Girl Trouble will try to stay clear of trouble in Laurel Park’s $125,000 Weber City Miss for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.

The Weber City Miss is one of four stakes on the Saturday program, topped by the Federico Tesio for 3-year-olds. The other supporting stakes are the $100,000 Frank Y. Whiteley Stakes for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs and the $100,000 Heavenly Cause for fillies and mares at one mile.

The winner of the Weber City Miss receives an entry into the Grade 2, $300,000 Black-Eyed Susan on May 19 at Pimlico.

Longshot Mendelssohns March wasn’t good enough in the Blue Grass, mid-priced Slip Mahoney got wiped out on the first turn of the Wood, and Geaux Rocket Ride was scratched sick from the Santa Anita Derby. The three pushes in this space one week ago did not come through, but as they say lining up behind the betting windows, “That’s why God created the next race.”

Lexington

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Big Everest and Celestial City both went 2 for 2 with a stakes victory over Aqueduct’s turf course last fall. Saturday, both horses return off significant layoffs when they head a six-horse field of older horses entered to run one mile in the $100,000 Danger’s Hour Stakes at Aqueduct.

Big Everest, trained by Christophe Clement, may rate a slight edge over Celestial City because of distance and running style.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Great Navigator, who finished in front of Forte when second-best in the Grade 3 Sanford last summer at Saratoga, will find the competition a lot less imposing when taking on six other 3-year-olds in Saturday’s $51,000 allowance feature at Gulfstream Park.

Forte’s only defeat in seven career starts came as the 7-5 favorite in the six-furlong Sanford when he checked home fourth, 5 3/4 lengths behind race winner Mo Strike and 2 1/4 lengths in back of Great Navigator.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mage, runner-up despite a slow start and wide trip in the Grade 1 Florida Derby, will have the first of his three scheduled pre-Kentucky Derby workouts at Gulfstream Park this weekend, assistant trainer Gustavo Delgado Jr. said Thursday.

It’s easy to root for Coffeewithchris, a $2,000 yearling that dances every dance.

Coffeewithchris might earn a trip to the Preakness in Saturday’s $125,000 Federico Tesio Stakes for 3-year-olds at Laurel Park. The winner of the 1 1/8-mile Tesio automatically receives a Preakness entry if the horse is nominated to the Triple Crown, and trainer John Salzman Jr. said “if he wins it [Tesio], then I’m probably going to look at the Preakness.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Next stop, Louisville. Another long series of Kentucky Derby preps will make its traditional final stop Saturday when the Grade 3, $400,000 Lexington Stakes is run for the 41st time at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Oeuvre and Opening Buzz have both already found the winner’s circle multiple times in stakes in 2023. They meet in an overflow field full of other stakes winners in Saturday’s $250,000 Giant’s Causeway, a 5 1/2-furlong stakes for fillies and mares on the Keeneland turf.

Oeuvre’s record is a model of consistency. The 4-year-old Illinois-bred, who races as a homebred for Richard Perkins, has won five straight races and nine of her last 10 outings. Overall, her career mark stands at 16-10-3-2.

AINTREE, England – Finding the winner of the Grand National, the world’s most famous horse race not run in Kentucky, requires creative handicapping, ample homework, and a hefty dose of good luck.

A field of 40 will assemble, without a starting gate, at 12:15 p.m. Eastern at Aintree Racecourse north of Liverpool on Saturday for a start always hectic and sometimes chaotic.

Once underway, the massive herd of 7-year-olds and up will set off on two circuits of the famous race that covers 4 5/16 miles and 30 stamina-testing obstacles.

PHOENIX – A brutally difficult Wildcat Stakes at Turf Paradise matches a dozen runners at 1 3/8 miles on the turf. Most of the runners, 3-year-olds and upward, have been knocking heads and taking turns, and the form of Southern California invader Luvluv only adds to the confusion.