "Street Sense beat us bad in the Juvenile, but he beat everybody bad in the Juvenile. I wanted to see how much he improved and if he could stay with these horses, and he did. Now we should handle him correctly. Running him a mile and a half wouldn't be correctly."

CIRCULAR QUAY, KING OF THE ROXY -- Trainer Todd Pletcher's two Preakness runners arrived "no worse for the wear" back at his Belmont Park barn shortly after 9:30 a.m., according to assistant trainer Tristan Barry.

Both horses finished off the board, leaving the three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer with a lifetime 0-for-28 record in Triple Crown events.

Barry said Pletcher gave no indication about his future plans with Circular Quay, who was fifth in the Preakness and sixth in the Kentucky Derby or sixth-place Preakness finisher King of the Roxy. He indicated on Saturday that both would likely get some rest before their next starts.

Pletcher had much more success with his two 3-year-old fillies during the first two legs of the Triple Crown, winning both the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks with Rags to Riches and the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan with Panty Raid. Pletcher has not ruled out the possibility of Rags to Riches against males, possibly in the Belmont Stakes.

Another Pletcher 3-year-old, Soaring By, was one of the favorites in Sunday's Peter Pan at Belmont Park, considered a significant prep for the Belmont Stakes.

MINT SLEWLEP -- Trainer Robbie Bailes said Sunday morning he was happy with the manner in which Mint Slewlep came out of his seventh-place finish in the Preakness Stakes.

"He's doing well," said Bailes, who vanned Marshall Dowell's Mint Slewlep back to his Bowie Training Center headquarters Saturday night.

Bailes has no immediate plans for the son of Slew City Slew, who was bumped off stride shortly after the start of the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

"We'll sit back for seven or eight days and talk it over with Mr. Dowell to see what's the best way to get him back (on track)," Bailes said.

XCHANGER -- Trainer Mark Shuman knew Xchanger was in trouble when he saw the early fractions his eighth-place finisher had set while being pressed by Flying First Class during the early going of the Preakness Stakes.

"Nobody goes 1:09 and change and has a shot of finishing up," said Shuman, who vanned his Preakness starter back to his Fair Hill Training Center barn Saturday night. "We didn't give a fair shot by going that fast early."

Shuman, who reported that his colt came out of his effort in good order, said it would be 30 days before he would decide where Xchanger will race next.

"There are so many races for 3-year-olds, we'll have a lot of options," he said.

FLYING FIRST CLASS -- Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and his colt were back in Kentucky before noon on Sunday. Lukas said the colt came out of the race fine.

After Flying First Class dominated the field in the Derby Trial on April 28, Lukas decided to try the Preakness and see if the colt could carry his speed around two turns. That plan did not work out, though, when Flying First Class and Xchanger dueled through fast early fractions before Flying First Class tired and finished last in the nine-horse Preakness field.

"We'll just stay under a mile now for the rest of his career. That little experiment is over," Lukas said by telephone. "We'll just point for the better sprint races and see if we can't get him to the Breeders' Cup."

Along the way, Lukas said the colt might run in races like the King's Bishop at Saratoga.

During the week leading up to the Preakness, Lukas touted Curlin and Street Sense, who finished a head apart at the finish of the race.

(On Belmont Stakes) "I'll talk to Mr. Tafel, but if I was a betting man I'd take some bets against it. Winning isn't everything in this game. I don't have any animosity against Curlin beating me. I want to beat him the next time I run against him, but this horse beat us and he beat us fair and square."

"I just think he's (Street Sense) as good a horse as he ever was. We've gotta see what happens. I don't want to make any excuses why I got beat. I think my horse got to the lead and thought 'I won.' He's that kind of a horse. Curlin is a racehorse. If he wasn't a racehorse, he wouldn't have overcome the lead that we had on him. He proved he's good. How good is
he? Hell, that's why we run them."

Calvin Borel (jockey, 2nd-place finisher Street Sense) -- "I thought it was all over when I got by Hard spun turning for home. I thought he was just going to gallop. But things happen. He just got to gawking 40 yards from home and he just got outrun. I went up on the inside of him, and (Robby Albarado) was riding already and I was sitting, so I thought he was finished. I kept hearing him, and I looked under my arm and saw him. I thought I rode a perfect race, and Carl did too. It's far from over. If he comes back good, we'll be alright.

