ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Something Extra tries to win the $200,000 Connaught Cup Stakes at Woodbine for the second straight year on Sunday, when he will face last year’s Canadian champion turf male Riding the River in the seven-furlong turf sprint.

Something Extra started once during the winter – a closing second in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. In his last race, he lost the Grade 3 Shakertown at Keeneland by a nose after encountering traffic in the stretch under Julien Leparoux.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Fort Erie, which had been scheduled to close for good last Dec. 31, instead will begin its 116th season Sunday at 1:15 p.m. with 50 racing days, 26 fewer than last year.

The track seemed out of options when the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation removed slot machines from the facility a year ago in April and left both the racetrack and the horsemen without their 10 percent share of net proceeds. But the provincial government came through with an unspecified amount of funding for the racetrack this spring.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Always in a Tiz, ninth in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in his last start, is being pointed to the $1 million Belmont Stakes here on June 8, part-owner and New York Racing Association board member Anthony Bonomo said Friday.

“Truthfully, I think the horse has the ability to get the distance,” Anthony Bonomo said, referring to the 1 1/2 miles. “He’s not as seasoned as some of those other horses are right now but as far as ability goes he can run and do well in the Belmont.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Up With the Birds, trained by Malcolm Pierce, will be looking to use Sunday’s $150,000 Marine Stakes as his stepping-stone to the $1 million Queen’s Plate.

But the Marine, an open race for 3-year-olds at 1 1/16 miles, has attracted a salty field that includes American-breds Winning Cause, Five Iron, and Ghost Hunter.

“The Plate Trial would have been easier,” said Pierce, noting that the June 9 Plate Trial is restricted to Canadian-breds.

“But we’re not looking for ‘easy,’ we’re looking for the right timing.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Charlie LoPresti said he is seriously considering the Grade 2 Firecracker Handicap on the final weekend of the Churchill Downs spring meet as the next race for Wise Dan, the 2012 Horse of the Year who is unbeaten in two starts this year.

The $150,000 Firecracker, scheduled for a mile on turf, is set for June 29.

MIAMI – The local sprint division, which is already loaded with the likes of Trinniberg, Jackson Bend, and Bahamian Squall on the scene, could get even stronger if things continue to progress well with the fragile but extremely talented Trickmeister, who has been in training at Calder with Allan Hunter since early April.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pedro Alvarado is no stranger to the winner’s enclosure at Hastings. After all, beginning in 1994 he won 1,008 races riding here. He had a different vantage point when he greeted Yes He’s Trouble following his win in a $17,500 conditional claimer last Monday, however. It was the first winner for Alvarado as a trainer and he was happy after going 0 for 10 since he saddled his first horse at the meet on April 13.

ELMONT, N.Y. - No trainer plays the claiming game in New York better these days than David Jacobson, a point he drove home Thursday winning four races at Belmont Park, all with horses making their first start off the claim.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Class drops could hold the key to the Grade 3, $150,000 Matron, a 1 1/8-mile Polytrack race for older fillies and mares Saturday at Arlington Park.

Ausus made her most recent start in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes, finishing an even fifth behind Centre Court, who could be the best female grass horse in the country right now.

Imposing Grace, meanwhile, hooked up with the likes of Authenticity, On Fire Baby, and Believe You Can when she finished sixth in the Grade 2 La Troienne Stakes.

One mare who hasn’t raced in five months and another who just ran last weekend figure to vie for favoritism in Saturday’s $75,000 My Juliet Stakes for older female sprinters at Parx Racing.

Winning Image, who won last year’s My Juliet, when it was worth $150,000, and Withgreatpleasure, who failed in her bid for back-to-back Grade 2 victories in the May 18 Vagrancy Hanidicap at Belmont Park, are the prime contenders in a field of six going six furlongs on dirt.