LEXINGTON, Ky. – There’s a first time for everything, even at a track as old as Keeneland.

Wise Dan will become the first reigning Horse of the Year to make a comeback at 76-year-old Keeneland when he runs Friday in the Grade 1, $300,000 Maker’s 46 Mile, something that makes the gelding’s trainer, Charlie LoPresti, quite proud.

“It’s an honor because this is home,” said LoPresti, based at Keeneland for the last 15 years. “We’ll lead him over hoping he can start off another great year with a win.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Grace Hall was one of the top 3-year-old fillies in training last season with wins in the Gulfstream, Delaware, and Indiana Oaks. Her bid to become a major player in the older filly and mare ranks begins in earnest Friday, in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

Betting on races at the Fair Grounds 2012-2013 meet declined 8.25-percent compared to the previous racing season, with the New Orleans track experiencing a significantly steeper decline in March, when average daily handle dropped about 18 percent compared to the same month one year earlier.

The 83-day Fair Grounds meet ended March 31, but business figures for the season weren’t available from the Louisiana State Racing Commission until Wednesday. Fair Grounds, as per the policy of its parent company, Churchill Downs Incorporated, doesn’t publicize betting handle.

Longshots have fared particularly well in the Blue Grass Stakes in recent years, with favorites being blanked in the Keeneland showcase every year since Peace Rules won in 2003 for Bobby Frankel. In fact, the four biggest win mutuels in that span came in the last five runnings: Stately Victor ($82.20, the all-time race record, in 2010), Brilliant Speed ($40.20 in 2011), General Quarters ($30.60 in 2009), and Monba ($19.60) in 2008. The first Blue Grass on Polytrack was the 2007 renewal; all prior runnings were on dirt.

Del Mar plans to increase its bonus incentives for out-of-state horses to record levels for its upcoming meeting from July 17 to Sept. 4.

STICKNEY, Ill. – The snub of the Illinois Derby from Churchill Downs’s new series of Kentucky Derby qualifying races means the race no longer is a viable option for the established or rising elite in the 3-year-old crop. But with a purse raised from $500,000 to $750,000 this year, the Illinois Derby retains plenty of appeal for horsemen with 3-year-olds who have shown even a glimmer of stakes ability.

ARCADIA, Calif. – My Philly Girl will be stakes-bound this spring, possibly at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, if she wins a $60,000 allowance race at Santa Anita on Friday.

Trainer Mike Machowsky said the $300,000 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on May 4 is a goal with My Philly Girl, who has won 2 of 4 starts.

“She’s an awfully good filly,” Machowsky said. “I’ve got plans for her down the line. If Friday goes well, I might go to the Humana Distaff. Hopefully, everything will go well Friday.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The number 13 is supposed to be such bad luck around the racetrack that most stable areas don’t even have a Barn 13. But for trainer Gary Contessa – who clearly is not afflicted with triskaidekaphobia, or the fear of 13 – what happened Wednesday morning at the post-position draw for the 89th Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland can’t be seen as anything but good luck.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jay Robbins, who won consecutive runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2000 and 2001 with Tiznow, has retired from training, he said Wednesday.

Robbins, 67, said he dispersed the five horses in his Santa Anita-based stable at the beginning of the month, sending four of them to Northern California trainer Jedd Josephson. He said he had been considering retirement “for the better part of the year.”

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Graydar, who has risen to prominence in the handicap division with victories in the Donn and New Orleans handicaps, will be out until late summer after having a chip taken out of an ankle, his connections confirmed on Wednesday.

Graydar had the chip removed shortly after he arrived at WinStar Farm in Versailles, Ky., following his 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 2 New Orleans Handicap at Fair Grounds on March 30.