Ready Set simply was not ready by the first Saturday in May. Nicanor is not ready for much yet, but May 2009 is quite a long time away in the life of a young horse.

Ready Set will be entered today for Monday's $1 million Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park. Nicanor is just about to return to galloping, after a very minor setback in his training.

Roy and Gretchen Jackson bought Ready Set for $800,000 in September 2006, 4 months after their Barbaro won the Derby and then shattered his right hind leg in the Preakness.

Nicanor was born that same spring when Barbaro ran into racing history in Kentucky and into the public consciousness in Maryland. Nicanor was the next foxhound on that now famous portrait in the Jacksons' Chester County home. That was the name they chose for Barbaro's full brother.

The Jacksons typically have not spent much money at the sales. They bred Barbaro and Nicanor. That cost the stud fee for Dynaformer. So, why $800,000 for Ready Set?

"Good question," Gretchen Jackson said. "A moment of insanity. We lost it."

Ready Set, Gretchen said, "does have a good page," as in pedigree. By 1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold out of a mare by two-time Arc de Triomphe winner Alleged, Ready Set certainly had the bloodlines to be a star. Horses, like human beings, often develop at their own pace.

Ready Set was 97-1 when he finished 10th in the roughly run Fountain of Youth Stakes in February. That ended any Derby thoughts, but not thoughts that this colt has talent.

"We always thought he had plenty of ability," Matz said. "He worked together with Visionaire all the time. And I didn't know who was the better one."

Visionaire won Saturday's King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga, giving Matz his first Grade I win since Barbaro won the Derby.

Ready Set is less than a length from being unbeaten in four races since May. The colt broke through with a win in the Aug. 2 West Virginia Derby and has earned $596,040, so the $800,000 is no longer looking so insane.

The Pa. Derby will not be easy, because it almost certainly will have a full field of 14.

"I'd love to win it," Gretchen said. "I'd like to win anything."

Ready Set looks as if he is running in slow motion. After 11 races, the colt still is far from a finished product.

"Hopefully, the light will go on when he comes around the turn into the stretch," Gretchen said.

The colt's best might not come until 2009.

"I don't want to say he's not smart," Matz said. "He can get distracted in the littlest of ways . . . Hopefully, by next year, he can be a nice handicap horse and become even better."

And if the 2-year-old Nicanor is as good as Matz hopes, 2009 could be a very good year.

"He was up to working a half a mile," Matz said. "He got a little body sore, so we backed off a little bit, and we're just jogging him through the woods. He looks like he's about ready to get back to galloping again."

If all goes well, Nicanor could make his debut in October.

"I don't even want to think about that," Gretchen said, knowing the emotions will come flowing back when Barbaro's brother does make his first start.

Matz is not prone to brash statements, so when asked whether he had seen enough to tell what kind of racehorse Nicanor might be, his simple statement was telling:

"He's nice."

Clearly, the trainer saw potential.

"Oh, yeah," Matz said. "He's worth taking the time for."

Barbaro's yearling full brother is in Kentucky and will head for Florida this fall. There was no foal this year as the mating did not take. Another full brother will be born in Kentucky next year.

Replicating Barbaro likely is not possible. But there is no way the Jacksons can't try.

"We're not going to let go of that one," Gretchen Jackson said. *