Another Slew Comes Out Of The Wood

Watters now has two Derby eligibles, Slewpy and Slew O' Gold, but for now only Slew O' Gold is sure to run. Slewpy doesn't want to go a mile and a quarter, or so it appears. "I don't know whether he'll race or not," Watters said. "He has never run good at Aqueduct. Slew O' Gold will ship to Louisville on Monday. He gets better after every race."

So does Bounding Basque. But last week his connections were still hedging about the Derby. "Let's see how he comes out of this," said owner Jacques D. Wimpfheimer.

Bounding Basque still races awfully green, even with blinkers added, gawking about like a tourist in Hong Kong. "This is the first time he went around two turns," said his trainer, Woody Sedlacek. "He was looking all over. He'll stand on the racetrack for a half an hour and look at everything: trains, tractors, whatever's around."

There will be plenty to see at Churchill Downs. Like 140,000 people and 20 horses. And yes, somewhere in front of him, perhaps a filly at the finish.