"I'm glad (Albarado) beat me, if anybody had to beat me. We're like family. This is how we came up. I told him, "Congratulations," pulling up. I'm sure he feels a little bad for me, but this is what we do."

Larry Jones (trainer, 3rd'place finisher Hard Spun) -- "(C P West's Jockey Edgar) Prado was coming up on the outside and we pretty well had to go. He wasn't going to let us set there and go. That probably hurt us as bad as anything. We'd have loved to put that move off for another eighth of a mile, but he did well. I’m pleased. We'd love to win it, especially being here at
(jockey Mario Pino's) track, but good horses ran. The top three finishers in the Derby were 1-2-3 here.

"The next time, let's see, third went to first. Yeah, it's my turn the next time.

"We'd have loved to finish up with them, but it was a great horse race. This is what makes horse racing. The top three in the Derby are the top three in the Preakness.

"I don't know (about the Belmont). We’ll discuss it. His mother was a stakes winner at a mile and a half. There is no reason to think he can't do it because he sure won't have to run this fast early next time. We'll discuss it. As we said when we started, we had plans of running three races, all three of them. We'll see. This race sure doesn't make me think that we can't do it. We'll see in the next day or so and we'll make our plans.

"After the first quarter of a mile, I felt very good that they were running easy and then when I saw the second quarter run as quick as it did and we were still off of them, I thought we were well within ourself, and we were. I started getting a little more concerned when I saw the :09
and four (1:09 4/5) after three quarters and I knew that would be tough.

"Speed has been holding here. It's the spot to be. If Nick's horse hadn't come to us so early, I would have loved for both of them to set a little longer, because they both finished well. It's not like either jock really moved so prematurely that they ran themselves out of horse. They just got
beat by two horses that could really finish up well."

"We felt good, but I knew the cavalry was coming. It was just depended on how long we could keep outrunning them. It was a good horse race. Curlin was top-notch and was the favorite in the early Derby going and then it was Street Sense. And all three of them keep showing up to compete and go at each other. We're good. Hopefully, next time we'll get our turn."

Nick Zito (trainer, 4th-place finisher C P West) -- "He didn't have enough bottom, but he ran his (behind) off. The beauty part about this race is that the three top horses were right there. This makes me feel absolutely great.

"What we need to do is just wait for the summer and see how good he can be, give him a chance to develop."

"You salute the winners and you keep trying to beat them all the time."

"He tried his (behind) off and you can't ask for anything more. The thing I'm happy about is that it was a legitimate race. Those three top horses finished right there, 1-2-3. That's what it's about.

"A lot of my friends hit the superfecta, so I'm happy for them."

"Boy, they really went fast. I didn't think they would go that fast, but they did. I actually was a little surprised. But we had a shot to win. We took that wild shot. That was beautiful. We all got excited. That's what it's about. These people put up money in the sales and that's what they
want to do, so you give them a little thrill.

"(Curlin)'s a good horse. No question. I feel sorry for Street Sense. It was a tough thing. It would have been great to see him win, but that's why they play the game."

Mario Pino (jockey, 3rd-place finisher Hard Spun) -- "When I made my move, I didn't want to wait and let them get on top of me. It could have really worked out for us right there. They were really coming hard, and there was nothing I could have done about it. I thought Street Sense was going to win when he went by me. I really had the support of everyone around here. They
were the three best and they ran 1-2-3."

Edgar Prado (jockey, 4th-place finisher C P West) -- "My horse broke beautifully. It was fast up front and I tried to stay right behind them. I didn't want to let them get too far ahead of me, but my horse finished up fine."

Todd Pletcher (trainer, 5th-place finisher Circular Quay) -- "I haven't seen the replay yet, so I'm sorry I can't give you more information. Circular Quay was back early. He put in a middle move, kind of kept trying. I haven't talked to John yet.

John Velazquez (jockey, 5th-place finisher Circular Quay) -- "No Excuses. The race set up the way it should have on paper. He didn't fire, that's all I can say."

