The Enquirer and wire reports

Empire Maker has raced three times in his young career and his only victory came last fall in a maiden race at Belmont Park, but despite those spotty credentials the Bobby Frankel-trained colt is the 9-5 morning line favorite among seven 3-year-olds entered in today's $1 million Grade I Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park (ESPN2, 4-4:30 p.m.)

Frankel's high regard for the colt is the reason that Empire Maker is favored to make the 1 1/8th-mile Florida Derby his first stakes win.

"This is my best Kentucky Derby shot," Frankel said. "This is the horse we felt all along was the one that could get us there, and he should be starting to peak now."

Jerry Bailey will ride Empire Maker.

The field also includes Fountain of Youth winner Trust N Luck; Supah Blitz and Midway Cat, 2-3 finishers in the Fountain of Youth; unbeaten Senor Swinger; and Indy Dancer, the beaten favorite in the Risen Star at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

• Grade 1 winner Sky Mesa, sidelined since late February with a bruised right front heel, will miss the Kentucky Derby but could resurface in the Belmont Stakes, trainer John Ward said.

TURFWAY PARK: Horrible Evening returns from the Fair Grounds in hopes of picking up his second Turfway stakes victory in today's $50,000 Tejano Run Stakes. The 1 1/8-mile race is named in honor of the multiple stakes winner at Turfway who finished second in the 1995 Kentucky Derby.

Horrible Evening, trained by Niall O'Callaghan, won Turfway's $50,000 Prairie Bayou Stake in December and followed that performance with a third-place finish in the $75,000 Louisiana Handicap at Fair Grounds.