Having seen the dominating performance by Fusaichi Pegasus in Saturday's 126th Kentucky Derby, few trainers are willing to go up against him in the second leg of the Triple Crown, the May 20 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, preferring instead to wait until the Belmont Stakes on June 10, or get off the Triple Crown trail altogether.

The Preakness field could be the smallest since 1986, when Snow Chief prevailed in a field of seven. Fusaichi Pegasus, the 2-1 favorite in the Derby, figures to be the first odds-on favorite in the Preakness since Easy Goer, who was 3-5 in 1989.

Fusaichi Pegasus had a quiet Sunday and Monday at Churchill Downs, merely walking around the shed row, standard procedure for a horse after a race. Neil Drysdale, the trainer of Fusaichi Pegasus, returned to California on Sunday to oversee his main string at Hollywood Park, and was scheduled to fly back to Kentucky on Tuesday. Enrique Larios, Drysdale's foreman, and Manuel Flores, the groom of Fusaichi Pegasus, remained in Kentucky with the colt.

Drysdale said he anticipated training Fusaichi Pegasus for the Preakness in a similar way as before the Derby. Fusaichi Pegasus trotted most mornings, then graduated to trotting and galloping as race day neared. Drysdale had not come up with a definitive timetable on when Fusaichi Pegasus would head to Baltimore. He said he could wait until next Wednesday, when a regularly scheduled Tex Sutton charter is slated to fly a number of horses from Louisville to Baltimore for the Preakness weekend stakes races.

Of the 18 horses whom Fusaichi Pegasus defeated at Churchill Downs, only two - Hal's Hope and High Yield - as of Monday were considered definite starters in the Preakness. Red Bullet and Snuck In, who passed the Derby, are jumping in for the Preakness. Several other top 3-year-olds, such as Captain Steve, More Than Ready, and Sun Cat, are on the fence, and a decision on their Preakness status will not be made until the weekend.

Hal's Hope and High Yield will ship to Pimlico this week. Hal's Hope came out of the Kentucky Derby with a cut on the back of his right front hoof, which jockey Roger Velez theorized occurred coming out of the gate. High Yield is part of a large shipment of horses his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, will run at Pimlico over the next two weeks, including Cat Thief, who is in Saturday's $750,000 Pimlico Special for older horses.

Red Bullet will go to Pimlico either late Wednesday or early Thursday and work there on Saturday morning, according to his trainer, Joe Orseno. There is a possibility Orseno will make a jockey change on Red Bullet. Alex Solis, who rode Red Bullet last time out to a second-place finish in the Wood Memorial, also rides Aptitude. Orseno said he wants a rider who can commit to both the Preakness and Belmont. Solis rides extensively for Aptitude's trainer, Bobby Frankel.

One of Orseno's possible choices could be Jerry Bailey, assuming War Chant does not go on to the Preakness. Drysdale, who also trains War Chant, said on Monday he needed to discuss the situation with co-owner Irv Cowan, but said he hoped to bring War Chant back to California and point him for turf racing this summer. "I think the Arlington Million would be a great race to shoot for," Drysdale said. If, as expected, War Chant comes home, Bailey would then come open.

Orseno said he had no second thoughts about Red Bullet bypassing the Derby, and was looking forward to trying to knock off Fusaichi Pegasus in the Preakness.

"It was probably one of the better decisions an outfit could have made as far as managing a horse," Orseno said of skipping the Derby. "I thought Pegasus was impressive, but I also thought he had a perfect trip. For a 19-horse field, it couldn't have unfolded any better for him.

"As far as anybody sitting in the garden seat with a chance to upset that horse, I think it's us," he added.

Snuck In, who was second in the Arkansas Derby last time out, is going to the Preakness because "it's the best possible fit," said his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

Bob Baffert said he was going to "wait until the weekend, then make the call" regarding Captain Steve. "He's going to have to really be doing good to tackle that s.o.b. again," the trainer said.

Impeachment and More Than Ready, the Todd Pletcher trainees who ran third and fourth, are "not on the likely category," Pletcher said. Pletcher was leaning toward running Impeachment in the Belmont, with a possible prep in the Peter Pan Stakes on May 27 at Belmont. He said if More Than Ready passes the Preakness, he will be freshened, with a main goal the Haskell Invitational in August at Monmouth Park. "We've got a lot of options with both," Pletcher said.

Aptitude, the Derby runner-up, and Wheelaway, who finished fifth, are going to bypass the Preakness and await the Belmont. But horses such as Anees, who emerged from the race with filling in an ankle, and The Deputy are returning to California. Their trainers want to give their colts a brief freshening, and they have also seen enough of Fusaichi Pegasus.

"I've never seen a Derby winner win like that," said Alex Hassinger Jr., the trainer of Anees. "I think he's a freak. I don't know why you'd want to run against him, right now."

The Deputy has run his last dirt race for the foreseeable future after finishing 14th in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Jenine Sahadi said Sunday. He will return to California and likely resume a career on the turf. Sahadi mentioned the $300,000 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 10 as a long-term goal.

"This is not the end of the world," Sahadi said. "I've got an excellent grass horse and I'll have fun with him for the next couple of years."

- additional reporting by David Grening and Marty McGee.