Syndergaard will be an overwhelming favorite in the $100,000 William Walker Stakes when Churchill Downs opens its 39-day spring meet Saturday with an 11-race Downs After Dark card that starts at 6 p.m. Eastern.

Syndergaard, with John Velazquez riding for trainer Todd Pletcher, was assigned post 1 in a field of seven 3-year-olds in the six-furlong William Walker, which goes as the ninth race (post, 10:11 p.m.).

After Saturday, Churchill will be dark Sunday and Monday before the five-day Derby week runs Tuesday through Saturday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Wayne Catalano tends to know only what he needs to know. Foremost among that knowledge is that Farrell is thriving as the 143rd Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs nears. All else is superfluous.

“How many fillies have I run in the Oaks before?” Catalano asked, repeating a question asked of him. “I don’t know, two or three? I usually just remember the ones we win, like our three Breeders’ Cups and some of our other Grade 1s.”

Dark Nile, the winner of last year’s Delaware Oaks, will make her first start since August in the $100,000 Foxy J. G. Stakes at Parx Racing on Saturday.

The Foxy J. G. and the $100,000 Lyman Stakes, for 3-year-olds and up, are the first stakes of the year at Parx. The races, for Pennsylvania-breds at seven furlongs, came up especially strong this year.

Page McKenney will make his first start in 10 weeks in the Lyman. He bruised a heel while training in March.

Golden Gate Fields hosts its biggest weekend of the year Saturday and Sunday when it runs a trio of turf stakes – the Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile on Saturday and a pair of $100,000 races Sunday, the Campanile for 3-year-old fillies and the Silky Sullivan for 3-year-olds.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Robertino Diodoro has had success in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, and Minnesota. Now, he has his sights set on New York, where he has set up shop with 22 horses for the Belmont Park spring/summer meet that begins Friday.

“New York’s always been on the bucket list,” Diodoro said by phone from the Ocala Breeders’ Sales auction in Florida. “I’ve got some newer clients, and some older clients stepped up to the plate to make it possible to come there. I’m hoping and I’m thinking we have the right group of horses. Time will tell.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine Entertainment Group has unveiled the master plan for the Woodbine Racetrack property, in the northwest corner of Toronto.

According to a Tuesday release, the 684-acre site will continue to offer horse racing and gaming, while integrating new expanded entertainment and cultural offerings, food and dining, shopping, office space, post-secondary education, recreation, health, wellness, and housing.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Multiplier’s first try against other winners produced a graded-stakes victory when the colt gamely captured the Grade 3, $250,000 Illinois Derby on Saturday at Hawthorne Race Course. Multiplier rejoined trainer Brendan Walsh’s string at Keeneland on Sunday, and Walsh was pleased with the horse he saw return to Kentucky from Chicago.

“He looks like he came out of it pretty good,” Walsh said. “He’s so laid-back, he just takes everything in stride.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – Irad Ortiz Jr. won four races on the first day of the Aqueduct spring meet and kept winning in bunches, taking his first spring riding title with 30 victories, more than double that of runner-up Rajiv Maragh (14).

It was the first Aqueduct spring riding title for Ortiz, who had finished second the last three years, twice to his brother, Jose; Jose this spring rode primarily at Gulfstream and Keeneland.

Rounding out the Aqueduct top five were Angel Arroyo (12), Manny Franco (11), and Cornelio Velasquez (10).

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Junior Alvarado will miss the start of the Belmont Park spring/summer meet after he was involved in a spill Sunday at Aqueduct.

Alvarado landed on his left shoulder when his mount in the fifth race, Flatterfly, broke down at the three-sixteenths pole of the seven-furlong dirt race. Flatterfly, a 3-year-old daughter of Flatter trained by Gary Contessa, had to be euthanized after fracturing her right front ankle.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Luis Saez, the leading jockey at the four-month championship meet at Gulfstream Park this winter, is serving a pair of three-day suspensions stemming from recent riding infractions at Keeneland.

Saez took off his Sunday mounts at Keeneland and will be off Wednesday and Thursday. After riding the opening-day card Friday at Belmont Park, he then will be off April 29, May 2, and May 3. He then will resume riding May 4 in time for the big Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill.