Shoes Good, but News Isn’t : Kentucky Derby: Favorite Unbridled’s Song again changes footwear, has a fast workout despite injury, then draws post position 20.

There was good news in the morning, then bad news at night for Unbridled’s Song, the troubled favorite for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Trainer Jim Ryerson pulled a surprise by working Unbridled’s Song five furlongs in still another new shoe that protected his cracked hoof, and the gray colt surprised those in the clockers’ stand by coming home ona fast track in :59 1/5, perhaps the fastest pre-Derby workout since Forego was timed in :57 four days before he ran fourth in the 1973 race.

By nightfall, however, owner Ernie Paragallo and Ryerson were crestfallen when Unbridled’s Song drew the outside post position in a 20-horse field. Twenty horses don’t run in the Derby every year, but even so, there hasn’t been a winner from the 20 hole since Clyde Van Dusen beat 20 other horses in 1929.

“The workout outweighs the negativity of the post position,” Ryerson said. “But there was no comparison between how uplifting the work was, and how much of a downer the post became. They are not going to make this easy.”

Unbridled’s Song, whose injury was discovered in the aftermath of his victory in the Wood Memorial on April 13, has gone from a bar shoe to a Z-bar shoe to an egg-bar plate this week, and Ryerson wasn’t sure whether the colt would be reshod with regular racing plates for the race.

The egg-bar shoes that Unbridled’s Song wore on his front feet are exactly what they sound like--egg-shaped shoes.

“I still wouldn’t want to be in his shoes,” said Skip Away’s trainer, Sonny Hine, his pun unintentional. “Those egg shapes have no opening [at the rear], and they give you little traction. But they hold the foot firm and keep it elevated. He’s a great horse--he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last year off only two races--and maybe he doesn’t have to be 100% to win this.”

Mike Battaglia, the Churchill Downs oddsmaker, installed Unbridled’s Song as an 8-5 favorite. Skip Away is next at 7-2, followed by the entry of Editor’s Note and Grindstone at 6-1.

Skip Away, expected to set the pace, drew No. 17, another unfavorable post.

“That’s unreal,” Hine said. “I hope that some of those horses that don’t belong in the race don’t clutter things up. Those inside horses better get moving. But there’s a lot of speed on the outside, and those horses might crush the insiders going into the firstturn.”

Unbridled’s Song made a remarkable turnaround after virtually missing a day of training Tuesday.

“We’ve made a lot of headway,” Ryerson said. “I’m confident and happy about the prospects of the horse being 100%. The day before, he was questionable. But he galloped out real strong [Wednesday].”

Unbridled’s Song ran the first quarter-mile in :23 and his half-mile time was :46.

“I was hoping for a half in something like :48,” Ryerson said. “But when he gets intothat big stride. . . . He looked very comfortable the way he did it.”

Mike Smith, who will ride Unbridled’s Song in the Derby, was aboard for the workout.

“There was concern before this,” Smith said. “But he went big and now there’s relief. When we finished up, it was like he had won the race.”

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Kentucky Derby Field

The field for Saturday’s 122nd Kentucky Derby.

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PPHorse Jockey Odds 1. f-Blow Out Johnson 12-1 2. a-Victory Speech Santos 15-1 3. b-Diligence Desormeaux 15-1 4. c-Cavonnier McCarron 10-1 5. Halo Sunshine Perret 20-1 6. c-Semoran Baze 10-1 7. Zarb’s Magic Ardoin 20-1 8. In Contention T. Black 20-1 9. f-Corker C. Black 12-1 10. Prince Of Thieves Day 15-1 11. b-Louis Quatorze Antley 15-1 12. Alyrob Nakatani 12-1 13. a-Honour And Glory Santos 15-1 14. f-Built For Pleasure Velazquez 12-1 15. f-City By Night Davis 12-1 16. d-Grindstone Bailey 6-1 17. Skip Away Sellers 7-2 18. d-Editor’s Note Stevens 6-1 19. f-Matty G Solis 12-1 20. Unbridled’s Song Smith 8-5

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a-Mike Tabor-owned entry.

b-Nick Zito-trained entry.

c-Bob Baffert-trained entry.

d-Overbrook Farm-owned entry.

f-mutuel field.

Triple Crown Ratings

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No. Horse Starts 1 2 3 Earnings 1. Skip Away 10 3 3 2 $587,360 2. Unbridled’s Song 7 4 2 0 1,223,000 3. Prince Of Thieves 6 2 1 0 157,080 4. Louis Quatorze 8 3 3 0 291,000 5. Alyrob 5 2 0 1 53,000 6. Cavonnier 13 6 2 2 934,157 7. Editor’s Note 14 3 4 2 455,534 8. Grindstone 5 2 2 0 354,710 9. Zarb’s Magic 12 5 4 2 481,916 10. Blow Out 8 2 3 1 106,064

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Advisory panel for The Times’ Triple Crown Ratings: Racing historian Jim Bolus; Tom Durkin, track announcer in New York and Florida; and Chris Lincoln, racing telecaster for ESPN.