VANCOUVER, British Columbia – There was a heartwarming ceremony held in the winner’s enclosure after Frank Fuentes won the fifth race aboard Go for Guinness last Saturday. His family was there to help him celebrate his 1,500th win and there was a strong, appreciative response from the crowd.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – I Think So and Goldstryke Glory look like standouts in the $50,000 Ross McLeod for 3-year-old fillies at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted eight horses, but the hard part is trying to separate I Think So and Goldstryke Glory.

Goldstryke Glory will be making her first start at Hastings for trainer Anita Bolton. She ran three times at Woodbine for trainer Terry Jordan last year and showed good speed in all of her races. If she can run as well on dirt as she did on Polytrack, she could be a handful.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Scarlet Strike ran in six stakes before she finally won one, the Grade 3 Providencia on turf at Santa Anita on April 6.

The Providencia Stakes was on the same program as the Santa Anita Derby and was overshadowed by that prestigious race. That may not have been fair to Scarlet Strike, a filly with a promising future in turf stakes in Southern California this spring and summer.

Racing fit Mark of a Warrior and The God of Reign should have a fitness edge over their four rivals in a six-furlong, $17,500 claiming race that will serve as Saturday’s feature at Northlands Park.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The road to the Queen’s Plate continues to heat up here at Woodbine on Saturday with the running of the Queenston, a seven-furlong stakes for Ontario-foaled 3-year-olds.

And, to mark the occasion, Woodbine stakes manager Julie Bell on Thursday released the list of nominees for this year’s Canadian Triple Crown series, with 73 Canadian-bred 3-year-olds remaining eligible as of May 1 via a $500 payment.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The talented River Seven makes his belated season debut Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Queenston, a seven-furlong stakes that serves as a stepping-stone to the $1 million Queen’s Plate.

River Seven faced the best of his division at 2 last year. He was a distant third behind eventual champion 2-year-old and Canadian Horse of the Year Uncaptured while debuting in the June 30 Clarendon Stakes. A month later, he rallied for second behind Uncaptured in the six-furlong Vandal Stakes.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Let Em Shine used raw speed to roll to two easy wins in six-furlong sprints at Santa Anita earlier this year.

If he can conserve just a little of that energy when he makes his stakes debut in Saturday’s $70,000 Came Home Stakes over seven furlongs at Betfair Hollywood Park, Let Em Shine could be headed to New York this summer.

Owner William Peeples and trainer Adam Kitchingman are considering Let Em Shine for the Grade 1, $500,000 King’s Bishop Stakes over seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 24, but need to see a positive race Saturday.

After I’ll Have Another won the Kentucky Derby last year, he was sent from Churchill Downs to Pimlico less than 48 hours later to prepare for the Preakness Stakes, a race he also won.

Doug O’Neill, who trained I’ll Have Another, is following the same pattern this year with Goldencents, with one major difference – he’s heading into the Preakness attempting to stop a Triple Crown bid, not keep one alive.

Gary Stevens came of age as a professional jockey about as far away from Baltimore as you can get and still be standing somewhere on dry land in the Lower Forty-Eight. Even so, as a young rider in such Northwestern outposts as Seattle, Yakima, and Coeur d’Alene he indulged himself more than once in the fantasy of being on a contender in the Preakness Stakes.

Alpha, co-winner of the Travers Stakes last summer, has returned to Saratoga, where on Sunday he worked three furlongs in 37.29 seconds over the Oklahoma training track.

It was his first work since Alpha returned to the U.S. after two starts at Meydan in Dubai. He finished fifth, beaten four lengths in the Godolphin Mile on March 30.

Kiaran McLaughlin, the trainer of Alpha, said he has no definitive race picked out for Alpha’s next start but mentioned the possibility of trying him on the turf.