Informed Decision returns in Vinery Madison

Informed Decision, winner of the 2009 Eclipse Award for top female sprinter, will make her seasonal debut Thursday at Keeneland in the Grade 1, $300,000 Vinery Madison Stakes, a seven-furlong race she won last year at 4.

Informed Decision, who has not raced since winning the Nov. 6 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, will have Julien Leparoux aboard when she breaks from the outside post in a field of six fillies and mares. Witty, undefeated in four starts, and Dubai Majesty, an earner of more than $550,000, look like the top challengers.

Some 30 minutes before the Madison, Nicanor will make his 4-year-old debut with Leparoux aboard in the seventh race, a second-level turf allowance for older horses. Nicanor is a full brother to 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro.

Colt named for injured jockey entered

Our Douglas, a colt named in honor of injured jockey Rene Douglas, will make his 3-year-old debut in the fifth race Wednesday, a first-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

Denis Savard, the Hall of Fame hockey player who retired in 1997 after 17 NHL seasons, most of them with the Chicago Blackhawks, heads the partnership that owns Our Douglas. Savard is close friends with Douglas, who was paralyzed last May in a spill at Arlington Park near Chicago.

Douglas, 43, rode nearly 3,600 winners and was most closely identified as the perennial leading rider at Arlington, but he also had considerable success elsewhere, including in California, Florida, and Kentucky. At Keeneland, Douglas won seven stakes, most notably the Grade 1 Ashland in 2003 and 2007.

* There is a carryover of $14,189 into the super high five on the last race Wednesday, while the pick six was hit Saturday.