Todd Pletcher (trainer, 6th-place finisher King of the Roxy) -- "Garrett told me he took the dirt well going into the first turn, which we were sort of concerned about. Garrett said he's a nice horse, but he probably needed a little more experience. I thought he stayed on pretty well. Down the road, maybe he will handle this type of distance against this type of horses."

Garret Gomez (jockey, 6th-place finisher King of the Roxy) -- "We broke sharp and I was very happy with him. We were in good shape from the start. I found a good spot. I was a little worried because this horse mostly runs on the outside. But he was fine today when the dirt came back in his face. We were running pretty good, until the three-eighths pole when Curlin went by him. This was a step up in competition for him, and he had to go a little farther than he liked."

Robbie Bailes (trainer, 7th-place finisher Mint Slewlep) -- "This sport is about taking on challenges, big challenges. Today demonstrated that."

Alan Garcia (jockey, 7th-place finisher Mint Slewlep) -- "We broke slow and we got squeezed back at the three-eighths pole. From there we kept a steady pace but couldn't pick them up."

Mark Shuman (trainer, 8th-place finisher Xchanger) -- "I guess we should have gone three-quarters (of a mile). No, really, He was just high strung today. Cutting out those kinds of fractions realistically you can't go a mile and three-sixteenths. You just can't. We'll fight another day.

"I just told (jockey) Ramon Dominguez to use your head. See where you think he should be and he put him there. We'll go back and regroup. We'll see what our next spot is. The only horse we beat was one horse, the one that tried to go with us (Flying First Class). The same thing happened when he tried to run with us at Oaklawn (they finished seventh and eighth respectively in the Grade 3 Rebel on March 17)."

Ramon Dominguez (jockey, 8th-place finisher Xchanger) -- "He broke inward and when I corrected him, he took off with me. He was going a little quicker than we wanted and I tried my best to squeeze him. But at the three-eighths pole he was pretty much empty."

D. Wayne Lukas (trainer, 9th-place finisher Flying First Class) -- "Our horse ran a pretty fair race, nothing to complain about. You just never know how a race will be run or how it will be won. That's why we continue to play and enjoy this game. This was an exciting race to watch. While I could have enjoyed it more, congrats to the winner."

"They've settled in well," said the 40-year-old Pletcher, who will be saddling only his second and third Preakness starters ever. "They seem happy and had uneventful mornings."

Circular Quay is a confirmed closer, whose finishing kick in the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds on March 10 was visually one of the most impressive 3-year-old performances of the season. Sent off at 11-1 in the Derby, the son of Thunder Gulch came from far back for a non-threatening sixth after encountering some bumping.

"He didn't run a bad race in the Derby," said Pletcher, who sent out a record-tying five horses in Louisville on May 5. "I think with a little different trip he could have been a little closer. I think maybe because he had eight weeks before the Derby, now it may pay dividends in this race. Hopefully, he's one of the fresher horses coming out of the Derby. He seemed to bounce out of the race pretty well. Like everybody else, he was tired, but when we got him back to New York, I could tell after four or five days he bounced out of the race pretty well."

If a pace battle materializes in the Preakness, Pletcher thinks both of his colts can play a role in the final outcome.

"Most likely, he'll (Circular Quay) be last going into the first turn, unless Street Sense is really far back," Pletcher said. "King of the Roxy should be sitting sort of in the garden spot. Then we'll see what happens."

Pletcher agrees with most of his colleagues that there is plenty of quality in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown's nine-horse field.

"Any time you take the first three finishers from the Derby and bring them back, that obviously adds depth to the field," he said. "Then you add a Futurity winner like King of the Roxy and Circular Quay, the Louisiana Derby winner, it's a pretty solid group,"

John Velazquez rides Circular Quay and Garret Gomez has the mount on King of the Roxy -- both jockeys seeking their first victories in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown. Gomez' best finish in two previous mounts was a third aboard Concern (1994). Velazquez will be making his Preakness debut.

C P WEST - Trainer Nick Zito gave C P West a little local education Friday morning in preparation for the biggest race of his colt's young career in Saturday's Preakness Stakes.

"He went to the gate and schooled," said the Hall of Fame conditioner, whose Louis Quatorze equaled Tank's Prospect's 1985 Preakness record for 1-3/16 miles (1:53 2/5) over a drying-out track in 1996. "He did very good there."

