MIDWEST - KENTUCKY - Two-time Kentucky Derby (Grade I) winning trainer Nick Zito put himself back in thick of the Derby picture Saturday afternoon when Robert LaPenta's The Cliff's Edge rallied from far back to take the $750,000 Toyota Blue Grass (GI) at Keeneland.

The son of Gulch, who dropped back to seventh in the early going, caught the favored pacesetter Lion Heart inside the final furlong and for a half-length victory under jockey Shane Sellers. The Cliff's Edge, the 5-1 second choice in the eight horse field, covered the 1 1/8 miles over a "fast" track in 1:49.42. The win was the colt's fourth in eighth starts and his first since he completed a sweep of last fall's Churchill Downs stakes for 2-year-olds, the Iroquois (GIII) and Kentucky Jockey Club (GII).

"I wasn't gonna take his game away from him today regardless of how the track was playing," Sellers said. "We were in perfect position down the backstretch. It went just the way I thought it would."

The Todd Pletcher-trained Limehouse finished third while Shadwell Stables' Mustanfar checked in fourth. Both are expected to point to the Kentucky Derby.

The victory ended two weeks of misfortune for Zito, who had seen two major Derby contenders in his barn suffer illnesses in the days before the race. His original Blue Grass hopeful Eurosilver was declared out of the Kentucky Derby picture eight days earlier after missing nearly two weeks of training with a glandular infection. His other candidate, Marylou Whitney's Birdstone, was entered for the Blue Grass but scratched after an elevated white blood count was discovered Thursday. The latter is still expected to start in the Kentucky Derby. If The Cliff's Edge and Birdstone run in the Derby, they would be Zito's first starters in the 1 ¼ mile test since he saddled A P Valentine in the 2001 "Run for the Roses."

The Toyota Blue Grass win was Zito's third, which tied him with training legends Ben Jones and Woody Stephens. He won the race with Kentucky Derby winner Strike The Gold in 1991 and Halory Hunter in '98. Although they ran poorly in the Toyota Blue Grass, it was not enough to remove a pair of high profile contenders from the Kentucky Derby trail. Both Action This Day (6th), the reigning 2-year-old champion trained by Richard Mandella, and Preachinatthebar (7th) the Bob Baffert-trained winner of the San Rafael (GII), remained on course for the "Run for the Roses."

"I am disappointed," Mandella said of Action This Day. "I thought he was going to pick it up. I have no excuses. He is not running the way he did as a two-year-old and I don't know why. I will go on to Louisville and see what happens."

Mandella's Minister Eric, runner-up to Action This Day in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, will prep for a possible Kentucky Derby run in Saturday's Coolmore Lexington (GII).

OAKLAWN - Someday Farm's Smarty Jones faced the toughest field in his six-race career and broke from a sometimes troublesome outside post in a field of 11, but the result was very familiar as the heavy favorite cruised to a 1 ½-length victory in Saturday's $1,000,000 Arkansas Derby (GI) at Oaklawn Park.

Smarty Jones and jockey Stewart Elliott laid right behind pacesetter Purge in the early going before he assumed the lead on the far turn. The son of Elusive Quality eventually opened up a three-length lead before he coasted home by the final margin of 1 1/2-lengths. He covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.41 over a "muddy" track.

"I could tell we were clipping right along in the early going, but I still had a good hold and with nobody coming up to challenge us, I was content to sit and wait," Elliott said. "When we got to the lead, he had plenty left and finished strong and galloped out good."

Trained by John Servis, Smarty Jones improved his career record to a perfect 6-for-6 and stands to become just the 17th horse in history to enter the "Run for the Roses" with an unblemished record. Only Regret (1915), Morvich (1922), Majestic Prince (1969) and Seattle Slew (1977) emerged from the Derby with their spotless records intact.

The Beau Greely-trained Borrego finished second while Pro Prado, conditioned by Churchill Downs- based Bob Holthus, finished third. Both are also expected to aim for the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.

With the Arkansas Derby win, Smarty Jones needs to win the Kentucky Derby to earn Oaklawn Park's $5 million "Centennial Bonus." Saturday's race was the second leg of the bonus series that opened with Oaklawn's Rebel Stakes and is set to conclude with the Kentucky Derby.

The victory by the Pennsylvania-bred colt had plenty of implications on the probable field for the Kentucky Derby, which is limited to 20 horses with preference given to those with the highest total earnings in graded stakes races. Smarty Jones had no graded stakes earnings as he entered the Arkansas Derby, but emerged from his win with graded earnings of $600,000, good for fourth place on the overall list and a spot in the Derby starting gate.

Earlier on Saturday's card, Team Valor's Tiger Hunt, unraced since a fourth place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, tried to make a last ditch effort to compete in the Kentucky Derby as he returned to competition in the $75,000 Northern Spur Breeders' Cup. The son of Kris S., who was transferred from trainer Elliott Walden to Ralph Nicks in December, failed to fire and finished a well-beaten fourth to the Steve Asmussen-trained Two Down Automatic in the one mile heat.

EAST - NEW YORK - One of more talented horses in this year's sophomore class finally showed his mettle Saturday at Aqueduct as Ronald Winchell's Tapit closed from last-to-first to capture the $750,000 Wood Memorial (GI).

Trained by Maryland-based Michael Dickinson, the son of Pulpit closed on the outside and wore down the Bobby Frankel-trained Master David and Eddington in the final eighth of a mile for the win. Tapit was coming off his only career loss, a sixth-place finish in the Florida Derby (GI) -- but Dickinson discovered after the race that the colt was suffering from a substantial lung infection.

"He is a very courageous horse," Dickinson said on Saturday. "He wasn't at his best today. He was very sick four weeks ago, and under normal circumstances, you wouldn't bring a horse back in four weeks. He is going to improve. I told Mr. Winchell that if we ran third today, we would have a really good chance on the first of May."

Tapit's win also gave him sufficient graded stakes earnings to compete in the Kentucky Derby. The gray colt is currently fifth on that list with $530,000.

The top three finishers are expected to ship to Louisville and Frankel could not have been happier with the performance by Master David, who had won the Sham at Santa Anita in his previous start on Feb. 8.

"He's in the Derby," he said. "He ran great and I'm very happy with him. He's a tough little horse, not as big as some of the other ones. But he gave it everything he had."

A new 3-year-old star may have emerged on the Wood Memorial undercard when Aaron & Marie Jones' Forest Danger romped to a 7 1/2-length win in the $150,000 Bay Shore (GIII), but the Kentucky Derby is unlikely to be in the plans for the Todd Pletcher-trained colt.

The son of Forestry, who won for the third time in as many races, covered the seven furlongs in a quick 1:20.67 over a "fast" track as the 6-5 favorite. Abbondanza finished second and Indian War Dance was third.

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