Etc. . . .

Good Night Shirt, the two-time steeplechase champion, will make his first start of 2009 Saturday in the Carolina First Carolina Cup at Springdale Race Course in Camden, S.C. Among his four opponents will be Preemptive Strike, whom he defeated by a neck in last year's Colonial Cup . . . . Jockey Vladimir Diaz won his 1,000th race on Wednesday aboard Haunted Hot Spot ($27.60) in the ninth race at Penn National. . . . The annual Belmont Bash, hosted by the New York Racing Association and The Jockey Club, will be held June 4 at The Clubhouse at Meadowbrook Pointe in Westbury, N.Y. Tickets are $250 per person, with proceeds to benefit Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, New York division. . . . The Pan American Stakes, taken off the turf and run on the main track at Gulfstream Park on March 21, has had its Grade 3 status reinstated by the American Graded Stakes Committee. Buddy's Humor won the race. . . . Keeneland Race Course will begin programs at its spring meet five minutes earlier than before. The new 1:05 p.m. Eastern post is designed to stagger its races at 30-minute intervals more effectively for simulcast fans also playing races at Gulfstream Park and Aqueduct.