KENTUCKY DERBY FIELD AT A GLANCE

A quick look at the 19 starters in today’s race (in post-position order):

1. BLOW OUT

Races: 8 1st: 2 2nd: 3 3rd: 1 Purses: $106,064

He took the worst of it when a horse bolted and carried him to the outside in the stretch of the Arkansas Derby. The race before, he lost by a head to Ide, who was one of the early favorites for the Kentucky Derby before his leg injury. The inside post is usually anathema here, although Bill Shoemaker did survive a brush with the fence and won with Ferdinand from there in 1986.

2. VICTORY SPEECH

Races: 9 1st: 4 2nd: 1 3rd: 4 Purses: $176,162

Owned by Michael Tabor, who won last year with Thunder Gulch, his first Derby starter. Victory Speech is the most rested of the Derby horses, his last start being a third-place finish in what has been perceived as a weak Jim Beam Stakes. With five horses in the field, Wayne Lukas had a jockey crush, but he landed Jose Santos. “If this was basketball, this horse would be my power forward,” ex-coach Lukas said.

3. DILIGENCE

Races: 8 1st: 4 2nd: 2 3rd: 0 Purses: $235,900

Trainer Nick Zito feels that Eddie Delahoussaye, who’s riding at Hollywood Park today, might have erred when he got off George Steinbrenner’s colt. “Two of the times Eddie rode this horse, there were off tracks,” Zito said. “That wasn’t a fair way of assessing this colt’s ability.” The Delahoussaye rides produced fifth-place finishes--on April 13 in the Blue Grass and last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Kent Desormeaux has picked up the riding assignment.

4. CAVONNIER

Races: 13 1st: 6 2nd: 2 3rd: 2 Purses: $934,157

“Why are we coupled with [trainer] Bob Baffert’s other horse?” asked Barbara Walter, who races the Santa Anita Derby winner with her husband, Bob. The answer is that track management and the stewards have almost unlimited leeway in Kentucky. The more horses they couple, the fewer who wind up in the mutuel field. “It’s not fair for the bettors that like Semoran,” Barbara Walter said, referring to Baffert’s other horse, who has different owners. “He ought to be about 60-1, but he’s going to be a lot less coupled with our horse.”

5. HALO SUNSHINE

Races: 9 1st: 2 2nd: 2 3rd: 3 Purses: $242,525

This son of Halo, who has sired Derby winners Sunny’s Halo and Sunday Silence, wintered at Santa Anita, but his Derby preps have been a win in the Golden State Derby at Bay Meadows and a third in the Arkansas Derby. Richard Cross will be trying to win a Derby on his first try. “This is absolutely the easiest horse I’ve ever had to train,” Cross said. “You tell him what to do and he does it.”

6. SEMORAN

Races: 7 1st: 4 2nd: 0 3rd: 1 Purses: $287,300

He’ll be ridden by Russell Baze, who wins races by the hundreds every year in the Bay Area but has never ridden in a Derby. The last jockey to win a Derby with his first mount was Ron Franklin with Spectacular Bid in 1979. The horse has been working sharply since his sixth-place clinker in the Blue Grass, but sons of Phone Trick usually want nothing to do with the 1 1/4-mile distance. Before the Blue Grass, Semoran was the best of a weak field in the Remington Park Derby.

7. ZARB’S MAGIC

Races: 12 1st: 5 2nd: 4 3rd: 2 Purses: $481,916

This undersized gelding and Grindstone flip-flopped 1-2 finishes in the Louisiana Derby and the Arkansas Derby, with Zarb’s Magic finishing better to win the latter race. No Louisiana-bred has ever won the Kentucky Derby. Zarb’s Magic’s front bandages--a troublesome sign for many handicappers--will be taken off for the Derby. “He’s never had a soundness problem,” trainer Bret Thomas said. “The bandages were strictly precautionary.”

8. IN CONTENTION

Races: 14 1st: 7 2nd: 4 3rd: 1 Purses: $302,811

This grandson of Halo and Secretariat has more wins than any other horse in the race. His three stakes wins have been in ungraded races, but when he came running late in the Wood Memorial, finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind Unbridled’s Song, trainer Cynthia Reese was convinced that he belonged. Reese is the seventh woman to run a Derby horse (Dianne Carpenter saddled two). The best female finish was Shelley Riley’s second to Lil E. Tee with Casual Lies in 1992.

9. CORKER

Races: 6 1st: 1 2nd: 1 3rd: 2 Purses: $159,225

If this colt were trained by anyone but two-time Derby winner Charlie Whittingham, there would be arched eyebrows all around. “He would have won the Santa Anita Derby by five lengths if he hadn’t been broad-sided,” Whittingham says. Corker was fourth, beaten by nine lengths, then moved up to third after the disqualification of Alyrob. Whittingham’s best 3-year-old, Smithfield, is on the sidelines indefinitely because of a sesamoid injury.

10. PRINCE OF THIEVES

Races: 6 1st: 2 2nd: 1 3rd: 0 Purses: $157,080

Momentum is gaining for this Lukas horse, but the big question is: Is he ready for the grueling Derby distance in a race that will be his third in less than a month? His sixth-place finish in the Santa Anita Derby was a legitimate throw out, because he bled from the lungs, and then, treated with Lasix, he redeemed himself with a close second to City By Night in the Lexington. Pat Day, who didn’t ride a heady race in the Lexington, knows Churchill Downs as well as his own bathroom, and is shooting for his second Derby win with his 13th mount. He has been second four times.

