Sport: Lady's Day in Louisville

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Churchill Downs in the pre-Derby dawn is a heady place. Drifting wood smoke, dampened by morning dew, cuts the sharp, ammoniac smell of the stables. From the tarns, where skittish thoroughbreds are breakfasting, comes the metallic clank of feed tubs, or an occasional hoof thump. Sleepy-eyed grooms and exercise boys, clutching their mugs of coffee, shuffle through the shadows.

Even at that hour, feed-box tips are in (he air. This week those tips had more than the usual ring of authority. Nobody had to look far to find the favorites in this...