LOUISVILLE, Ky. - So Many Ways returned to a sprint and returned to peak form in Friday's Grade 3, $177,170 Eight Belles on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.

A tired fifth in the 1 1/16-mile Fair Grounds Oaks in her last start March 30, So Many Ways was positioned in midpack early and fanned widest for the stretch run before using a powerful closing kick Friday to surge clear in the final 100 yards, edging Fusaichiswonderful by a half-length. She raced seven furlongs in 1:22.84 over a track that produced fast times and paid $17.40 to win.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Frank Irvin – the owner of Fear the Kitten, who was excluded from  Saturday’s Kentucky Derby after initially being an also-eligible entrant – expressed dismay Friday at circumstances that prevented his horse from gaining entry in the Derby, even following the scratch of Black Onyx from the race late Friday morning.

ET O BICOKE, Ontario − Trainer Roger Attfield has found the going tough at Woodbine this year.

A perennial powerhouse here, the Attfield barn has lost a number of stakes winners in the last couple of years, with the males Musketier and Simmard being retired to stud last year and Perfect Shirl and Smart Sting joining a parade of Attfield stakes winners who became broodmares.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Troy Taylor and owner Glen Todd have won just about every important race in the Pacific Northwest, including the Grade 3 Longacres Mile, which they won last year with Taylor Said. But the one race they haven’t won is the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby, scheduled for Sept. 8.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -  A very familiar theme was reprised Friday when Kitten’s Dumplings was an easy winner of an eventful renewal of the $172,500 Edgewood Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs.

Kitten’s Dumplings, a 3 3/4-length winner as the 3-1 second choice in a field of 10 3-year-old turf fillies, was bred and is owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, trained by Mike Maker, and ridden by Joel Rosario, the same tandem that set records in their respective categories at the recently ended Keeneland meet.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The road to the $1 million Queen’s Plate on July 7 begins in earnest Sunday at Woodbine, when 2012’s Canadian Horse of the Year, Uncaptured, will look to rebound from a dull performance last out when he starts in the $100,000 Wando for 3-year-olds.

Uncaptured is one of the three Mark Casse-trained entrants in the 1 1/16-mile overnight stakes, along with Dynamic Sky and Steel Dust Dancer.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Sunday marks the final live racing day of the 2012-13 racing season at Tampa Bay Downs and taking some time to look back at the meeting that began on Dec. 1, there are a number of noteworthy moments and accomplishments that deserve mention.

◗ Tampa Derby again pivotal prep: The highlight of the meeting was the Grade 2, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby, a race that gave the fans a chance to see not one but two top-flight Kentucky Derby contenders in Verrazano and Java’s War.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Phipps family has enjoyed so much success in Thoroughbred racing that it wouldn’t be right to lament the ones who got away.

Yes, Gladys Mills Phipps – the grandmother of Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps – owned Seabiscuit before he became a cult hero. And yes, there was that infamous coin flip that went the wrong way, leaving the Phipps family with a filly named The Bride and Penny Chenery with the beast who became Secretariat.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Authenticity outdueled On Fire Baby through a stirring stretch drive at Churchill Downs to win Friday’s $300,000 La Troienne Stakes by a head in a result that to trainer Todd Pletcher had far more reaching ramifications than simply winning a Grade 2 race.

“This is a big win for us for a number of reasons,” Pletcher said while walking to the winner’s circle. “This filly has been breezing with Verrazano, to me that’s key; Johnny [Velazquez] comes back and looks like he’s in form, that’s key; and winning a big race in its own right.”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When trainer Shug McGaughey left New York late last year for his winter base in Florida, Orb owned only a maiden win, and McGaughey figured Orb would likely return to New York in the spring with, perhaps, having added an allowance win to his resume.

“At the beginning of the year, I had no idea I’d be standing here, none whatsoever,” McGaughey said.