KENTUCKY DERBY AT A GLANCE

Staff writer Bill Christine takes a look at the 19 3-year-olds entered in the 125th running of the Kentucky Derby today at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. Horses are listed in order of saddlecloth numbers. (b-entry, f-mutuel field).

1A. WORLDLY MANNER (PP-11)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Jerry Bailey

* Trainer: Said bin Suroor

* Owner: Godolphin Stable.

* Record: 4 starts, 3-0-1 (1st-2nd-3rd)

* Earnings: $250,104

COMMENT: Bred in Kentucky by John and Betty Mabee, who raced Best Pal and own General Challenge and Excellent Meeting, this good-looking colt technically has not run since winning the Del Mar Futurity last Sept. 9. Sheik Mohammed’s Godolphin outfit reportedly bought Worldly Manner for $5 million, throwing in a couple of breeding rights for the Mabees, and shipped the horse to Dubai.

2. EXCELLENT MEETING (PP-5)

* Odds: 3-1

* Jockey: Kent Desormeaux

* Trainer: Bob Baffert

* Owner: Golden Eagle Farm

* Record: 11 starts, 7-3-1

* Earnings: $1,193,824

COMMENT: She’s a filly with 1 1/4 miles written all over her, and would be better off sitting off the lead, as she did in her last start, rather than running ahead. Kent Desormeaux, who has ridden her the last seven races--six wins and a second to stablemate Silverbulletday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies--won the Derby with Real Quiet last year, and only four jockeys have won in successive years.

2B. GENERAL CHALLENGE (PP-14)

* Odds: 3-1

* Jockey: Gary Stevens

* Trainer: Bob Baffert

* Owner: Golden Eagle Farm

* Record: 5 starts, 4-0-0

* Earnings: $642,900

COMMENT: His only loss, a fifth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby, is being characterized as a throw-out by Baffert: He was a nervous shipper, arriving only a few days before the race; he broke poorly and he didn’t care for the dirt that hit him in the face. An early arrival at Churchill, General Challenge will run for the second time with blinkers, which Baffert said were a big help in his Santa Anita Derby win.

3. ADONIS (PP-1)

* Odds: 30-1

* Jockey: Jorge Chavez

* Trainer: Nick Zito

* Owner: Paraneck Stable

* Record: 6 starts, 3-0-0

* Earnings: $413,640

COMMENT: He won the Wood Memorial, but that Aqueduct race is no longer the Derby prep it once was. Specifically, Wood winners have gone on to win the Derby only four times in the last 44 years. Since 1978, only one Wood winner--Pleasant Colony in 1981--has won the Derby. The Wood was only Adonis’ second stakes race, after a wide trip and a sixth-place finish in the Florida Derby.

4. THREE RING (PP-2)

* Odds: 20-1

* Jockey: John Velazquez

* Trainer: Eddie Plesa

* Owner: Barry Schwartz

* Record: 8 starts, 5-2-1

* Earnings: $653,440

COMMENT: This filly has never been farther than 1 1/16 miles, she hasn’t had a race in six weeks, and there’s enough speed today to prevent her from taking an uncontested lead. Mix that with the fact that a filly hasn’t won the Derby in 11 years and only three fillies have ever won, and you should get the picture. “She’s as good as anybody,” trainer Eddie Plesa insists.

5. STEPHEN GOT EVEN (PP-4)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Chris McCarron

* Trainer: Nick Zito

* Owner: Stephen Hilbert

* Record: 4 starts, 3-1-0

* Earnings: $494,800

COMMENT: Lil E. Tee came out of the Jim Beam at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., to win the 1992 Derby. The race was rechristened the Gallery Furniture Stakes when Stephen Got Even won it this year, so Derby mainstay Zito is hoping lightning can strike twice. Stephen Got Even is undefeated in three starts this year after a second at Aqueduct in his only start last year.

6. DESERT HERO (PP-6)

* Odds: 15-1

* Jockey: Corey Nakatani

* Trainer: Richard Mandella

* Owner: The Thoroughbred Corp.

* Record: 3 starts, 2-0-1

* Earnings: $237,359

COMMENT: The son of 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero is a victim of the what-have-you-done-for-us-lately complex. The morning-line favorite in the Santa Anita Derby, Desert Hero ran third, beaten by seven lengths. Wally Dollase, fired by Saudi Arabian Prince Ahmed Salman’s Thoroughbred Corp., was replaced by another expert trainer, Mandella, before his last race.

7. ANSWER LIVELY (PP-7)

* Odds: 50-1

* Jockey: Craig Perret

* Trainer: Bobby Barnett

* Owner: John Franks

* Record: 11 starts, 4-3-0

* Earnings: $868,296

COMMENT: Another Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner who’s on the road to failure in the Derby. A Juvenile winner has never won the Derby. Winless in four starts this year, Answer Lively went from poor to worse with a fifth-place finish in the Arkansas Derby. He displaced his soft palate in the race, and will run today with a bit that holds the tongue down.

8. CAT THIEF (PP-10)

* Odds: 8-1

* Jockey: Mike Smith

* Trainer: Wayne Lukas

* Owner: Overbrook Farm

* Record: 11 starts, 2-5-3

* Earnings: $715,112.

COMMENT: Third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, third, second and third in three races in Florida this year, and second three weeks ago in the Blue Grass, this is a horse that can break your heart. Rider Mike Smith is one of those high-profile jockeys who can’t seem to win a Derby. Smith’s best finish in eight tries was a second with Prairie Bayou in 1993.

