A sparkling workout at Churchill Downs on Thursday has put Fox Hill Farm's Hard Spun , winner of the $500,000 Lane's End Stakes (Grade II), firmly on the road to the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum! Brands (I) on Saturday, May 5.

Trainer J. Larry Jones brought the 3-year-old son of Danzig from Keeneland to Churchill Downs for the work that he said would determine whether Hard Spun would continue to be pointed toward the Kentucky Derby. The colt responded with a sharp effort in which he covered five furlongs in 1:00.20 under jockey Larry Melancon. The work tied as the fastest of 15 at the distance over a surface that was rated "fast," but did not yield a significant number of rapid workout times throughout the morning.

After he watched Hard Spun cool out for a few minutes following the work, Jones told reporters that the colt's next start would come in the $2 million-guaranteed Kentucky Derby.

"He went over the track very nice and came back very fresh afterwards," said Jones. "That was going to be our determining key, just to see how much it took out of him having to fight the track and there apparently was no fight to it. He just kind of skipped across it, which is great."

Churchill Downs clockers caught Hard Spun in fractions of :12.40, :23.80, :35.40 and :47.60. He galloped out six furlongs in 1:13.60.

The trainer's concern over how Hard Spun might handle the dirt surface at Churchill Downs arose from his fourth-place finish in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the only setback in the colt's six career starts. Hard Spun rebounded with an authoritative 3 ¼-length victory in the Lane's End Stakes in his next race, an effort that came over the synthetic Polytrack racing surface at Florence, Ky.'s Turfway Park. But Jones liked what he saw from the moment Hard Spun took his first step onto the one-mile oval at Churchill Downs on Thursday.

"This is the way he handled (the dirt track) at the Fair Grounds - I saw the same type movement I saw at the Fair Grounds," said Jones. "I just didn't see that at Oaklawn. But, boy, this was good."

Now Jones, a native of Hopkinsville, Ky. who has never saddled a starter in the Kentucky Derby, will focus on preparing Hard Spun for the demanding 1 ¼-miles of the Kentucky Derby off of six weeks rest between races. Hard Spun scored his victory in the Lanes End Stakes on March 24.

"Now I've got three weeks to really get the jitters, because up to now it [the Derby] was just kind of a dream - now it can feel like a reality," Jones said. "It could be long three weeks for me. I've been told that I have a lot of school friends that would want to call me, and stuff like that now. But it's just a dream come true, and at least we're going into it happy. I'd always said that I'd love to run in the Derby or be in the Derby, but I didn't want to be there unless I felt I belonged. I didn't just want to ‘fill' the race. I've filled enough at Churchill in the cheap races - I don't want to fill in the Kentucky Derby. It could still happen, but at least we feel like going in that we have our t's crossed and our i's dotted, and we like what we've seen."

Jones praised Rick Porter, the owner of Fox Hill Farm, for his display of patience while his trainer considered whether the colt was equipped to run in the Kentucky Derby.

"I don't want anybody to think that I'm saying Oaklawn is a bad track - I just won a stakes down there yesterday and I've got some horses that love that track," Jones said. "But this horse didn't - he just needed a change of venue. Thank goodness Mr. Porter allowed it to happen. I can't believe how great he's been to wait until the last minute, because everybody's got to have ‘Derby Fever' - it just happens. And he was okay. If we had to miss the Derby and it was in the best interest of his horse, he was great with it. It's hard to find owners like that, that would put that kind of money into it and then be willing to let some green country boy call the shots like that."

Hard Spun took a van ride back to Keeneland following the workout and Jones said he would return to Churchill Downs a few days before the Kentucky Derby.

"He will probably have a mile work at Keeneland, I'd like to say sometime around next weekend," Jones said. "By training into it [the Derby] and having six weeks between races, he's going to need something a little bit stiff - but we don't want a knockout punch. We're hoping to get something to build on instead of tearing down. Then he'll come back here (to Churchill Downs) for his final work. I always felt that the horses in the Derby need that last work over the Derby track, so we're going to do that. It could range anywhere from the Sunday before the Derby to the Tuesday before the Derby, just depending on weather."

Jones said Hard Spun would remain at Churchill Downs following that final work during Derby Week.

Although Jones has never trained a Kentucky Derby starter, he did saddle Island Sand to finish second to champion Ashado in the 2004 Kentucky Oaks (GI).