BALTIMORE - Now that he's cleared his name with the person who counts the most, Funny Cide jockey Jose Santos can get back to the business of winning the Triple Crown.

After charging to victory in the Kentucky Derby on May 3, Santos was subjected to an investigation to determine if was carrying an illegal object in his hand during the race.

The stewards at Churchill Downs cleared the jockey of all wrongdoing. For Santos, the worst part about the probe was not that it tarnished his name in the racing industry, but that it caused his daughter to be ashamed of her father.

"Winning was a great feeling. The controversy was very embarrassing,'' Santos said Friday. "My career was in jeopardy, but my kid took it harder. I have a 7-year-old daughter, and when she saw me in the news she said, 'I can't believe that my father is that bad.' Kids don't understand.''

Santos hopes that a flawless ride in the Preakness on Saturday will further purge the memory of the insulting investigation, which stemmed from a fuzzy picture taken during the Derby.

"It's going to mean a lot for me to win this race for the whole (Funny Cide team) after the whole controversy,'' he said. "It's going to be a very nice win for us, a sentimental thing more than anything else.''

It poured at Pimlico on Friday, and the weather forecast called for even more rain Saturday in the hours leading up to the $1 million race.

There's no telling what the track will look like at post time, but officials said a fast racing strip was possible as long as the rain stopped a few hours before the 6:12 p.m. start.

Regardless, Funny Cide was ready to run after being shipped to the track on Friday, one day ahead of schedule.

"I don't know how the track will be at 6 o'clock,'' trainer Barclay Tagg said, "but he's just going to have to like it, that's all. He hasn't had a problem with any track so far.''

Tagg wasn't worried about having his horse break from the No. 9 gate, either.

"I can't do anything about it. I wasn't going to scratch him, was I?'' Tagg said.

If Funny Cide can keep alive his bid to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, Santos expects a warm reception at the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

"If that happens and we go to New York with a good chance to be a Triple Crown horse, it's going to great for the New York people,'' he said. "We'll have a lot of people at that racetrack.''

Santos is almost certain that it's going to happen.

"I have a lot of confidence in Funny Cide. I have a lot of confidence in the trainer. I have a lot of confidence in me,'' he said. "I want to do the best I can to ride the horse and come into the winner's circle.''

The 1 3/16th-mile race shapes up as a duel between Funny Cide and Peace Rules, third in the Derby and the second choice at 8-5. Peace Rules beat Funny Cide in the Louisiana Derby two months ago, and Funny Cide turned the tables in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.

"Peace Rules is the only horse I'm scared about,'' Santos said.

Bob Baffert's Senor Swinger is coupled in the betting with D. Wayne Lukas' Scrimshaw. The colts owned by Bob and Beverly Lewis were 5-1.

Senor Swinger returns to dirt after winning the Crown Royal American Turf, while Scrimshaw was 11th in the Derby _ 10{ lengths behind Funny Cide.

The rest of the field is 10-1 or higher.