The son of Came Home is 20-1 in the morning line in a race where favorites have prevailed nearly 52 percent of the time. Despite last year's post-time choice (Barbaro) failing to finish the race, the favorite has won 68 times in 132 previous races (the Preakness was run in two divisions in 1918) . Zito hopes that percentage will shrink. "It's a tough race, as everybody knows," Zito said. "You've got the first three finishers from the Derby, which is unusual to come to the Preakness. "You never know when the gates open up. It looks like (trainer D. Wayne) Lukas' horse (Flying First Class) is going to show a lot of speed and Hard Spun should do his thing. Those two, I'm sure, will be out there something like that."

The Preakness at 1-3/16 miles is an eighth of a mile farther than C P West has ever run, but Zito believes he has a solid chance to at least hit the board.

"I think he can go the distance," he said.

Zito has finished second in this race twice, third once and fourth three times with his 17 Preakness starters.

CURLIN -- Assistant trainer Scott Blasi was upbeat Friday morning after the chestnut colt schooled in the gate and galloped a mile under exercise rider Carmen Rosas.

"Everything is great," Blasi said. "The horse has a lot of energy. I like his enthusiasm right now. I think we're going to run great."

Blasi was part of the Asmussen team that handled the stable's two previous Preakness starters, Snuck In (2000) and Easyfromthegitgo (2005). Both finished fifth in their Preakness appearances.

"They both ran really respectable races here," Blasi said, "but I don't think either one of those experiences compares to leading over a horse like this."

Blasi, who handles a division in Asmussen's sprawling operation, has been in charge of Curlin this week while Asmussen attended his grandmother's funeral. Asmussen was scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at midday Friday.

FLYING FIRST CLASS -- Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Friday that he could see Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense completing the sweep of the Triple Crown series.

Street Sense, trained by Carl Nafzger and ridden by Calvin Borel, is the morning-line favorite in the Preakness, in which he will face the Lukas-trained Flying First Class and seven other 3-year-olds. The Belmont Stakes on June 9 is the final leg of the Triple Crown. The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978.

"I think if he can get by this one, he's got a good shot," Lukas said. "I think he fits the Belmont a little bit better. He's obviously not going to have a distance limitation. He's got that stalking position and he's got that extremely good turn of foot and acceleration. I think you need that.

"And Calvin is smart. Most of the riders who lose the Belmont move too soon. If Calvin can sit and sit and get that acceleration, he'd have a great shot in the Belmont. I wouldn't want to take him on in the Belmont. I think we have a better chance to beat him here. If he gets by this one, we're going to anoint him."

Lukas said racing could use the attention that a Triple Crown victory would generate.

"We need to get that kind of exposure. A Triple Crown would bring the fringe player in," Lukas said. "Those hard-core bettors in New York and Maryland could care less about the frills. We've got to get the guy who wants to bring his family out here. That's the thing we need to do. We need to let the people know it's a beautiful sport."

Flying First Class signaled he was ready to try the Preakness by winning the Derby Trial. The colt is 20-1 on the morning line.

"We've got to come with a career best, but I think we've got a shot," said Lukas, whose colt schooled in the starting gate and galloped 1-1/4-miles under exercise rider Stacy Prior Friday morning.

Flying First Class has shown he is fast and Lukas said horses with speed are dangerous.

"Whenever you get in these classics, it's good to have a horse that can have something to say about the outcome." Lukas said. "There's always a certain number of horses in the race that have to have certain things happen to be very effective. I like horses that can maybe dictate a little bit of the pace, go on offense if you will, right away and have something to say about the outcome. We train that way. Most of our horses have always done that."

Lukas acknowledged that it was possible that this Preakness could be a rider's race, in which jockeys play a major role in the outcome.

"It might be a little bit and if it is, I feel good about our guy," said Lukas, whose colt will be ridden by Mark Guidry. "There is a set of world-class riders and then you've got the local guy, too.

"I always thought in the classics, the Preakness or any other race, that the rider becomes more important. Normally, I think they're worth about five percent on Wednesday afternoon, but in the classic I think they become more important and you need that experience. This is game of experience."

