MIAMI – The weather will go a long way in determining Where’s Sterling’s imminent future. It will go even further in determining the outcome of Saturday’s $40,000 allowance feature, which is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf.

Where’s Sterling, who has not started since finishing a distant eighth behind Dullahan in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic last August, will compete in Saturday’s headliner only if the race is switched to the main track due to inclement weather. If not, he also is nominated for the six-furlong, Grade 2 Smile Sprint Handicap here the following weekend.

Commander will appreciate getting a chance to go around three turns for the first time this year in Saturday’s $50,000 Spangled Jimmy at Northlands Park. The one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up attracted eight horses, but if Commander regains the form he had at Northlands last year, he is going to be tough to beat.

Saturday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Victory Ride Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park goes through the Todd Squad, as Todd Pletcher sends out the favored Stonestreet Stables entry of Kauai Katie and Teen Pauline, as well as second choice Fusaichiswonderful.

Fusaichiswonderful won four graded stakes in Puerto Rico, but otherwise Kauai Katie boasts all four of the field’s graded stakes wins on the mainland, having garnered the Adirondack and Matron as a juvenile, and the Old Hat and Forward Gal at Gulfstream Park in January.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Reade Baker has enjoyed some happy hunting in the Bison City Stakes, taking the 1999 renewal with Synchronized when the stakes was run at Fort Erie and winning the race here with Touchnow in 2005, Free Fee Lady in 2010, and Bear It’s Time in 2011.

On Sunday, Baker will be looking to become the first trainer to send out five Bison City winners when Big Brown Brookski goes postward in the $250,000 race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Big Brown Brooksi, who races for Jim and Susan Hill, did not see action as a 2-year-old.

ALTOONA, Iowa – The final card of the Iowa Festival of Racing on Saturday is topped by the $300,000 Cornhusker Handicap but also has a strong undercard that includes the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks and the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby, both at 1 1/16 miles.

Ten fillies will line up in a stellar renewal of the Iowa Oaks, which features Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan winner Fiftyshadesofhay and So Many Ways, winner of last summer’s Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga who most recently took the Grade 3 Eight Belles on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His critics argue that Wise Dan, as the reigning Horse of the Year, should further prove his greatness by venturing outside the comfort of his niche, perhaps by running in longer races or dirt races or something other than middle-distance turf events. The Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap, they say, might even be beneath him.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Saturday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, this meet’s signature event, has attracted multiple graded stakes winners Prayer for Relief and Silver Max.

The 1 1/8-mile Cornhukser is one of three stakes on the second and final card of the Iowa Festival of Racing. The other races are the Grade 3, $250,000 Iowa Derby and the Grade 3, $200,000 Iowa Oaks.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – They can’t keep up with him.

The more that jockey Joe Talamo rides Obviously, the more he sees that the 5-year-old gelding is almost unbeatable as a front-runner. Obviously used that tactic to win his third graded stakes in the last year in the Grade 2 American Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on May 25, a performance that makes him a heavy favorite to win Saturday’s $300,000 Shoemaker Mile on turf.

[HOLLYWOOD PARK: Get PPs, watch Saturday’s full card live]

The announcement in May that Hollywood Park, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, would cease racing at the end of the year could not help but bring back memories of Swaps, perhaps the greatest Thoroughbred ever bred in California.

On July 1, 1958, Hollywood Park dedicated a bronze statue of the Hall of Fame champion just inside the entrance to its clubhouse. For 55 years, the statue has greeted millions of visitors from around the world, including those attending three Breeders’ Cups.

Midway through the fair circuit last summer, trainer Keith Nations noticed a difference in Control Seeker and predicted a big race for him. Control Seeker responded by winning the Joseph T. Grace Handicap on the turf at Santa Rosa and later won the Bulldog Handicap on the dirt at Fresno.

After entering the 7-year-old Control Seeker in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile, $50,000 County of Alameda Handicap at the Alameda County Fair, Nations made a similar prediction.

“I think he’s sitting on a really big race,” Nations said.