Hardest Core burst onto the national scene by upsetting the 2014 Arlington Million. But almost as quickly as he arrived, Hardest Core faded from view last year while making only a single start.

Now, at age 6, Hardest Core is only weeks away from making his return to the races for trainer Eddie Graham. Last Sunday, Graham vanned Hardest Core from the Chester County, Pa., farm of owners Gregory and Caroline Bentley and their son Andrew to Fair Hill in northern Maryland, where he breezed five furlongs in 1:02 over the training center’s Tapeta surface.

Trainer Billy Morey will ask the consistent sprinter Midnight Ming to try both turf and two turns for the first time in Sunday’s $100,000 Silky Sullivan for 3-year-old California-breds going a mile. Also on Sunday, 3-year-old California-bred fillies go a mile on turf in the $100,000 Campanile.

Midnight Ming is one of eight nominees who would be making their turf debut in the Silky Sullivan. The other five nominees have only one start each on turf. The Phil D’Amato-trained Tough It Out is the only turf winner and stakes winner among the nominees.

There may be no superstars among the 27 runners nominated for Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile, but there will be plenty of familiar faces in the one-mile turf race.

Pepper Crown and G. G. Ryder, winners of the last two editions, will be back. Among their expected opponents are the much-improved Doc’s Legacy, who has won six of his last nine starts, including his last two, and Alert Bay.

There’s lots of money to be made at Golden Gate Fields this weekend, and not just because there will be a trio of $100,000 stakes races. Big bucks are on the line for bettors on Friday, when the Golden Pick 6 jackpot starts the day with a $453,398 carryover.

The jackpot is paid out when there is only one ticket with all six winners. It has been 33 race days since the last Golden Pick 6 payout.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Gerald Bennett’s training career hit its peak in 1990, when the best horse he’s ever trained, Beau Genius, won the Grade 1 Philip H. Iselin Handicap at Monmouth Park on his way to $1.06 million in career earnings. Over a career spanning more than 40 years, Bennett has rarely had that kind of firepower in his barn, but that hasn’t stopped him from piling up the wins.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs officials unveiled the latest renovation to their flagship facility when some $18 million in upgrades were presented Tuesday to the media.

The project includes a new Turf Club, Stakes Room, balconies, and box-seating areas that oversee the finish line from the third and fourth floors of the clubhouse. Construction began after the 2015 fall meet, and finishing touches were still being applied this week in time for the opening of the 2016 spring meet Saturday night, with the Kentucky Oaks and Derby set for the following weekend.

Former Woodbine Standardbred race caller Frank Salive is the new track announcer and television commentator at Fort Erie Racetrack, replacing Sugar Doyle, who was doing double duty last year at Western Fair and the Fort.  

The Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium, which operates the track, also announced on Monday that Fort Erie native Antonietta Petrella is the new manager of marketing and media relations. She replaces Elissa Blowe, who has taken a job with the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

Churchill Downs

Weather: Clear

Track: Fast

Temperature: 63

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Steve Asmussen had a very good morning on Monday. It began with his five potential Kentucky Oaks starters and two Kentucky Derby contenders turning in sharp works over a fast main track at Churchill Downs and ended several hours later with the announcement that he’d been elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With just three days left at the 16-day Keeneland spring meet, Corey Lanerie is in position to be the leading rider for the second straight meet. Lanerie enters Wednesday with 14 winners, one more than Javier Castellano, who rides the balance of the meet, and Luis Saez, who does not.

Lanerie has become the dominant jockey at Churchill, where he has topped the standings at 10 of the last 11 meets, but his title last fall at Keeneland was his first.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Like most of the other 3-year-old fillies headed for the Kentucky Oaks, Weep No More will breeze once more this weekend toward the May 6 filly classic after having a maintenance work last weekend.

On Saturday, Weep No More worked a half-mile in company in 49.20 seconds at Churchill Downs. Weep No More won the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on April 9.