Though Hard Spun's jockey Mario Pino is the winningest rider in Maryland history, Lukas said the veteran does not have a home-court advantage.

"I think it might make a difference to him, but I don't think it's going to make any difference to Edgar Prado and John Velasquez and that bunch," Lukas said. "I think it makes a difference having the feel of the racetrack, but we're talking about guys who ride all over the country and are world-class riders. Edgar Prado and John Velasquez and Garret Gomez are not going to look over at him and say, 'Gosh, he's got an edge.' They're going to be intimidating to him, if anything."

HARD SPUN -- When Fox Hill Farm's Richard Porter decided to part ways with trainer John Servis last year, he engaged the services of Larry Jones, among others, to train his horses.

"This horse was one of the slower ones to come around, and it seems like those were the ones I ended up getting," Jones said Friday morning. "(Porter) had placed a lot of horses earlier with some of the other trainers, and I guess they got all the extra horses they could handle."

Picked out by Servis, who saddled Smarty Jones for victories in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, Hard Spun is a well-bred son of Danzig. However, it would have been extremely optimistic of Jones when he first took over the training of Hard Spun to expect him to be among the top contenders during this year's Triple Crown campaign.

"I don't think this horse was highly thought of, from some of the reports we got," he said. "They had told me they had grouped all of his horses in groups 1, 2 and 3, and this was a group 3 horse, and that was what I got, the group 3 horses."

Jones made headlines when Hard Spun ran the race of his lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, in which he set the pace to hold a three-length lead into the stretch, finishing second behind Street Sense, five lengths clear of third-place finisher Curlin. His colt's impressive showing gives his trainer hope that he can turn the tables on Street Sense in the 1-3/16-mile Preakness under hometown hero Mario Pino.

"This would be great, and what would make it so special right now with this particular horse in this particular deal is Mario Pino. This is his home country. I know how special it would be for Mario to win it," Jones said. "If I could be just a part of that team, I don't have to have the limelight in this one. This one's for Mario, and we'd love to get it done.'

Jones has taken every opportunity to kid with Calvin Borel, warning Street Sense's jockey that he was entering Pino Country. Jones, who was based in Kentucky year-round before venturing to Delaware Park last year, has had a long-time association with Borel.

"There isn't a jock who works harder than Calvin. He's just as down to earth...but I haven't talked with him since he's been at the White House," Jones quipped. "It might have changed him."

Jones revealed after the Derby that he had always thought that if Hard Spun was going to win only one Triple Crown race, it probably would be the Preakness.

"This horse showed a fondness for this type of track. It's very similar to the Delaware surface, a little deeper than most tracks, but he gets to the bottom of it well," he said. "Plus, it's a little shorter and in years past it favored horses with a little turn of foot who lay closer to the pace than maybe sometimes the Derby does."

Under Jones, Hard Spun galloped about seven furlongs and jogged the rest of the way during his 1-1/4-mile visit to the track Friday morning.

"Considering we've only had two weeks, I couldn't ask him to do better," said Jones. "I really don't know how he'd do better if we had three or four weeks."

MINT SLEWLEP -- Mint Slewlep galloped once around the Pimlico oval Friday morning under exercise rider Christy Knorr in preparation for his start in the Preakness Stakes.

The Robbie Bailes-trained long shot, who has won two of seven lifetime starts, will break from the No. 1 post position in his quest for his first stakes victory. Mint Slewlep didn't break his maiden until his fourth-lifetime start, a mile race at Laurel in his juvenile finale last October.

"We knew all along that he wanted to go long, but the main thing were were shooting for with him was the (six-furlong) NATC Futurity at Monmouth, so we kept him sprinting," explained Bailes. "He ran pretty good in that race, which had no pace, but we knew he wanted more distance."

New York-based rider Alan Garcia will have the mount aboard the son of Slew City Slew.

STREET SENSE – The winning team from the Kentucky Derby was reunited at Barn 40 Friday morning at Pimlico when jockey Calvin Borel arrived at approximately 8:30 to join Street Sense and trainer Carl Nafzger.

Borel, who has never ridden a horse at Old Hilltop, seemed every bit as confident on the eve of the Middle Jewel of Triple Crown as he was before the Derby two weeks ago at Churchill Downs. He was scheduled to ride in three races on Friday's card to acclimate himself to the track.

