BALTIMORE, Md. – The iconic late broadcaster Jim McKay was born in Pennsylvania, but moved to Maryland as a teenager, built his career here, and considered it his home. McKay’s coverage of racing began in 1947 with reporting from Pimlico Race Course, the first live television broadcast in Baltimore. McKay, who became a Thoroughbred owner and breeder himself, was a champion of racing in his adopted home state, including an instrumental role in conceiving and launching the Maryland Million, which now carries his name.

Canterbury Park opens Saturday night with a number of new stables, a key addition to its wagering format, and plans to roll out a fresh sprint distance in July.

Canterbury is set for a 54-date meet through Sept. 28. The season is starting about a week earlier than last year and ending two weeks later. Canterbury will generally race Thursday and Saturday nights, and at 1 p.m. Central on Sundays.

Trainer Ignacio Correas IV on Wednesday posed the question anyone with a turf horse in the Louisville Stakes is asking.

“Will we run on the grass?”

Correas entered the rising 4-year-old Utah Beach in the $250,000 Louisville, carded for 1 1/2 miles on turf, the seventh of 11 races on a Saturday night program at Churchill Downs. Eleven were entered, four trained by the king of the American long-distance male turf division, Mike Maker.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Last year’s Canadian champion 2-year-old filly Witwatersrand will try to get back on the beam against five other 3-year-old fillies in Saturday’s $100,000 Ruling Angel Stakes going seven furlongs at Woodbine.

Victorious in the Grade 3 Mazarine in November, Witwatersrand started twice in Florida during the winter. She was a well-beaten sixth in the Grade 3 Forward Gal on Feb. 3 at Gulfstream and a trailing 11th in the Grade 3 Florida Oaks on March 9 at Tampa.

Lloyds Logic is the horse to beat in the Preakness Day allowance feature at Emerald Downs. Although unable to win as a 3-year-old, Lloyds Logic figures a tough customer when making his 2024 bow going six furlongs for trainer Tom Wenzel.

Pioneering Spirit will have recency over key rivals Grand Sonata, Turf King, and Kalik on Friday when he makes the third start of his form cycle in the eighth race at the Belmont at Aqueduct meet.

The conditioned allowance will be run at a mile on the inner turf and carries an optional claiming price of $80,000. A field of 13 was entered, with 10 in the body of the race and Laughing Boy on the also-eligible list. The two main-track only entrants are Sheriff Bianco and Synthesis.

BALTIMORE – Grade 2-placed Kaufymaker makes her seasonal debut Friday at Pimlico in the $100,000 The Very One Stakes for fillies and mares racing five furlongs on turf.

Trained by Wesley Ward, Kaufymaker was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar in 2021, but has only started five times since, winning three of them. She faced males in her final race last year and finished ninth in the Grade 2 Woodford at Keeneland.

BALTIMORE – Kingsbarns, winner of last year’s Grade 2 Louisiana Derby and perfect from two starts as a 4-year-old, is the 7-5 morning-line favorite in Friday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Pimlico Special for 3-year-olds and up racing 1 3/16 miles.

BALTIMORE – In the fourth start of her 4-year-old season, Shotgun Hottie won the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park before coming back six weeks later to win the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher, also at Monmouth.

Friday, Shotgun Hottie makes the fourth start of her 5-year-old campaign in the $100,000 Allaire duPont Distaff at Pimlico, a race her connections are hoping to use to get back to the Molly Pitcher later this summer.

In the duPont, at 1 1/8 miles, Shotgun Hottie takes on seven rivals, two of whom are riding five-race winning streaks against lesser competition.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The first time Themanupfront and Live High Live Low faced each other, as maidens during the Gulfstream Park Championship meet, it was no contest. Themanupfront registered a wire-to-wire, three-quarter-length victory with Live High Live Low a non-threatening eighth after a somewhat eventful trip.