LOUISVILLE, Ky. – While White Abarrio and Sovereignty prepare for their second meeting in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster here in two months, trainers Saffie Joseph Jr. and Bill Mott will send out two of their other high-profile older horses when Skippylongstocking and Baeza meet in Friday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Brendan Walsh knows what a Kentucky Oaks winner looks like. For three seasons he had champion Pretty Mischievous, winner of the 2023 filly classic, in his barn, and knew her every detail. He likes what he’s seen from Bella Ballerina as she prepares for the 2026 Oaks.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 152nd edition of the Grade 1, $1.5 million Kentucky Oaks will take less than two minutes to run beneath the lights Friday night at Churchill Downs. But it takes more than those two minutes to win the 1 1/8-mile Oaks.

Success on the big stage is the result of gaining experience in the trenches in carefully planned campaigns, as well as months of behind-the-scenes work by trainers and their staff to have each filly both physically and mentally ready for the challenge.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Shisospicy, the champion female sprinter of 2025, makes her delayed return to the races Friday at Churchill Downs, but the Grade 2, $500,000 Unbridled Sidney Stakes is no soft-landing spot.

The multiple graded winner and defending Unbridled Sidney winner Queen Maxima heads the eight challengers Shisospicy will have to contend with in the 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint stakes.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – One year ago, Drexel Hill and Bless the Broken finished second and third in the Kentucky Oaks, and on Friday, in the La Troienne Stakes, they meet for the first time since that race.

Yet it’s a horse who ran seven hours before the Oaks, in the card’s first race, that was installed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the Grade 1, $1 million La Troienne.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A sixteenth of a mile isn’t that far, just 330 feet. It’s the difference between the one-mile Appalachian Stakes four weeks ago at Keeneland and Friday’s 1 1/16-mile Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs, where Imaginationthelady will need just a little more than two feet to close the gap between Storm’s Wake and her from the Appalachian.

Sabian seems to have discovered a knack for turf later in his career and trainer Victor Barboza Jr. hopes to take advantage in the eighth race at Gulfstream Park on Friday, a first-level statebred allowance at five furlongs. The 5-year-old gelding will break from the far outside post in the field of nine.

“He has a strong chance because he ran very well in his first time on turf,” Barboza said. “The position is good, he has experience [toward the outside]. I think it’s a good option.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There will be a changing of the guards Friday in the $200,000 Lake Hamilton at Oaklawn Park.

“Whoever wins this race will be the first not named Skelly,” quipped Staton Flurry, co-owner of leading contender Zero Sugar.

With the eyes of the Thoroughbred world on Louisville this week, spring begins for another racetrack near the Ohio River as well.

Belterra Park in Cincinnati – across the river and less than two hours from Churchill Downs by highway – begins its live racing season Friday. Belterra will run 100 live racing dates in 2026, generally on a Wednesday-Saturday schedule.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.– They don’t have the numbers or typically spend the type of money that seemingly would make them consistent participants in the Triple Crown. Yet, three years after upsetting the Kentucky Derby with Mage, the Delgado family is back to take another run at the world’s most famous horse race, their fourth time going for the roses.