ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Nothing went right for Mansetti from the start when he looked live in the Queenston Stakes. He deserves a mulligan when stretching out to 1 1/16 miles in Saturday’s Grade 3 Marine, one of two $150,000 stakes for 3-year-olds on the holiday card at Woodbine, along with the Grade 3 Selene for fillies.

Chuckanut Bay may have finally made a believer out of his trainer, Howie Gibson.

On May 10, the 5-year-old gelding sped to a front-running, two-length victory in an $8,000 claiming race at Emerald Downs, earning a career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure. In against tougher company at the $25,000 claiming level on June 7, Chuckanut Bay turned in a near duplicate of that race, again winning by two lengths and earning an 85 Beyer.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Last year’s popular King’s Plate winner Caitlinhergrtness ran to her name when winning her season debut decisively in the Grade 3 Belle Mahone. The powerful chestnut will try to land her first Grade 2 fixture in Saturday’s $175,000 Nassau, a one-mile main turf route for females.

Plenty of fairy tales unfold every spring at Churchill Downs, and one of the best this meet has been Mercante, a gelding who returned from a long layoff under trainer Brian Knippenberg’s care to become a multiple graded stakes winner. He has enjoyed an outstanding run at Churchill, just missing in the Grade 1 Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard before winning the Grade 3 Arlington Stakes on May 31.

The calm before the storm at Churchill Downs is an 11-race Friday card which sets the table for the closing two days of the meet, with 11 stakes between the Saturday and Sunday cards. There will be no storm on Friday – and no mercy from the heat wave that has blanketed Kentucky, with first post of 12:45 p.m. and highs in the 90s.

Trainer Joe Orseno hopes the post Sticky McShnickens drew for Friday’s ninth race at Gulfstream will be a game changer.

He will start from the widest post in the field of eight for the first-level allowance for Florida-breds at five furlongs on turf. One race prior, Sticky McShnickens was beaten a head at this level after breaking from an inside gate and setting the pace.

Mark Casse has always considered 3-year-old colt Dream On a turf superstar-in-waiting. He’ll have another chance to prove it when the rescheduled Penn Mile is finally run at Penn National on Friday evening. The race and its supporting stakes were originally carded for May 30 but have twice been delayed by rainy conditions in the Grantville, Pa., area.

The stars will be out early on Friday’s nine-race program at Aqueduct, which kicks off with a pair of high-level allowance races, each of which have lured graded stakes-caliber fields.

The opener is for fillies and mares going 1 3/8 miles on the grass. The second will be decided at a mile over the main track and features the return of last year’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup winner Highland Falls, who has been idle since finishing a distant ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 2.

Booth and jockey Erik Asmussen have formed a special bond, and the young guns will be in action Saturday at Churchill Downs in pursuit of their fifth consecutive stakes win together in the Grade 3, $250,000 Kelly’s Landing.

Asmussen will be traveling in from his Lone Star Park base to reunite with his signature mount – and one of his best equine friends. The pair last teamed up on May 17 at Pimlico, where they won the Grade 3 Maryland Sprint.