3.) Yeah, and besides that, who wants to see George Steinbrenner win something else?

Au contraire, my friend. The fact that Steinbrenner owns him is one reason to pull for Bellamy Road. The Boss' beloved Yankees might outspend the world and collect pennants, but in horse racing, Steinbrenner is the Cubs. He plays but he doesn't win. Irony of ironies: If Steinbrenner wins the Derby, he'll be one of those sympathetic longtime owners who finally breaks through.

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4.) What happened to Sweet Catomine out west? One day she's the Miracle Filly, the next day she's a beaten dog in a weak prep, has changed barns and her owner is hit with charges by the California Racing Board.

Not a pretty picture. I was dispatched by SI to go to California last week to write a feature story if Sweet Catomine won the Santa Anita Derby and appeared headed to Churchill Downs, with a chance to become the fourth filly in history to win the Kentucky Derby. It would have been a terrific storyline.

It fell apart. Here is it how it happened through my eyes:

On Friday morning I met Marty Wygod, Sweet Catomine's owner, for a pre-arranged interview at Santa Anita. We talked about the horse, his life, his family... the sort of things that would eventually comprise an SI story on the great filly. At one point, Wygod asked me: "The things we talk about, you're writing them after the race, correct?''

"Correct," I said. Naturally, SI doesn't publish until after the race. Obviously, breaking news goes here on SI.com, but I was looking for the back story on a horse, not anticipating breaking news. It is common SI practice to spend the days before a major event getting information on potential winners, in order to be in position to write a fresh story after the event is finished. That's part of working for a weekly magazine.

Wygod went on to tell me he didn't think Sweet Catomine was coming to the race in top form, that she had lost weight and was fighting a minor problem that he would not disclose, but that he said had nothing to do with soundness. He also confirmed a rumor I had heard on the Santa Anita backstretch, that Sweet Catomine was in season (heat) for the first time. Oddly, Sweet Catomine's trainer, Julio Canani, had raved about the filly the previous day. Something didn't add up.

The big filly ran a desultory fifth in the race, beaten soundly by mediocre colts. Afterward Wygod told the media everything he told me and much more, such as the fact that Sweet Catomine bled in her lungs during a workout six days before the race. This ignited a debate over how much information a horse's connections are required to make public before a race, especially when hundreds of thousands are bet on a horse.

This high-minded argument became moot 48 hours later when the California Horse Racing Board filed a complaint against Wygod, alleging he had taken Sweet Catomine off the Santa Anita grounds under a false name four days before the race. They charged him with "conduct detrimental to racing" for failing to disclose the horse's problems before the race. He faces a hearing April 23.

I'm not sure what the lesson is here. Based on the information I was given by the owners on Friday -- a filly in season who has lost a little weight and whose owner and trainer disagree about her fitness -- I didn't feel like the public was owed full disclosure. Horses run all the time at less than 100 percent. In fact, horses are seldom completely fit and ready (although I'm guessing Bellamy Road was on Saturday). When Wygod said Sweet Catomine had bled, in my opinion, he was straddling the line. If the filly was in bad enough shape that she had to be driven off the grounds for treatment, that seals it: He should have come clean. It's a difficult issue with no clear boundaries.

5.) Two big races this weekend. Your thoughts?

The Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland will be a summit meeting: Nick Zito's Sun King, Wayne Lukas' Consolidator and Bobby Frankel's High Limit. Baffert told me he thinks the Derby winner will come out of that race, but it might not be the Blue Grass winner. It will be some horse that needed one more prep. (This, of course, was before Bellamy Road.)

I'll be at Keeneland to watch -- right where I was last year when I watched on TV as Smarty Jones rolled to victory in the Arkansas Derby. Watch Greater Good do the same thing this year. And I'll also be watching Rockport Harbor a week later in the Lexington Stakes. One thing I've learned: The Derby winner is seldom where you think he is.