LOUISVILLE – Except for some routine gallops, Lemon Drop Kid, a member of the mutuel field, was the only horse out on the track at Churchill Downs yesterday morning working out for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby.

Winner of last year’s Belmont Futurity but an unthreatening fifth in his last start, the Blue Grass Stakes, Lemon Drop Kid breezed a half-mile in a solid :48.1 over a muddy surface under Derby jockey Jose Santos. The Kingmambo colt went the first three furlongs in :36.

“Jose loved the way he went this morning,” said trainer Scotty Schulhofer, who’s run two horses in the Derby: Cryptoclearance, fourth in 1987, and Fly So Free, fifth in 1991. “This was just a little maintenance work. He’s progressing really well. He’s as good as I can get him right now and that might be enough.”

The only other Derby horses scheduled to work before the race are the Dubai brothers, Worldly Manner and Aljabr, who’ll blow out this morning after turning in pokey seven-furlong drills Sunday.

Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum, who bred Aljabr in Kentucky and purchased Worldly Manner for a reported $5 million late last year, is expected to be on hand for the workouts.

Trainer Dick Mandella said his lightly raced San Rafael winner Desert Hero will be asked for speed at the end of his morning gallops today and tomorrow.

“The next couple of days I’ll do a little something with him. Maybe a quarter (mile) down the lane. Just something to open him up. But he’s coming to this right.”