Editor's Note: Since January 1, ESPN.com has been tracking the progress of Triple Crown hopeful Saarland in a weekly diary of the horse's season-long progress. Over the course of Saarland's nine days in Louisville, his final Kentucky Derby tune-ups will be updated daily.

Rainy days and Mondays ...
Opening Day of the 2002 Churchill Downs spring meeting brings into focus the 3-year-old stars of season. The Derby Trial Stakes, todays feature race, spotlights Saarland's Gotham Stakes rival Mayakovsky and other top sophomore sprinters. Meanwhile, the true distance horses of their generation have exactly one week to ponder their Kentucky Derby dreams.

On a turtleneck kind of morning, Saarland heads to the racetrack just after 7 a.m. this morning. Led by assistant trainer Robbie Medina, he calmly makes his way through the maze of barns, horses and media members.

After standing at attention on the track for about 10 minutes, exercise rider Juice Krajewski gives Saarland his marching orders. After a light jog the opposite running direction, they turn about face and begin a solid 1-1/2 mile gallop. It's Saarland's standard gallop distance, and something of a hallmark this spring training season.

When Saarland approaches the three-furlong pole on the far turn, he wants to pull down toward the rail. That's where horses gravitate to when its time to put in a serious workout. Krajewski lets Saarland ease that way. "Let's see what you can do big boy," he says to the colt.

"I didn't let him run off and do anything strenuous," Krajewski says. "He just wanted to do a little more work than we were allowing him to."

After Saarland's gallop, he begins to pull up. To his inside, a horse blazes by in the midst of a strong workout. Saarland wants to chase and get it on, but Krajewski holds him steady. His work for today is done.

Saarland cools out back at the barn while Medina provides a cold-water bath. All is complete before the weather turns for the worse in Louisville. Around 11 a.m., the temperatures drop and a downpour commences. The soggy conditions will spoil Saarland's 3 p.m. graze. His afternoon entertainment now will consist of a 40-minute walk around the shedrow.

Trainer Shug McGaughey joins the cast in Kentucky tomorrow. He has tentatively planned Saarland's final major Kentucky Derby workout for Monday.