INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Game On Dude may have company up front when he starts as the 127-pound highweight Saturday in the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Trainer Dan Hendricks said early this week he planned to enter front-runner Batti Man, who was assigned 113 pounds for the Gold Cup.

He is a welcome addition for four others that otherwise would have been chasing a loose-on-the-lead Game On Dude.

“I think we’re going to run,” Hendricks said. “We’ll make our decision Wednesday, but we are out of spots and need a race. It’s a short field, with one speed horse.”

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - At the start of the Hollywood Park meet, Et Tu Walker had won twice in 12 starts and had run for a $16,000 claiming tag in his final start at Santa Anita. But he has awakened this summer, winning three straight, all in turf sprints, and he will try to become the first four-time winner of the current meeting when he runs in Thursday’s eighth race, an optional claimer going six furlongs on turf. Et Tu Walker is entered for a second-level allowance condition.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Bleu Moon Magic is the likely favorite when a field of 11 Minnesota-bred 3-year-old fillies meet in the Frances Genter Stakes going six furlongs at Canterbury Park on Thursday.

Bleu Moon Magic won her debut as a 2-year-old in impressive fashion before finishing third in the Northern Lights Debutante. Her sophomore debut was a wire-to-wire win against older horses, including Talkin Bout, a contender in Wednesday evening’s Princess Elaine Stakes.

Despite an ugly-looking last running line, in which she went from first to last within a half-mile and did not finish the course, Alpha J may be an intriguing contender in the July 4 feature at Finger Lakes.

Alpha J will be making her second start off the claim for perennial leading trainer Chris Englehart in the $50,000 Niagara Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies.

A company affiliated with the New York Racing Association is offering a package of amenities for most race cards at Saratoga Race Course this summer, according to NYRA.

The company, CID Entertainment, is selling the packages for $159 per person for Thursday-through-Sunday cards at Saratoga, with the exception of Aug. 24, the date of the Travers Stakes, when the package will be available for $259 per person.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Monmouth Park celebrates Independence Day with a special holiday card topped by the Grade  3, $100,000 Jersey Shore Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters.

The six-furlong race drew a field of seven, including the unbeaten Rainbow Heir. The New Jersey-bred chestnut colt is 3 for 3 heading into his stakes debut.

Belmont Park dodged raindrops all last week, and Mother Nature’s continued cooperation would be appreciated through a Fourth of July card that includes three turf stakes and the first scheduled 2-year-old grass race of the season.

Heading the holiday lineup is the Grade 3, $150,000 Poker Stakes, a one-mile race on the Widener course that attracted seven turf-meant older males, headed by four-time graded stakes winner Data Link.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It took him a while to get there, but Alley Oop Oop found himself a home when finally getting the opportunity to compete on turf last fall. On Thursday, trainer Stanley Gold is hoping Alley Oop Oop will find a home away from home when he tries the Gulfstream Park turf course for the first time in the $100,000 Armed Forces, the first stakes race of the 2013 summer meet.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – It was quiet on the Queen’s Plate front here Tuesday, with the 11 confirmed entrants all having completed their major work for Sunday’s $1 million showpiece.

The post position draw for the Queen’s Plate, the 1 1/4-mile race that is the first leg of the Triple Crown for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, will take place at the annual Queen’s Plate breakfast here Thursday.

The voice may be vaguely familiar. Keith Nelson called races at The Woodlands in Kansas for five years and “maybe 10 or 11” programs in 2008 at Ellis Park when pressed into service following the untimely death of Luke Kruytbosch.

“My time at Ellis was a good experience under horrible circumstances,” recalled Nelson.