Afleet Alex – Upon returning Afleet Alex to his stall in Barn B3, trainer Tim Ritchey was the picture of comfort as he reclined in a lounge chair in the tack room, his legs stretched out and his hands raised to support his head.

“I'm just enjoying the experience,” said Ritchey, clearly relaxed about his 2yo colt's preparedness for the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

Afleet Alex, who will seek the third stakes victory of his young career in the Juvenile, is also able to take it easy when it comes to training.

“He's a very mild, easy going colt,” said Ritchey, who sent the son of Northern Afleet to the track for a mile gallop Friday morning. “It helps him, not just as a racehorse, but it will help him in his career.”

Ritchey said he has not mapped out plans for next year's campaign yet.

“I always take it one race at a time,” said Ritchey, a prominent Mid-Atlantic trainer who will saddle his first Breeders' Cup starter tomorrow. “After the Breeders' Cup, we'll figure it out and go from there.”

Consolidator – Bob and Beverly Lewis' Consolidator completed preparations for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with an early-morning gallop under exercise rider C.T. Lang.

Rafael Bejarano, who rode Consolidator to victory in the Lane's End Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland in his previous start, has the call Saturday and will break from post four in the eight-horse field.

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was asked how much Consolidator would have to improve off the Breeders' Futurity to win Saturday.

“Maybe not at all,” said Lukas, who has won a record 17 Breeders' Cup races. “If he runs that same race back, I will be happy. No matter where that lands him on the leaderboard, I'll be happy.”

Proud Accolade – Exercise rider Judy Krajewski, trainer Todd Pletcher's right arm, saved her riding for Friday morning, as she galloped the Juvenile contender 1 1/4 miles.

But she was almost tempted to ride Thursday night.

“I went to Fort Worth for the press party (at Billy Bob's), and I was almost tempted to ride the mechanical bull,” she said. “But I saw that someone almost broke his hand, and I thought better of it.

“I told Todd (Pletcher, trainer) that I didn't go on, and he said, `Good girl.' Then I said, `What would you have done if I had come in here with a cast on my arm?' Todd gave that look and said, `I would have killed you myself.' ”

Roman Ruler – A relaxed, easy-going Bob Baffert showed enthusiasm and confidence for his Juvenile runner, the probable favorite, following the colt's 1 ½ miles gallop on the main track, his second since arriving Wednesday.

Eschewing the chance to brag on his two-time graded stakes winner, Baffert said calmly, “He's a very nice horse. I don't like to brag on my horses anymore. I don't want to jinx them. One race at a time, that's all you can do. I thought Vindication and Point Given were the ones, but it didn't happen. So now I enjoy them while they're great.”

Greatness does seem possible for the son of Fusaichi Pegasus owned by David Shimmon's and William Bianco's Fog City Stable since he is a mere neck away from being unbeaten in four races. He lost to Declan's Moon in the 7f Del Mar Futurity, but came back to post his third career win in Santa Anita's Norfolk Stakes as his final step toward Saturday's Juvenile.

“We're really enjoying this horse. He's doing great. He's a very talented horse, and the older he gets the better he's going to be,” said Baffert who seems always to have the Kentucky Derby in his sights, with three victories to show for it. “I'm really excited about him,” Baffert continued. “He has a little bit of a mind of his own, but he's getting better; he's behaving better. I think he's handling things pretty well. The only thing I worry about is his antics in the post parade.

“I think he's really matured in the last 30 days. We take him out with a lip chain, and that's pretty severe for him, but he's getting to the point where I don't think he's going to need that anymore. We were more worried about his antics than his racing, and now that we have that under control, we can treat him like a horse.”

As for his general behavior, Baffert said, “We don't let him get away with anything. He was spoiled at first, like a little child, but, unfortunately you can't give a horse `time out.' So we just work with him and let him know that he can be the boss when he's running, but he's not going to be the boss when he's doing his morning exercises.”

Baffert continues to worry just a bit about how the colt will bound out of the gate, knowing that if he repeats some of his Del Mar starts he could be in trouble. “The break is very important,” Baffert said. “He wasn't breaking well at Del Mar, and I think a lot of that was Corey (rider Corey Nakatani). He was taking a lot of hold of him getting away from the gate, trying to get him to relax. He was riding him with a little too much confidence, and that's what gets some of the good horses beat.”

Scandinavia — John Magnier, head of Ireland's potent Coolmore operation which will send five horses into Saturday's Breeders' Cup, was on the backstretch Friday morning with trainer Aidan O'Brien.

“With the two-year-olds (Mona Lisa in the Juvenile Fillies) we're taking a shot in the dark,” he said. “Scandinavia is dirt-bred, but when we came here with Johannesburg (won 2001 Juvenile), he had won a lot of Group Is and there's no substitute for that.

“We like to come here because our season is over in Europe and it didn't get any better than winning with Johannesburg. It's like a man who likes a drink … he needs more and more to get the same buzz.”

Scandinavia broke his maiden in his third outing, then finished second in the Royal Lodge Stakes at Ascot in late September with another Juvenile entrant, Wilko, immediately behind him.

Sun King – Trainer Nick Zito's mood was subdued Friday morning.

“I'm probably still bummed out about the filly,'' said Zito, who was forced to declare In the Gold from the Juvenile Fillies after she developed a fever Wednesday afternoon.

Yet, the veteran trainer has learned not to let disappointments get him down in the dumps too far.

“You have so many good things happening, you can't let the disappointments bother you too much,'' said Zito, who has enjoyed a career year this season.

A couple of good things could be in store for Zito on Saturday, when he saddles Birdstone for the Classic and Sun King in the Juvenile.

Sun King galloped 1 1/4 miles on a refreshingly cool Friday morning.

The 2yo son of Charismatic, who will be ridden by Edgar Prado for the first time, finished a strong third in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park after pressing the pace throughout the 1 1/16 miles.

“He's an improving colt. The way he's developing, he's growing stronger every day,” said Zito.

Twice Unbridled – The maiden son of Unbridled's Song walked the shedrow Friday morning following his arrival from Southern California Thursday morning. Trainer Dan Jensen kept a close eye on the smallish colt as he made his turns around Barn E3.

Of Twice Unbridled's chances as a maiden against tested and stakes-running males in the Juvenile, Jensen said, “He's got a lot of run in him. I've handled hundreds of babies over the years, and this colt has a kick that is just out of this world.”

Jensen said he knew that the colt's first race at 5 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar was not really a good distance for him, but he decided to put him in the race. “Just as I thought, he came running like gang-busters at the end. In his next race [a mile at Santa Anita], he was slammed two times after leaving the gate but still came running at the end.

“If there's a good pace in this race, they all better look out,” the trainer warned.

Wilko — “He just galloped a mile and one-half on the dirt this morning,” said trainer Jeremy Noseda of his hope for the Juvenile. “He doesn't really switch on until race day, so everything he has done here has been real easy.

“He's a good, solid, hard-knocking horse. He's by Awesome Again so we came here to take a chance that he'll take to the dirt. He'll run a solid race and if he suddenly takes to the dirt, maybe he can move up and get a piece of it (the purse).

“He's run against some of the best two-year-olds in Europe and clearly on turf in England he's seven to 10 pounds behind the top two-year-old. So you would expect he's going to be seven to 10 pounds behind the top American two-year-old. We're realistic about it.”

Wilko, who finished third behind Perfectperformance and Juvenile entrant Scandinavia in his most recent outing in Ascot's Royal Lodge Stakes, will go on to California after the Breeders' Cup to be trained by Craig Dollase.