OPELOUSAS, La. - This summer promises another epic battle for leading trainer at Evangeline Downs between Broberg and Keith Bourgeois.

The two powerhouse stables have continued to trade blows through the years. Since Evangeline moved from nearby Carencro in 2005, either Broberg or Bourgeois has won the training crown every year.

With more than one-third of the 2014 season in the books, it is Broberg who holds the advantage, with 27 wins to 21 for Bourgeois. Broberg has done it with numbers, having sent out 101 runners to Bourgeois’s 75.

OPELOUSAS, La. – Nominations closed last week for the inaugural running of the $300,000 Evangeline Turf Sprint, and the list is an impressive one. The five-furlong dash will anchor a five-stakes program June 21 that will have a special first-race post time of 3:40 p.m. Central. The program also will feature an all-stakes pick four with a guaranteed pool of $100,000.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Owner Ron Sanchez had planned to withhold his decision on whether to run Social Inclusion in the Belmont Stakes until after his schooling session Wednesday morning. But after discussing the situation further with trainer Manny Azpurua on Tuesday, Sanchez felt there was no sense in prolonging the issue, opting to take the more conservative route and bypass the Belmont in lieu of Saturday’s seven-furlong Woody Stephens Stakes.

Dan Dougherty has been forced to gradually close all 16 of his furniture stores over the past five years due to the economic downturn. When the final two were shuttered last summer, the 55-year-old father of six faced an uncertain financial future.

But then along came Ride On Curlin.

Turner likes Chrome, but . . .

Bill Turner, the trainer of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, is a fan of California Chrome, but he appeared to waver a bit on whether the California-bred son of Lucky Pulpit is going to win the Triple Crown in Saturday’s 146th Belmont Stakes.

On one hand, Turner compliments the horse, noting that in his workout Saturday, “he was a beautiful mover,” and that mentally, “nothing bothers him, he just takes everything in stride.”

Things are going well for Team Sherman. On Saturday, of course, trainer Art Sherman and his son and assistant Alan will be going for the Triple Crown with California Chrome in the Belmont Stakes. Last Saturday, Art’s son Steve sent out another talented 3-year-old to win his turf debut in a Golden Gate Fields allowance race.

Reno Rebel, whose five previous races had come for Art in Southern California, scored a professional 2 1/4-length win going 1 1/16 miles. A ridgling by Big Brown, Reno Rebel was a $100,000 weanling purchase by Nevada Equine LLC and Charles Finch.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Hall of Famers Bill Mott and Mike Smith will team up with Belmont Stakes longshot Matuszak, but they are no strangers to surprising the racing world in the oldest and longest spring classic. In 2010, they scored their first Belmont victory together with longshot Drosselmeyer.

As with Drosselmeyer, the Belmont will mark the first time Smith will be aboard Matuszak, who has one win from eight starts, that being in his career debut last September at Churchill Downs.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The decision by Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens to remain in Florida this spring has left a void on the Belmont Park backstretch. Though he personally will not be attending Saturday’s Belmont Stakes card, the 85-year-old Jerkens will have the chance to make his presence felt.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Art Sherman, the trainer of California Chrome, hadn’t seen the horse in person in two weeks, since the Preakness win at Pimlico, but he certainly liked what he saw after flying to New York on Monday to begin final preparations for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.

“He looks like he has more weight than the last time I saw him,” Sherman said Tuesday at Belmont Park. “He looks bigger.”

ELMONT, N.Y. - Social Inclusion came out to gallop over the Belmont Park main track without the special Belmont Stakes saddle towel he’d worn since his arrival here last week, raising speculation that owner Ron Sanchez and trainer Manny Azpurua had already made the decision to bypass the Belmont Stakes for the seven-furlong Woody Stephens earlier on Saturday’s card.

But that is not the case, according to Sanchez, who said that as of Tuesday Social Inclusion is still being considered for the Belmont.