NO FAST TRACK TO PIMLICO : ONE HORSE ARRIVES; PREAKNESS FIELD MAY BE ONLY NINE.

Byline: Associated Press 

Jamie Sanders had the track all to herself Monday as she took Preakness entrant Louis Quatorze for an early-morning ride at Pimlico Race Course.

``I expected there to be a lot more people in the stakes barn by now, but it's kind of nice and quiet. It's good for the horse - he gets to look around and relax,'' said Sanders, exercise rider for the only Preakness starter on the Pimlico grounds.

The second jewel of the Triple Crown has seemingly turned into a rhinestone, and it's not just because Kentucky Derby winner Grindstone isn't running. Derby favorite Unbridled's Song is still questionable, and the other entrants were conspicuously absent just five days before the big race.

At West Long Branch, N.J., Unbridled's Song galloped two miles over the Monmouth Park track Monday morning without his bar shoes, and according to trainer Jim Ryerson ``was as comfortable as we could want.''

Unbridled's Song wore the shoes to protect a cracked hoof at the Kentucky Derby, where he finished fifth after going off as the favorite.

``I can't imagine him being any more comfortable on his foot than he is right now,'' Ryerson said. That could mean Unbridled's Song will start in the Preakness.

`We just would like to see what he tells us in the next couple of days, and that's what it will be - what he tells us,'' the trainer said.

It is possible that only nine horses will participate in the Preakness, only one of which won his previous race - Tour's Big Red, who finished first at the Grade III Tesio Stakes at Pimlico on April 20.

Stall 40, which traditionally houses the Kentucky Derby winner, was empty Monday and will remain that way because Grindstone was retired following his winning ride. But the rest of the barn was also strangely barren, a stark contrast to the scene at Churchill Downs in the days leading up to the Derby.

``It was mobbed in Kentucky five days before the race. I guess the reporters are waiting for the rest of the entries to ship in,'' Sanders said.

``You know why no one wants to come? No one wants to put up with that circus,'' trainer D. Wayne Lukas declared Monday from Churchill Downs.

Circus? It was a one-ring affair, if that. Only a half-dozen reporters and four security guards were at the track Monday during Louis Quatorze's workout.

Karen Foote, who is in charge of the stakes-barn hospitality room, cut her doughnut order from 30 boxes to four, simply because there was no one there to eat them.

Louis Quatorze - the 16th-place finisher in the Derby - was in the barn only because trainer Nick Zito had brought him and Saratoga Dandy on the same van with Star Standard, who ran in last Saturday's Pimlico Special. Saratoga Dandy is slated to run in the Sir Barton Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday.

Zito stayed in Baltimore barely long enough to see Star Standard win the four-horse race - by Sunday morning he had left for New York to train the rest of his stable.

Sanders could expect a few more peaceful rides in the days ahead, because most of the field won't be showing up until later in the week. Lukas pushed back his arrival with Editor's Note and Prince of Thieves until Thursday, and five other horses are scheduled to come in Wednesday.

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Photo

Photo: Unbridled's Song had a comfortable gallop at the Mon mouth (N.J.) Park track on Monday, increasing his chances of running in the Preakness.

Associated Press