11. LOUIS QUATORZE

Races: 8 1st: 3 2nd: 3 3rd: 0 Purses: $291,000

He was second in the Blue Grass, but sometimes it’s the horses that have been up the track in the Keeneland race that have blossomed three weeks later. Nick Zito, abandoned by Delahoussaye, who chose not to ride Diligence, lost another top California rider when Chris McCarron got off Louis Quatorze to ride Cavonnier. “[Louis Quatorze] hit the gate getting away at Keeneland, but it had nothing to do with the outcome,” McCarron said. Before McCarron got the chance to ride this colt, Jerry Bailey, following a fourth-place finish in the Florida Derby, bailed out to ride Grindstone. Now it’s Chris Antley’s turn. Louis Quatorze will be treated with Lasix, the bleeders’ medication, for the first time.

12. ALYROB

Races: 5 1st: 2 2nd: 0 3rd: 1 Purses: $53,000

Horses with only five career starts don’t win the Derby, at least none has since Brokers Tip in 1933. Off his Santa Anita Derby race--second, then disqualified to last--Alyrob belongs. Wally Dollase was able to buy Alyrob at auction for $50,000 because “he had a shin sticking out about a quarter of an inch,” the trainer said. “I’m very confident that he’ll run well in the Derby.” Alyrob, the son of Alysheba, the 1987 Derby winner, was on the muscle Friday. “He tried to run off with me,” exercise rider Jose Cuevas said. “He didn’t want to pull up.”

13. HONOUR AND GLORY

Races: 8 1st: 4 2nd: 2 3rd: 1 Purses: $636,102

This colt, who would appear to need a cab to make 1 1/4 miles, will probably have to work hard early to be on the lead, because Matty G, outside him, will be applying the pressure. “The way some of my horses run could help some of the others,” Lukas said. Honour And Glory’s speed could set up the finish for the stable’s come-from-behind runners.

14. BUILT FOR PLEASURE

Races: 12 1st: 4 2nd: 3 3rd: 1 Purses: $220,640

Gary Boulanger had been riding this horse, but after a puzzling ride in the Flamingo, trainer Tommy Heard hired John Velazquez, who has never ridden in a Derby. Built For Pleasure has already run seven times this year, winning two, but the trainer and the owner always agree--the colt also races in Heard’s name. Heard is 78, and his age may have brought him to his first Derby more than the chances of his horse. The last Derby winner who had the same owner and trainer was Donerail, who raced for Thomas Hayes in 1913. Built For Pleasure was 143-1 when he beat Unbridled’s Song by a neck in the Fountain of Youth.

15. GRINDSTONE

Races: 5 1st: 2 2nd: 2 3rd: 0 Purses: $354,710

This son of Unbridled, the 1990 Derby winner, recovered from a chipped knee as a 2-year-old to win the Louisiana Derby in his fourth start and just miss against Zarb’s Magic in the Arkansas Derby. “This is a solid horse,” Lukas said. “He’s very professional, much more seasoned than his number of starts would indicate. What I’ve got is both a mistake-free rider [Jerry Bailey] and a mistake-free horse.”

16. SKIP AWAY

Races: 10 1st: 3 2nd: 3 3rd: 2 Purses: $587,360

“This horse runs the way he works,” trainer Sonny Hine said, so that bodes well for Skip Away, who turned in the fastest work of the day for five furlongs Monday when he was clocked in 1:00 2/5 over a sloppy track. Skip Away’s track record for the Blue Grass came over a track that was playing especially fast, even for the cheap horses. When blinkers and Lasix were added at Gulfstream Park, Skip Away won his first start by 12 lengths, then had a troubled trip while running third in the Florida Derby.

17. EDITOR’S NOTE

Races: 14 1st: 3 2nd: 4 3rd: 2 Purses: $455,534

Despite a seven-race losing streak--his last win was in September--Editor’s Note has padded his bankroll with a succession of in-the-money finishes, including third in the Blue Grass. Gary Stevens, who won with Thunder Gulch, has a chance to become the fifth jockey to win the Derby back to back. Editor’s Note has three starts over the track, the most recent a second to Ide in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes in November. Keeping this colt focused has been a struggle for both the trainer and jockey.

18. MATTY G

Races: 9 1st: 2 2nd: 1 3rd: 2 Purses: $348,125

He is winless in three races at Santa Anita since winning the Hollywood Futurity in December. “We’ve tried to rate him, and it hasn’t worked,” trainer Ron McAnally said. “So now we’ll just let him run his race.” McAnally hasn’t hit the board with eight starters in the Derby.

19. UNBRIDLED’S SONG

Races: 7 1st: 4 2nd: 2 3rd: 0 Purses: $1,223,000

“I’d rather have an 8-5 shot with a problem in the Derby than be running a 60-1 shot who doesn’t have a problem,” said Buzz Chace, who manages Paraneck Stable for Ernie Paragallo. The trump card for this colt, who’s usually unsettled before races, is “Leo,” a 29-year-old quarter horse who will escort the Derby favorite to the post. “He’s been a lot more comfortable with this pony,” trainer Jim Ryerson said. “I don’t know what it is, all I know is that Leo works.” Leo knows his way around. He was the post-parade pony for Spend A Buck and Alysheba on the days they won the Derby.