LEXINGTON, Ky. – Hades and Encino will make a final try to get into the Kentucky Derby on Saturday in the Grade 3, $400,000 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland.

Dance Card, the dam of champion Cody’s Wish, was named Kentucky’s broodmare of the year as the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders (KTOB) presented its seasonal awards at a ceremony Wednesday night in Lexington, Ky.

Dance Card, a Tapit mare bred in Kentucky by Bruce McMillin, was a $750,000 purchase by Godolphin out of the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Florida selected 2-year-olds in training sale. She went on to have a fine racing career, putting together a 7-4-1-2 record with earnings of $502,200.

AINTREE, England – This may take a little while.

The Grand National, one of the world’s most famous races, will be run at Aintree Racecourse on Saturday at a distance of about 4 1/4 miles on what is likely to be heavy turf.

Not only is the race run at a grueling distance over much tougher fences than a typical steeplechase, but the condition of the course will reduce a starting field of 34 to likely less than 10 finishers at the end of a race expected to take nearly 10 minutes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field full of 3-year-olds on the improve and a second race with 3-year-olds taking on older rivals for the first time should give handicappers plenty to ponder on Friday’s eight-race program at Gulfstream Park.

The Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico is one of a couple of next start options for Recharge, winner of the $250,000 Sunland Park Oaks, according to trainer Steve Asmussen.

Recharge, a daughter of Gun Runner, is 3 for 4 for breeder Winchell Thoroughbreds. She is coming off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2, $750,000 Fantasy on March 30 at Oaklawn for which she earned a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 77.

Whelen Springs, who won last year’s Grade 3 Philip Iselin at Monmouth Park, will be honored as the 2023 Arkansas-bred of the Year during a Friday night banquet at the Oaklawn Event Center, said Deana Echols, executive secretary of the Arkansas Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Horsemen’s Association.

Track Mate will get a chance at Grade 1 company after winning back-to-back allowances in his last two starts at Oaklawn. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Monday that Track Mate is being pointed for the Grade 1, $1 million Churchill Downs at seven furlongs May 4.

Track Mate popped a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 100 for a two-other-than allowance win at six furlongs April 5. The Calumet Farm homebred is a son of Union Rags and from the female family of War Front.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Todd Fincher was on the road again Monday, hauling Perfect Dude from New Mexico to Oaklawn Park for Saturday’s Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap.

The trip comes on top of back-to-back flights to the Middle East, where Fincher saddled Senor Buscador to win the $20 million Saudi Cup in February and run third in the $12 million Dubai World Cup in March.

And next month, Fincher will be bringing a division of horses to Southern California, basing at San Luis Rey Downs Training Center.

Dornoch may be the actual 3-year-old brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage. On paper, Just a Touch is Mage’s brother from another mother.

When Mage won last year’s Kentucky Derby, he did so in just his fourth career start, joining Justify (2018) and Big Brown (2008) as the only horses to do that since the filly Regret in 1915.

This year, Just a Touch, Catalytic, and Deterministic – in the unlikely event he starts – have made just three starts in front of Kentucky Derby 150. The Japanese-based horse T O Password will bring just two starts into the Kentucky Derby.

The Irish-bred Master of The Seas is based in England during the summer and Dubai during the winter, but it’s in North America that he has made his mark.

Master of The Seas showed up last September in Canada and dominated the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, and it took an awesome stretch run from America’s best grass horse of 2023, Up to the Mark, to beat Master of The Seas a nose last October at Keeneland in the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile. Master of The Seas roared back a month later and won the Breeders’ Cup Mile.