Horse Racing News by Mary Rampellini

The Kentucky Derby is seven weeks away, but horseplayers will get a sneak peek at three of its highest-profile candidates when Lookin At Lucky, the champion 2-year-old of 2009, and Dublin and Noble's Promise meet Saturday in the Rebel at Oaklawn Park.

Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta lead the list of 45 fillies and mares that have been nominated to the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park on April 9. If the two champions run in the mile and a eighth race, the purse will be worth $5 million.

Noble's Promise has raced exclusively on synthetic and turf surfaces to this point in his career, but there are reasons to believe that the Grade 1 winner might be an even better horse on dirt.

The champion 2-year-old of 2009, Lookin At Lucky will be adding blinkers Saturday when he makes his first start of the year in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

A shipper from Florida and a pair of fillies from Southern California have spiced up the Saturday stakes double at Oaklawn, where the Razorback Handicap and the Azeri will be run as preps for next month's Oaklawn Handicap and Apple Blossom Invitational.

Summer Bird, the champion 3-year-old of 2009, has resumed training and jogged Wednesday and Thursday at Oaklawn Park, said his co-owner, K.K. Jayaraman.

Backtalk, one of the more accomplished 2-year-olds of 2009, won at two turns for the first time Friday night when he made his season debut in the $75,000 Sportsman's Paradise at Delta Downs.

Comedero gave his trainer, Michael Stidham, his second stakes win in less than a half-hour on Saturday, when he powered home by 4 1/2 lengths in the $60,000 Mountain Valley at Oaklawn Park.

Retired jockey Flavio Martinez III died in an Albuquerque, N.M., hospital on Feb. 17 after suffering a heart attack, according to his wife, Roberta. He was 51.

The field for the Grade 3, $250,000 Southwest, which was rescheduled for Saturday after being canceled Monday, should be about the same as its original cast of 10.