Late Tuesday afternoon a familiar face arrived at the Preakness Stakes barn. Once again, and for the 10th time in the last 12 years Nick Zito was the first trainer to arrive. This morning he supervised the training of his two Preakness hopefuls, Crimson Hero and Straight Gin, as well as four other three-year olds he plans on running during Preakness week.

"This is just the way we do it," said Zito, who saddled 1996 winner Louis Quatorze and has two second place finishes with 10 previous Preakness starters. "Baffert and Lukas come in later and have success, too, but we've still run the fastest Preakness ever doing it our way." Bob Baffert, D. Wayne Lukas and Zito have won seven of the last eight Preakness Stakes. Zito headed to Belmont later Wednesday morning. Assistant trainer Jamie Sanders will run the barn until he returns on Sunday afternoon. He indicated that his two Preakness horses would work out on Monday or Tuesday. Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron will ride Crimson Hero, while Zito will wait before naming a jockey for Straight Gin.

The only other Preakness hopefuls arriving this week are U S S Tinosa who is expected Thursday afternoon and Menacing Dennis, who will fly in from northern California over the weekend. Magic Weisner and Equality both train at Laurel Park. The remaining candidates will not arrive in Baltimore until Wednesday, May 15.

Musical saddles
Trainer Bobby Frankel has named Jerry Bailey as his Preakness rider for Medaglia d'Oro, who rallied to finish fourth in the Kentucky Derby.

Pat Day has picked up the mount on Booklet for trainer John Ward. Day has five Preakness victories on his risumi, including three straight in the mid 1990's. Only Eddie Arcaro has won six.