LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After getting short fields for its first three runnings, which came at six furlongs over dirt, the $100,000 William Walker Stakes should be a far more attractive race for bettors when it helps open the Churchill spring meet Saturday night. The Walker now goes at five furlongs on turf.

Masked, in off a pair of wins down the hillside turf course at Santa Anita for Bob Baffert, figures among the favorites, along with Salmanazar, who was a two-back winner of the Texas Glitter at Gulfstream Park for Todd Pletcher. A field of 10 3-year-olds has been entered.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If Always Dreaming and Abel Tasman both race as scheduled next Friday, it will mark the first time in recent history that a Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks winner have both run back at Churchill the following year on Derby weekend.

Always Dreaming is slated to go in the Grade 2 Alysheba and Abel Tasman in the Grade 1 La Troienne. Churchill archives do not date back far enough to determine the last time for such a double reprise, if in fact it has ever happened.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With entries due Monday, the final couple of spots in the Kentucky Oaks starting gate are still undecided, with the statuses of Amy’s Challenge and Red Ruby being key dominoes in how things will eventually fall into place.

Amy’s Challenge, most recently third in the April 13 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park for Novogratz Racing Stables, was scheduled to ship to Churchill Downs no later than Friday after breezing an easy half-mile in about 50 seconds Tuesday at Oaklawn, trainer Mac Robertson said Wednesday by phone.

Two-time Grade 1 winner Divisidero is on the verge of beginning his 6-year-old season, but trainer Kelly Rubley and owner Tom Keithly are still discussing whether he will attempt to keep his Kentucky Derby Day win streak at Churchill Downs intact.

Divisidero has won the last two runnings of the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on Derby Day at Churchill. As a 3-year-old, Divisidero won the Grade 2 American Turf on the Kentucky Derby card.

Sunday will be Sam Elliott’s final day as director of racing at Parx. On Tuesday, he will begin a new phase of his career as the chief executive of the Royal Saint Lucia Turf Club, an under-construction racetrack scheduled to open in the eastern Caribbean in 2019.

Elliott, who has been at Parx Racing a little more than three years, is taking a leap of faith that the project will succeed. He has yet to visit Saint Lucia, a 35-mile-long island nation northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique that is much closer to Venezuela than the United States.

ELMONT, N.Y. – While the three major components of a redevelopment project at Belmont Park remain the same, the location of two of them has changed.

Indiana Grand was forced to cancel its Tuesday program after two races because of inclement weather.

The program began with a sloppy, sealed track before more rain fell and triggered the cancellation before the third race. Racing is scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Belterra Park begins its live racing season this week with some of the best Thoroughbreds in Ohio, and then looks ahead the following weekend to a regional celebration of the Kentucky Derby.

Thursday is opening night of the 2018 race meet at Prairie Meadows, and this time of year meet openings are about a dime a dozen in the Midwest.

Hawthorne in Chicago started up in March, and Arlington begins its meet May 4. Indiana Grand just opened last week, and Ohio racing moves to Belterra this week. To the north, Canterbury Park is set for its own opening next week as the Kentucky circuit shifts from the Keeneland boutique to Churchill next week.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The unpredictable spring weather at Churchill Downs that has prompted the connections of many of the top contenders for this year’s Kentucky Derby to complete most if not all of their final preparations for the race at home reared its ugly head on Monday. Moderate to heavy morning rain turned the main track to a sea of slop from the time the course opened for training at 5:15 a.m.