ARCADIA, Calif. - Sky Kingdom and Oilisblackgold, the first two finishers of the Grade  3 Tokyo City Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on dirt March 23, are switching surfaces for Sunday’s San Juan Capistrano at 1 3/4 miles on grass.

They are part of a projected field of seven that includes All Squared Away, Fire With Fire, and Interaction, who were second through fourth in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes on March 16; and Smart Ellis, who won an optional claimer over 1 1/8 miles on March 3. Lime Rickey, third in an optional claimer on March 22, is another expected runner.

STICKNEY, Ill. – With more top-level racehorses than any trainer in North America, Todd Pletcher leaves no stone unturned when hunting for graded-stakes opportunities, and he almost always has entrants for the only two graded races remaining on Chicago’s spring calendar.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and the winner of two Grade 1 stakes this year, worked a half-mile in 49.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday.

The workout was the first for Beholder since her win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on April 6, and the first of two works at her home track before she is shipped to Churchill Downs at the end of this month for the Kentucky Oaks on May 3.

AUBURN, Wash. – There’s a new option on the wagering menu at Emerald Downs this year. It’s called the 123, and it might take some time for players to get used to it.

In a nutshell, it’s a modified pick six in which the better selects one horse in each of the final six races on the card and then accumulates points based on the horses’ across-the-board payoffs. The $2 ticket stays “live” for all six races in the sequence, and when all is said and done, the ticketholder with the most points collects 60 percent of the pool.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In lieu of a stakes, a pair of second-level allowance races – one on turf, one on dirt – serve as the co-features on the final Saturday program at Aqueduct.

The stakes scheduled for Saturday, the $75,000 Road Princess, was instead carded for Sunday featuring the graded stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Kauai Katie.

Saturday’s eighth, a $69,000 second-level allowance scheduled for 1 1/16 miles for the turf, is a competitive event headed by the uncoupled Chad Brown-trained entry of Shakeira and Deanaallen’skitten.

STICKNEY, Ill. – For those accustomed to Hawthorne’s daily fare, $5,000 claimers with $10,000 pots, the purse for the eighth race on Saturday’s card, the Illinois Derby, hits like a ton of bricks: $750,000.

“For that kind of money, you’ve got to take a shot,” said trainer Steve Hobby.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Coolmore Lexington Stakes is known as a final stop on the road to Churchill Downs, although that’s meant in the context of the Kentucky Derby.

The maxim might well hold true again Saturday, when the Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington is run at Keeneland, but in this case, the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race could prove a stepping-stone to the Kentucky Oaks and not the Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bourbon Bay, the winner of the San Juan Capistrano in 2010 and 2012 at Santa Anita and five other stakes in Southern California, has been retired, trainer Neil Drysdale said.

Drysdale had Bourbon Bay nominated for Sunday’s $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap, but decided to end the career of the 7-year-old gelding after talking with owner David Heerensperger. Bourbon Bay worked six furlongs at Betfair Hollywood Park last Monday before the decision was made on retirement.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Bill Connelly has taken full advantage of allowance conditions for his stable star, Sweet Cassiopeia, as the chestnut mare has run off four straight victories while managing to avoid stakes competition.

That winning streak will be put on the line Saturday at Keeneland when Sweet Cassiopeia steps up in class to oppose nine other filly-mare turf sprinters in the main supporting feature on the Coolmore Lexington undercard, the $100,000 Giant’s Causeway.

Free World has made all five of his starts in Louisiana, but he should feel right at home racing around two tight turns in Saturday night’s $85,000 Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds.