One of my favorite days on the racing calendar takes place this weekend, as major Kentucky Derby preps are slated — quite literally — from sea to shining sea on Saturday.

Like a Tolkien novel, the action begins in Middle Earth, otherwise known as Cicero, Illinois, home of the Grade 2 Illinois Derby from Hawthorne Racecourse, and then diverges both east and west.

The Grade 1 Wood Memorial is the featured fare from Aqueduct in Jamaica, New York, while the Santa Anita Derby, another grade 1 affair, is the marquee event at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California.

The Right Key

As a bettor, there are races to pass, races to play and races to ask your friends and neighbors to loan you money for (so that you can play even heavier). Saturday’s Illinois Derby from Hawthorne Racecourse is one of the latter, although I’m kidding about the loan thing. (Don’t borrow money to bet, don’t drink and drive and don’t run with scissors — unless there’s a guy with a bigger pair of scissors chasing after you.)

Seriously, though, I love Perfect Song in Saturday’s Hawthorne feature. Trained by Michael Trombetta, who won the 2006 Illinois Derby with Sweetnorthern Saint, Perfect Song hit all the right notes in winning his route debut at Laurel on March 14, recording a 91 Beyer and -4 late speed ration (LSR), despite setting a brisk pace that day.

Throw in the fact that three of the last five Illinois Derby victors have led from flag fall to finish, and it’s easy to understand why I started salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs when I saw the 6-1 morning line odds being offered on the son of Pleasantly Perfect.

Another horse I’ll be keeping tabs on this weekend is Giant Oak, a Chris Block trainee that seems poised for a top effort following two disappointing tries at Fair Grounds this winter.

IEAH Stables Gets Revenge

Attempting, perhaps, to prove the theory that one must “spend money to make money,” IEAH Stables, owner of last year’s sophomore sensation, Big Brown, purchased a 50 percent interest in I Want Revenge, the 4-5 morning line favorite in Saturday’s $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. One of the most prestigious Kentucky Derby preps, the Wood has been won by turf stars such as Gallant Fox, Assault and Seattle Slew, although the last Kentucky Derby winner to triumph in the 85-year-old fixture was Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000 and, prior to that, Pleasant Colony in 1981.

Nonetheless, both owner-breeder David Lanzman and IEAH President Michael Iavarone seem, well, “thrilled” about the new arrangement, which also gave Lanzman a share of IEAH’s newly acquired champion filly Stardom Bound.

“I'm thrilled about the partnership,” said Lanzman.

“We’re thrilled to have such an enormous talent join our stable,” echoed Iavarone.

“This is thriller, thriller night,” noted Michael Jackson some years earlier — apparently in anticipation of Monday’s deal.

I Want Revenge enters the Wood fresh off a scintillating score in the Gotham four weeks earlier, in which he earned a 113 Beyer figure and +1 LSR. Other contenders in Saturday’s Aqueduct feature include Lord Justice, Imperial Council and the entry of Atomic Rain and West Side Bernie.

Gallant Upset?

In an event that many consider to be a match race between Pioneerof the Nile and The Pamplemousse, I am going out on a limb and predicting an upset victory by Gallant Son in Saturday’s Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park. Now, before some of you decide to call a handicapping intervention on my behalf, let me explain my thinking:

Pioneer of the Nile

While I believe the son of Empire Maker is a worthy contender, I hardly think he towers over the field, as his speed figures clearly confirm. Pioneerof the Nile’s top Beyer is only a 95 and, while his late pace figures have been spectacular, his come-from-behind running style always leaves open the possibility of a bad trip. (Remember Stardom Bound in the Santa Anita Oaks?)

The Pamplemousse

Frankly, if this guy goes to post at anything less than 2-1, he’s an automatic bet-against in my book. To begin with, his LSRs have been merely average, as he’s earned a -7 in both of his last two starts (compared to the -1 and +1 garnered by his chief rival Pioneerof the Nile). Second, he’s probably going to have to do something he’s never done before — win a graded stakes race from off the pace. That’s because Zayat Stables (owner of Pioneerof the Nile) has entered Z Day, a freewheeling speedball out of the sprinter Five Star Day, who will undoubtedly be assigned the task of making The Pamplemousse break into an early sweat.

Do you see why I think that Gallant Son, a colt that finished a mere half-length behind Pioneerof the Nile in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Oct. 25, looks like a reasonable alternative? Add to that a scintillating win in the Pasadena Stakes on March 15 (on the turf, no less) and the fact that his trainer, Frank Lucarelli, admits that the son of Malabar Gold took awhile to recover from his juvenile campaign and Gallant Son starts to look better and better.

Heck, yell out “last call” and I might even fall in love with the horse. It worked with a goat once… OK, twice.