9. PRIME TIMBER (PP-13)

* Odds: 7-2

* Jockey: David Flores

* Trainer: Bob Baffert

* Owner: Aaron and Marie Jones

* Record: 6 starts, 3-3-0

* Earnings: $458,200

COMMENT: He was lame the day before the Santa Anita Derby, threw a rear shoe during the first quarter-mile of the race, and still finished second behind another Baffert trainee, General Challenge. Prime Timber can be a restless gate horse, and in that regard the outside post will be an edge--he won’t be standing in his stall very long.

10. FIRST AMERICAN (PP-15)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Eddie Delahoussaye

* Trainer: Eduardo Caramori

* Owner: T N T Stud

* Record: 8 starts, 2-1-1

* Earnings: $222,777

COMMENT: The Flamingo, once a hallmark race, is now perceived as one of the weakest of the Derby preps. First American’s Flamingo win, a month ago, caught the interest of Delahoussaye, who had landmark Derby victories with Gato Del Sol and Sunny’s Halo. Against better horses--Vicar, Stephen Got Even, Cat Thief--First American has been overmatched.

11. CHARISMATIC (PP-16)

* Odds: 20-1

* Jockey: Chris Antley

* Trainer: Wayne Lukas

* Owner: Bob and Beverly Lewis

* Record: 14 starts, 3-2-3

* Earnings: $391,864

COMMENT: The Lewises and Lukas ran Charismatic for a $62,500 claiming price at Santa Anita on Feb. 11. No claims were filed. “[Trainer] Mike Mitchell told me he wanted to claim him from me, but he didn’t have the heart,” Bob Lewis said. “I had recently gotten Mike some tickets for the drag races at Pomona, and he didn’t want to take the horse away from me right after that.”

12. VICAR (PP-17)

* Odds: 6-1

* Jockey: Shane Sellers

* Trainer: Carl Nafzger

* Owner: James Tafel

* Record: 7 starts, 4-1-1

* Earnings: $745,756

COMMENT: Winner of the Florida Derby, third in the Blue Grass, Vicar still has the confidence of jockey Shane Sellers. “I’m going to try to put him seven or eight lengths off the pace,” Sellers said. “Then let him do his running and hope for a good trip.” If Vicar wins, he will give trainer Nafzger (Unbridled, 1990) victories in the first and last Derbies of the ‘90s.

13. MENIFEE (PP-18)

* Odds: 5-1

* Jockey: Pat Day

* Trainer: Elliott Walden

* Owner: J. Stone and A. Hancock III

* Record: 5 starts, 4-1-0

* Earnings: $552,000

COMMENT: Arthur Hancock, who co-owns Blue Grass winner Menifee, was walking around Churchill Downs a few days before he won the Derby with Sunday Silence in 1989. He saw a penny and picked it up. “Could you believe it?” Hancock said. “It was heads up, a good sign, and it was also 1982. The year we won the Derby with Gato Del Sol.”

14f. ECTON PARK (PP-3)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Robbie Davis

* Trainer: Elliott Walden

* Owner: Mark Stanley

* Record: 6 starts, 2-2-1

* Earnings: $203,650

COMMENT: The stablemate of the more highly regarded Menifee, Ecton Park won a stake at the New Orleans Fair Grounds, was third in a three-horse photo finish in the Louisiana Derby and a far-back fourth in the Arkansas Derby. “He didn’t run his race in Arkansas,” trainer Walden says. “Before that, he was on everybody’s Derby short list. I think he deserves another chance.”

15f. VALHOL (PP-8)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Willie Martinez

* Trainer: Dallas Keen

* Owner: James Jackson

* Record: 3 starts, 1-1-0

* Earnings: $344,100

COMMENT: OK, what’s your best battery joke? Ed Schuyler of the Associated Press says it would be a “shocker” if Valhol won. Jockey Billy Patin, who won the Arkansas Derby with Valhol, is awaiting a hearing next week in Arkansas, where there have been allegations that he used an electrical device on the lightly raced gelding. Owner James Jackson and trainer Dallas Keen deny complicity.

16f. K ONE KING (PP-9)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Alex Solis

* Trainer: Akiko Gothard

* Owner: Allen and Madeleine Paulson

* Record: 7 starts, 4-3-0

* Earnings: $297,810

COMMENT: Allen Paulson’s 77th birthday gift from his wife Madeleine, who paid more than $1 million for the colt after he’d won a minor stake at Turfway Park. In his debut for the Paulsons, K One King was second behind Stephen Got Even in the Gallery Stakes. The trainer is Akiko Gothard, trying to become the first woman to saddle a Derby winner. From Tokyo, Gothard, 68, has been with the horse since the start.

17f. KIMBERLITE PIPE (PP-12)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Robbie Albarado

* Trainer: Dallas Stewart

* Owner: Prairie Star Racing and Gunther

* Record: 11 starts, 4-0-1

* Earnings: $520,583

COMMENT: The Louisiana Derby winner is trained by Dallas Stewart, a longtime assistant to Wayne Lukas before forming his own stable in 1997. Fourth in the Blue Grass, Kimberlite Park was the fastest of 35 horses when he turned in a 1:00 clocking for five furlongs last week. In his only race at Churchill Downs, last November, the colt was beaten by 17 lengths.

18f. LEMON DROP KID (PP-19)

* Odds: 12-1

* Jockey: Jose Santos

* Trainer: Scotty Schulhofer

* Owner: Jeanne Vance

* Record: 8 starts, 3-2-1

* Earnings: $264,970

COMMENT: Trainer Schulhofer, who’s in the Racing Hall of Fame, must know how Mandella, the trainer of Desert Hero, feels. Lemon Drop Kid was 4-1, a short price, in the Blue Grass, but after running fifth at Keeneland the colt has been dropped into the parimutuel field, the track linemaker’s way of saying he has one of the least chances. To win this one, Lemon Drop Kid must return to his 2-year-old form.