LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Trainer Bill Mott has never won a 3-year-old classic, and after Blue Burner ran an uninspiring fifth last month in the Wood Memorial, he sounded as if he wasn't interested in going to the Derby this year. Even the great ones change their mind. Or was he influenced by his owner?

Mott said the decision to run Blue Burner in the 128th Run for the Roses was his, not George Steinbrenner's.

"No, he isn't that way at all," Mott said. "I've had horses for him for four or five years and he pretty much leaves me alone. I wouldn't be here with [Blue Burner] if I didn't think he had a shot in the race. Now, of course, if I'm wrong, I'll probably have to pay for it afterward, but going was my call."

Watching from the sidelines
A few days before the Santa Anita Derby, I asked trainer Patrick Biancone, a transplanted Frenchman, if he would be tempted to send Mayakovsky to the Kentucky Derby. Biancone said, "No, I don't have Derby Fever. I haven't been in this country that long."

Biancone apparently caught a slight case of the bug last weekend after scratching Mayakovsky from the Derby Trial because of an off track. He said he would work out Mayakovsky, a brilliant sprinter/miler with distance limitations, Wednesday morning, then make a decision on whether to try him at 1 1/4 miles on Saturday. Mayakovsky stayed in the barn, and that's where he'll be when they sing "My Old Kentucky Home."

"He did not work because he is not going to run," Biancone said. "He was like the reserve quarterback. The true pro arrived safely, so [Mayakovsky] will watch this one from the bench."

Biancone was referring to Johannesburg, who, like Mayakovsky, is owned by Michael Tabor.

"We will see how the Kentucky Derby goes," Biancone said, "and then point to either the Preakness or the Met Mile."

Derby draw dizzy
In a race as obsessively overanalyzed as the Kentucky Derby, the post-position draw inevitably gets the full treatment.

Horsemen, not known for telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, spoke but didn't say much Wednesday evening after the made-for-television event.

Bobby Frankel, whose Medaglia d'Oro got Post 9, weighed in with the old reliable "It's right where I wanted him to be." Bill Mott tried to make the best of getting stuck out in Post 20, where his Blue Burner will be closer to the railbirds than the rail.

"It's a long way out there, but I wouldn't want to be all the way down on the inside," Mott said. "If we were down inside in a 20-horse field, you'd have to scoop the dirt off him with a shovel."

Demi O'Byrne is an adviser for Ireland-based Coolmore, which will send out Castle Gandolfo and Johannesburg. Jerry Bailey, as cool and calculating a rider as there is, will be on Castle Gandolfo in his North American debut. O'Byrne said, "I was on the phone with Jerry Bailey when

I made the pick of Post 12 for him, and he was absolutely delighted." It is hard to imagine one of the world's top big-race riders being "absolutely delighted" when told of a post position.

Murray Johnson (Post 3, Perfect Drift) showed he has the big picture in sight when he said, "We are just glad to be in the gate because there are some people not in the gate that wanted to be there."

More than 35,000 foals were born in 1999 in North America, and only 20 have made it to the continent's biggest race. Just being there is a triumph.