Read the Footnotes, the beaten favorite in the Florida Derby, is likely to pass the next round of Kentucky Derby preps and train up to the May 1 race instead.

"I'm afraid that he could run in another prep, run huge and then regress off that for the Derby, the race we are really pointing for," trainer Rick Violette Jr. said. "I think another race could do him more harm than good. If he were to run well, that would make all the connections feel better and show that he is back on track, but I'm sure it would make the horse do better in the long run. We still feel he's the fastest 3-year-old out there. My job is to get him back to that level by the 1st of May. It's a gut call. I'm not concerned about getting him there. It's only seven weeks between races, not seven months."

Violette plans to leave Read the Footnotes in Florida until a week prior to the Kentucky Derby, when he will ship to Churchill Downs. He said he wants to take advantage of the warm weather in Florida, which makes for good training conditions. Should Read the Footnotes not run again between now and May 1, he will attempt to become the first horses since Needles in 1956 to win the Kentucky Derby without having raced in April.

The Wood Memorial may be next for Tapit, who was a disappointment when sixth in the Kentucky Derby. According to a posting on the website of trainer Michael Dickinson, an endoscopic examination revealed a significant amount of debris in Tapit's upper airway after the Florida Derby and there was an abscess in Tapit's front left foot. "Neither the mucous in his trachea after the race nor the foot abscess is believed to be a major impediment to Tapit's continued training and the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct remains a strong possibility for his next start," the website reports.