"Right now, I don't think he can get beat," Borel said shortly after checking in on his first Triple Crown race winner. "As good as he's doing, I'm positive he'd have to fall or have something happen bad for him to get beat, because after I worked him this week it was unbelievable. I couldn't believe he would go forward after running in the Kentucky Derby, with the race that he run there, and come back and work that good (five furlongs in a minute flat on Tuesday at Churchill). If he don't fall, there's no way he'll be getting beat."

The son of Street Cry owned by James Tafel is 2-for-3 this season, losing the Blue Grass by a nose in an extremely slow-paced race over the Polytrack at Keeneland. His two races at Churchill Downs were his best with perfect inside trips to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall and the Derby on May 5. Borel said it's not imperative to get a rail-skimming ride for his colt to succeed.

"He's the kind of horse that makes his own trips," said the 40-year-old Louisiana native, who lives in Louisville. "I think he's just much the best horse and that's why he puts you in the position to have a good trip. He's an amazing horse. When I want him to run 100 yards, he'll run 100 yards. When I want him to run 200 yards, he'll run 200 yards and then he'll drop the bit. If the speed's hot, he'll be way back; if it's not, he'll put me in the game."

Borel had a pretty nice trip of his own after winning the Derby, being invited to the White House by President George W. Bush to attend a reception with England's Queen Elizabeth II, who attended at the Derby.

"It's been a little hectic, but not bad," he said of all the demands put upon him since the Derby. "I'm trying to love it, trying to have fun and trying to enjoy myself with my family and a couple of other things. Going to the White House was kind of a surprise. It got a little hectic for a while, but we got through it."

Borel, who has won riding titles at Churchill Downs, Oaklawn Park and the Fair Grounds, said he wasn't too concerned about being on a strange track this weekend for the first time.

"I'm going to ride three or four today, then, I'll ride three before the big race tomorrow," he said. "It's the same thing: just turn left. It's a race track. There's nothing different but the turns. They're a little shorter, but I was born and raised on a track like this at Delta (Downs). There's no difference."

Street Sense galloped 1-1/4 miles under exercise rider Mark Cutler on a chilly Friday morning under overcast skies in his first visit to the Pimlico main track.

"Everything's good," said Nafzger, who will be saddling his third Preakness runner while seeking his first win in this race. "We're ready. I'd like to run today, yes. Can we move it up?"

Nafzger saddled 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled for a second-place finish behind Derby runner-up Summer Squall in the Preakness Stakes.

XCHANGER – It's been a year since trainer Mark Shuman first set eyes on Xchanger at the Fasig-Tipton 2-year-olds-in-training sale at the nearby Timonium Fairgrounds. He liked what he was seeing while the son of Exchange Rate breezed a quarter of a mile.

"He just had a real efficient stride. He's the kind of horse that goes fast but doesn't look like he's going fast," Shuman said Friday morning from Fair Hill Training Center. "After he worked in 21 (seconds) and change, we went to look at him as an individual and were happy with what we saw there, too. We fell in love with him."

The gray colt became Shuman's sole focus at the sale.

"After we saw him, we didn't look at anything else before we got a chance to bid on him," he said. "We didn't want to blow our budget and not be able to afford him."

Shuman needn't have been concerned about his budget, since he only had to bid $40,000 to buy Xchanger.

"We thought we'd have to pay double what we ended up paying for him," he said. "We were surprised, but there was a lull in the sale at that time. If he came into the ring an hour later, we'd have had to pay double for him. We thought we missed something, because we got him so cheap.

"We were so pumped about getting him, we didn't even look at anything else that day. He was the only one we bought."

As is his trainer's custom on the day before a race, Xchanger walked the shedrow Friday morning in preparation for his start in Preakness 132. Shuman plans to ship the Circle Z Stable's star from Fair Hill to Pimlico early Saturday morning.

The Jacksons also speak of preserving Barbaro's legacy on the track.

"I think the whole injury really overshadowed what he did as a race horse," Roy Jackson said.

"Both horses are doing very well," said the three-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer, who is looking for his first victory in a Triple Crown event. Circular Quay was sixth in the Kentucky Derby and King of the Roxy has been idle since finishing second in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 7.

