Two of the most logical contenders in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Red Bank Stakes at Monmouth Park have been away from the races for a while. Za Approval has been idle since winning his first career stakes in the Grade 3 Appleton on March 30. Tune Me In, a two-time Grade 3 winner at Monmouth last season, will be making his first start since December.

Their absences are nowhere near as lengthy as that of Two Notch Road, a 6-year-old whose last race was in early October of his 3-year-old season.

If it seems like spring has arrived later than usual at Delaware Park, you’re right. Instead of its customary opening in mid to late April, or the Saturday after the Kentucky Derby, as was done last year, Delaware launches its abbreviated 2013 season Saturday in conjunction with the Preakness, which takes place some 90 miles down Interstate 95 in Baltimore.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All eyes will be riveted Saturday on Pimlico – except, of course, when there are other races elsewhere to bet on and watch.

That will happen 11 times Saturday at Churchill Downs, where this whole Orb thing got started two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby. In due deference to the second jewel of the Triple Crown, a race of considerably less importance than the Preakness will serve as the Churchill feature Saturday: The Keertana, a $65,000 overnight stakes, will have its first running when matching 10 filly-and-mare turf marathoners.

BALTIMORE – The morning after winning the Kentucky Derby with Orb, trainer Shug McGaughey stood under the shed row of Barn 43 at Churchill Downs, reflecting on his first Derby win and what it would mean two weeks hence in the Preakness Stakes.

“I’m glad I’ve got the target on my back,” McGaughey said. “I’m very comfortable being in that position.”

BALTIMORE - Pimlico Race Course will have a deep and diverse wagering menu for its Friday and Saturday cards that are topped by the respective Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness. Advance wagering on the Preakness will open Friday.

[2013 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more]

Other wagers for Friday include the new Pimlico Special-Preakness Double, linking the Friday and Saturday stakes in an offering that replaces the Black-Eyed Susan-Preakness Double. It is a $1 minimum bet.

BALTIMORE - Though they will both try to stop Orb’s Triple Crown bid in Saturday’s Preakness, fellow Hall of Fame trainers Bob Baffert and D. Wayne Lukas were more than happy to welcome Shug McGaughey to the fraternity of Kentucky Derby-winning trainers.

[2013 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more]

BALTIMORE – Orb beat 18 rivals when he won the Kentucky Derby on May 4, and he did it so convincingly that only five of those runners are trying again in the 138th Preakness Stakes on Saturday here at Pimlico, along with three newcomers to the Triple Crown trail. Eight challengers, it seems, is enough.

BALTIMORE – Will Horton will pretty much be running his entire stable at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday, when Will Take Charge starts in the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes and Laurie’s Rocket goes in the Grade 3, $150,000 Maryland Sprint Handicap. Together, the horses he owns have won a combined 5 of 11 starts this year, for earnings of $636,185. Among their wins have been three stakes races, including the Grade 2, $600,000 Rebel.

BALTIMORE – Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas will have plenty to keep him busy Saturday at Pimlico even before he saddles three horses in the 138th Preakness Stakes.

Lukas has five horses running in three undercard stakes, topped by the uncoupled entry of Optimizer and Skyring in the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes.

[2013 PREAKNESS STAKES: Latest news, video, and more]

The Dixie, run at 1 1/8 miles, drew a bulky 13-horse field that lacks a standout.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – There is a hint of nostalgia in the air at Louisiana Downs. The track’s 40th season has produced a homecoming of sorts for veteran jockey Bobby Walker Jr. and agent Wendy Smith, two major players locally in the 1980s.

Walker was a perennial top-10 rider, while Smith represented several other top-shelf jockeys during the period. While both admittedly are in the twilight of their careers – they have spent more than 90 years between them at the racetrack – a common goal has brought the two together for one last fling.