Trainer D. Wayne Lukas is happy with the way the son of Gulch, 11th in the Kentucky Derby, is coming up to the Belmont. "I think I've got him now where I wish I had him on Derby Week," said Lukas. "He's getting fit, his energy's much better and he's actually come out of the Preakness better than he came out of the Derby, as far as that goes. I feel like if I could have had him at this point in the Derby, I might have made some noise in the Derby. But now we're going to change fields and we're going to go a mile and a half, of course - so I still have to go forward with him. But we're doing better.

"I think Funny Cide was the best horse in the last two and I see no reason why he wouldn't be the best horse coming into this one," Lukas said. "I think if everything fell into place, we could make some noise. I'm not going over there with any grandiose ideas that we're going to pull it off. I think we could win it or we wouldn't even enter it. I'm sure that Empire Maker and some of the others that are coming in on this last leg fresh and everything are going to have something to say. But I think that you've got to look to the champ until somebody proves differently."

William S. Farish's Midway Road, runner-up to Funny Cide in the Preakness, breezed four furlongs on Tuesday in :48 3/5 under exercise rider Annie Finney in preparation for a possible run in the Belmont Stakes.

"He went real well and galloped out real good," said trainer Neil Howard. "He's doing good. We're still on the fence about what we're doing about the Belmont, but we should have a decision pretty soon. We just want to be careful with him."

The breeze by Midway Road was ranked eighth among 48 works at the distance over a "fast" track.

At Hollywood Park, Illinois Derby winner Ten Most Wanted worked a sharp seven furlongs in 1:25 for trainer Wally Dollase. The son of Deputy Commander apparently has fully recovered from a sore back suffered in the Kentucky Derby when he bumped hard with Scrimshaw coming out of the gate.

B. Wayne Hughes and Biscuit Stable's fourth-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby galloped two miles on Tuesday under exercise rider Raul Vizcarrando as he continued to recover from a bruised foot suffered in a workout seven days earlier. The son of A.P. Indy galloped for the first time with a fiberglass patch that had been applied to the injured area, which is located on the bulb on the inside of his right front foot.

"We got through another day," said Ellis. "He started off perfect and was pulling and happy. He was playing when people went by him. We'll work tomorrow and hopefully we'll get by that test and see how strong that patch is."

Ellis said he would not be looking for anything spectacular from Atswhatimtalknbout in Wednesday's training move. "I think I'll go an easy mile, but it'll be kind of like he worked before the Derby - just 1:41 or 1:42, somewhere along there," he said. "I just want to test that foot out a little bit."

A major concern, but not yet an issue, is the threat of infection in the injured foot. An abscess popped on the injured foot late last week, which allowed the bruised area to be drained and Ellis continues to closely watch the foot's progress.

"I can get to it because it's not totally covered up (by the patch)," Ellis said. "I think we can handle it."

Trainer Ken McPeek said his pair of possible contenders for the Belmont Stakes continued to do well with less than two weeks to go before the race. Phillips Racing Partnership's Best Minister, winner of Pimlico's Sir Barton, galloped Tuesday under exercise rider Hanne Jorgensen. The son of Deputy Minister was scheduled to ship to New York Tuesday afternoon.

Marilyn and David Randal's unbeaten Wild and Wicked, an easy winner of a Churchill Downs allowance race on Sunday in just his second career start, walked under McPeek's shedrow on Tuesday. McPeek placed the Wild Again colt's chances of traveling to New York for the Belmont at "50-50."