"The only other horse that we did run back in two weeks is Impeachment (third in 2000)," Pletcher said when asked about the decision to enter Circular Quay. "Both of these horses have somewhat similar running styles. They're both horses that fall well out of the race early and make one run. The bottom line is I needed to see how the horse is doing, how he's training."

King of the Roxy was targeted for the Preakness immediately after the Santa Anita Derby, but Circular Quay had been widely expected to bypass the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown, along with the four stablemates that joined him in the Churchill Downs starting gate two weeks ago.

"My original thought was we'd probably wait and not run him back in the Preakness, but he came out of the race really well and he sort of was touting himself to me in the morning," Pletcher said. "I said, 'Maybe I'll keep an open mind about it and breeze him on Monday (May 14) and see how that goes.' He breezed very well on Monday. I think if the race unfolds the way it looks on paper, the race should set up for a horse to come from off the pace. That's obviously where he'll be."

John Velazquez will be aboard Circular Quay, his first choice in the Kentucky Derby. Garret Gomez, the leading money-winner among the nation's jockeys, will ride King of the Roxy for Pletcher, the nation's leading money winner among trainers.

Pletcher said the 1-3/16-mile distance of the Preakness isn't a concern for Circular Quay, a son of Thunder Gulch, but it may be for King of the Roxy. He is a son of Littleexpectations, who was primarily a sprinter/miler.

"A mile and three-sixteenths is a concern," he said. "It's shorter than the Derby, but it's still a long way. He should sit a good trip; he's tactical enough. He should be able to position himself on the first turn. He's not so headstrong that he would be involved in the first tier. I would say that on paper it looks like he (King of the Roxy) could fall into the garden spot."

King of the Roxy is 3-for-7 lifetime, including wins in the Grade 2 Hutcheson in March at Gulfstream and the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park last fall. He was a well-beaten eighth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

When asked if he preferred coming to the Preakness a bit more under the radar than in Louisville with his five runners, Pletcher didn't hesitate: "No, I'd rather be there with the Derby winner."

C P WEST -- Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito made his first appearance at the Preakness Stakes Barn Thursday morning, hours after arriving with the van that brought the son of Came Home from Belmont to Pimlico on Wednesday evening.

"He galloped a mile and a half," Zito said before addressing an enclave of media at his traditional corner on the track side of the Stakes Barn.

Robert LaPenta's C P West, who hasn't won in four starts since winning his maiden debut at Saratoga last summer, is 20-1 on the morning line with jockey Edgar Prado assigned the mount.

"What we're trying to do is get into the Triple Crown picture," Zito said of the runner-up in the Grade 3 Withers in his last start. "That's how you can do it, in the second leg of the Triple Crown. Mr. LaPenta would have liked to have run in the Derby because that's what they're in the business for, but I told him it's impossible. I told him to be patient and hopefully we'd get to Baltimore, which we did."

C P West has finished second in four of his five career starts, his only off-the-board effort coming in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last fall. He was sixth in the field of 14 with a troubled trip, but he never mounted a serious threat. C P West will be the 18th Preakness starter for his trainer, who saddled Louis Quatorze for a dominating victory in 1996.

"Right after the Juvenile he had some ankle issues that we had to take care of and obviously we did," Zito said. "He's progressing nicely. If he can get a good spot Saturday, it will put him in the picture."

Zito and D. Wayne Lukas, the conditioner of another 20-1 long shot in Flying First Class, have won all three legs of the Triple Crown during their careers. Zito, who captured the Kentucky Derby with Strike the Gold (1991) and Go for Gin (1994), completed his classic trifecta with Birdstone in the 2004 Belmont Stakes.

"It's a measure of your success, and you're always trying to prove yourself in sports and life," Zito said.

C P West, who ran second in the Grade 2 Futurity at Belmont Park last September, drew the far outside post in the field of nine

"There's nothing you can do," Zito said. "It could help. Everybody likes to be on the inside, but I don't think it'll bother him. He'll be in the clear."

CURLIN -- The son of Smart Strike will be trainer Steve Asmussen's third Preakness starter, but the first to come to the Preakness after running in the Kentucky Derby. Curlin finished third in the Run for the Roses after encountering some traffic.

