The betting public wagered on Lone Star’s opening-night first race, the $50,000 Premiere Stakes, as if Triumph and Song couldn’t lose.

The way it unfolded, Triumph and Song, the 1-5 favorite, essentially couldn’t. Already a standout on form, he took control from the start, and with jockey Jamie Theriot nursing him on the lead with easy splits of 23.05 seconds and 46.06 in the 6 1/2-furlong test, the race was decided early.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Vuitton caught 8-5 favorite Beat the Blues on the wire in the $100,000 Carousel at Oaklawn on Thursday in one of five wins on the card for her rider, Ricardo Santana Jr. Of the jockey's wins, four came for Vuitton's trainer, Steve Asmussen.   

The Carousel, a six-furlong race for fillies and mares, continued the Racing Festival of the South, a weeklong run of $2.9 million in stakes that closes out the meet at Oaklawn. The series continues on Friday with the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap and the $75,000 Instant Racing.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Justin Phillip comes into Saturday’s Grade 3, $250,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap at Oaklawn Park in the right mindset – with his confidence soaring. That is precisely what his connections wanted to achieve last month, when the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Sprint alumnus made a rare start in the allowance ranks. Justin Phillip was a sweeping, four-length winner in an ideal prep for the Count Fleet.

“He got a win, and that’s what we were hoping for. That’s what he needed,” said Steve Asmussen, who trains Justin Phillip for Zayat Stables.

Especially Tres was not the fastest qualifier for Saturday night’s $452,800 Sam Houston Futurity for Quarter Horses, but she was the most impressive trial winner. She dominated by 2 3/4 lengths and the effort could send her to post as the favorite for the 330-yard race that highlights the meet at Sam Houston Race Park.

As on opening night at Lone Star Park on Thursday, Texas-breds are showcased in stakes Saturday. And the race spotlight shines brightest on Cowgirl N Up.

A stakes winner at age 2, 3, and 4, Cowgirl N Up has developed into arguably the top female Texas-bred sprinter in training heading into the $50,000 JEH Stallion Stakes.

The trainer Ian Wilkes stood atop steps on the Gulfstream Park apron as the 10th race March 9 began. Trees obscured the starting gate, and when the horses in the Gulfstream Park Handicap came into view, Wilkes’s runner, Fort Larned, was nowhere to be seen.

“I can’t really tell you exactly what was going through my mind right then, but when I didn’t see him, I knew something had gone wrong,” Wilkes said.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Mizdirection is the undisputed leader of the nation's female turf sprinters, a status proven with a win in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint against males here last November.

For 2013, the goals are oriented more toward mile races, notably the $500,000 Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park on June 8. To get there, Mizdirection is starting in Saturday's $100,000 Las Cienegas Stakes over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.

Trainer Walter Abner died Wednesday at St. Vincent Anderson Regional Hospital in Anderson, Ind., of a heart attack.

The 68-year-old Abner, a native of Anderson, began training horses in 1967. Abner began his training career with Quarter Horses and then later turned to Thoroughbreds, training at River Downs, Turfway Park, Churchill Downs, and Keeneland. In recent years he has been at Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs as well as Tampa Bay Downs. Abner was a member of the Indiana Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The scramble for Kentucky Derby eligibility points has brought an eclectic mix of 3-year-olds to Oaklawn Park for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Saturday. The field of 10 includes horses who last raced at Aqueduct, Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Tampa Bay Downs, and Turfway Park.

Not having raced on a synthetic surface, Gantry might seem at a disadvantage in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland on the Blue Grass Stakes undercard.

But if he is, so are most of his rivals. Of the five horses facing him – Candyman E, Bind, Big Blue Spirit, Bernie the Maestro, and Handsome Mike – only the latter two horses have raced on a synthetic surface, and Bernie the Maestro is the only winner on such a track.

So, if there has ever been a time for Gantry to try Polytrack, the seven-furlong Commonwealth seems the time.