SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Friday evening’s opening of the Canterbury Park meet begins the first full year of a cooperative marketing agreement between the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and the track. The impact of the agreement is being felt from the condition book to trackside.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Bob Tiller should be holding a strong hand in Friday’s Woodbine feature, when he runs Born to Be Queen and Tequilamockingbird in the six-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired 3-year-old fillies.

Born to Be Queen was bet down to 4-5 when she debuted off some solid works in a five-furlong maiden special on opening day, April 20. She dropped back to an early trailing position before closing wide through the stretch to prevail by a neck, over a track that hindered speed.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – His image is not difficult to find in his hometown. There are the bigger-than-life statue, the stories-high wall mural, the encased jerseys with his signature, and so much more.

But Paul Hornung is not just a living legend in Louisville. As the 1956 Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame and a Pro Football Hall of Famer with the Green Bay Packers, he is a national treasure, a worldly man as familiar with the streets of New York or Baltimore as his birthplace in the hardscrabble Louisville neighborhood of Portland.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pat Parente, who has been training since 2004, came into the 2013 Woodbine meet without a stakes victory on his résumé. Conversely, trainer Danny Vella had 132 stakes wins under his belt in a career that began in 1985.

When Summer of Fun ran in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last fall, she was dismissed at 43-1, yet outran her odds, finishing third in a race that has proven to be quite deep. Flotilla, the winner, returned to win the French 1000 Guineas, and Sky Lantern, who was eighth, won the English 1000 Guineas.

Sensible Lady upset last year’s the The Very One Stakes on the Black-Eyed Susan/Pimlico Special undercard, and it was no small feat as she was a 3-year-old beating older opponents. Sensible Lady is back to defend her The Very One title Friday at Pimlico, and one thing seems sure: She will be a fraction of the 24-1 she was in this race last year.

The $100,000 The Very One, at five furlongs on the turf, proved a highly popular offering. It attracted 16 entries, including two also eligibles. The Very One goes as the 11th race on Friday’s 13-race program.

MIAMI - Close It Out, who upset Bahamian Squall to capture the Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap here last fall, will top a field of 10 older sprinters in Saturday’s six-furlong Champali overnight stakes. Close It Out is winless in three starts since the Jack Dudley and has been freshened since finishing fourth in the Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship three months earlier.

Tread is a nose from bringing a perfect record into the $100,000 Miss Preakness on Friday at Pimlico. She has won two of her three career starts, and will be making her stakes debut in the six-furlong race for 3-year-old fillies that is part of the undercard on Black-Eyed Susan Day.

Though based in Maryland, Dance to Bristol makes her first appearance at Pimlico on Friday when she heads a field of seven fillies entered in the $100,000 Skipat Stakes at six furlongs.

Dance to Bristol, stabled at the Bowie training center with trainer Ollie Figgins III, has won her last three starts, including a nine-length romp in the $200,000 Sugar Maple Stakes at Charles Town on April 20. The big question is whether Dance to Bristol will bounce, or regress, off such a big performance.

BALTIMORE – The success in recent years of Ben’s Cat has focused renewed, deserved attention on the great career of trainer King Leatherbury, a Maryland legend who is still going strong long after the glory days here when he faced off regularly with Bud Delp, Dick Dutrow, and John Tammaro.

Ben’s Cat has earned more than $1.4 million, and has won 20 of 30 starts, with turf sprints his specialty. Ben’s Cat will try to add to those totals on Friday at Pimlico, when he heads the field in the $100,000 Jim McKay Turf Sprint over five furlongs.