Asmussen finished fifth in his Preakness appearances with Snuck In (2000) and Easyfromthegitgo (2002).

"Those were nice horses, but those horses weren't capable of doing what we feel this horse is capable of doing," Asmussen's assistant, Scott Blasi, said Thursday morning.

Blasi is handling Curlin this week while Asmussen attends the funeral of his grandmother. Asmussen is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore Friday.

Curlin shipped from Kentucky Wednesday morning. He made his first trip to the Pimlico track Thursday morning and galloped a mile under regular exercise rider Carmen Rosas. The colt was scheduled to school in the paddock before Thursday's sixth race.

Regular jockey Robby Albarado will ride the colt in the Preakness.

The Preakness horses are saddled on the turf course prior to the race. Since he probably will not have a chance to school Curlin on the turf course, Blasi said Asmussen will probably opt to saddle the colt in Pimlico's enclosed paddock and walk him to the turf course. That is the procedure Curlin followed at Oaklawn Park -- where the Arkansas Derby starters are saddled in the infield -- before his smashing victory in the Grade 2 stakes.

Blasi said he agreed with the analysis of some veteran trainers -- including Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense's trainer Carl Nafzger -- that Curlin is likely to improve from his Derby experience. The Derby was the fourth race of Curlin's career and followed three decisive victories.

"Street Sense ran a brilliant race on that day," Blasi said. "Hopefully, our horse found out that it wasn't going to be a cakewalk every time he went over there. He's won three races by 28 lengths. He found himself in a position he'd probably never been in before.

"I think Robby brings a lot to the table as far as he learned as much about Curlin as Curlin learned that he's going to have to run. I think it's going to work out well."

Curlin found trouble early in the Derby, but managed to get free and finish well.

"He was definitely running at the wire," Blasi said. "That's not an easy thing to do as far as horses going a mile and a quarter and horses getting tired. I like the direction he had at the end of the race, as far as how green he was early on."

Blasi said that Curlin has shown his connections that he is ready for the difficult assignment in the Preakness two weeks after the Derby.

"The thing I loved about the Derby and why I thought we were in such good shape to come here is 20 to 30 minutes after the Derby in the test barn this horse felt great," Blasi said. "He was walking around and he drank about three-quarters of a bucket of water and gave all the signs that that race really hadn't stressed him out. That's a very positive sign for all of us."

Blasi said the colt appears to be mentally fresh, too.

"I've seen horses sulk after a race, but this horse was very upbeat and very energetic," Blasi said. "Just watching him around the barn and stuff, I think he's even shown a little more life."

While top stakes horses rarely are asked to run in major events 14 days apart in this era, Blasi said the sprawling Asmussen operation has experience with quick turnarounds.

"From having 200 head, I think we've been in a lot of different scenarios with horses, as far as running them back in two weeks," he said. "We feel very comfortable with doing that."

Blasi said the decision to bring Curlin to the Preakness after the Derby came after careful examination of the colt.

"We're running in the Preakness because we think we belong and we think we can win," he said. "That's the only reason to run anyway."

FLYING FIRST CLASS -- Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said he hasn't thought much about his five previous Preakness victories as he prepared Ellwood "Buddy" Johnston's colt for the 132nd Preakness.

"This is a new day and a new horse, a new client and a new spot," Lukas said. "All I can say on those five is you draw on your experience."

Lukas noted that unlike college basketball, in which coaches conduct clinics, trainers do not share strategy. He said the Preakness provides a different scenario because most of the runners are stabled in the stakes barn.

"It's kind of fun, though, to have us all in the same locker room," he said. "I get to see everyone's horse walk around here and the condition of them. Some of these horses look damn good. I flew in with Curlin, he looks damn good."

Lukas watched Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense train at Churchill Downs Tuesday morning.

"He looked good on the racetrack," Lukas said.

Lukas said that Flying First Class has settled into the routine at Pimlico after shipping from Kentucky Wednesday morning. Flying First Class and the other Lukas-trained horses jogged over the Pimlico track Thursday morning.

"They had worked on Tuesday and shipped on Wednesday," he said. "They normally would have jogged on Wednesday, but with the ship I moved the