Last Gunfighter, a winner of five consecutive races, including the Grade 3 Excelsior on March 23, will be pointed to the Grade 3, $300,000 Pimlico Special on May 17, trainer Chad Brown said Friday.

Brown said he likes the eight weeks between races and feels his horse will handle the added distance. The Pimlico Special is run at 1 3/16 miles.

“We just keep going a little further in distance,” Brown said. “He’s a horse that looks like he’ll appreciate the added distance, and he seems to run really well with time in between starts. It’s a race that makes sense for us.”

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It is officially Festival time at Oaklawn.

The field for the Grade 3, $400,000 Fantasy, which on Wednesday will be the first of eight stakes to be decided over the final week of the meet, was drawn Friday. A few hours prior, Oxbow breezed six furlongs in his final major prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby. And later the same afternoon, trainer Ian Wilkes was awaiting the weights for the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap, which is likely to draw his Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Fort Larned.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After watching Transparent romp to a 10 3/4-length victory Thursday at Aqueduct, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin’s first thought was, “Hopefully, we didn’t run in the wrong race.”

While Transparent’s victory certainly was eye-catching, he wasn’t facing the quality of competition he would have had he run in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial.

But Transparent’s victory did earn him a return to stakes company, most likely the Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan at Belmont Park on May 11.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Difficult to say what was wider: the grin on Ken Ramsey’s face, or the margin by which a 2-year-old rocket named Sweet Emma Rose won the fourth race.

Either way, it was business as usual at Keeneland, where the 16-day spring meet opened Friday with Ramsey sweeping the early daily double and trainer Wesley Ward winning with a first-time-starting 2-year-old.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Qaraaba, winner of the Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes on turf last December, has been retired and will be bred this spring, trainer Simon Callaghan said.

Owned by Alice Bamford and Michael Tabor, Qaraaba won 7 of 15 starts and $171,119. Imported from England last fall, Qaraaba, a 6-year-old mare by Shamardal, won both of her starts in the United States, beginning with an optional claimer at Betfair Hollywood Park last November.

Del Mar will conduct a lottery from Monday through Wednesday for table reservations at three of its restaurants – the Clubhouse Terrace, Stretch Run Grill, and Café Del Sol – for the opening-day program on July 17 and the Pacific Classic program on Aug. 25.

The free random drawing will be held online, with applications accepted from 9 a.m. Pacific on Monday through 5 p.m. Wednesday. Each winning entry can purchase one table.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Apply, a 5-year-old gelding who finished fifth in the fifth race Jan. 21 for $7,000 to $8,000 claimers, tested in excess of the permitted level of total carbon dioxide, according to a ruling published by Santa Anita stewards March 31.

Apply finished 12 1/2 lengths behind race winner Big Wags, but had a post-race test of total carbon dioxide of 39.55 millimoles per liter of plasma. The permitted level is 37 millimoles.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bright Thought, winner of the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes on March 16 in his stakes debut, will be pointed to the Arlington Million in August, co-owner Alex Venneri and trainer Jorge Gutierrez said Friday.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Humble Smarty has accomplished a good deal in his career, with four stakes wins, 17 victories and earnings of $494,883. But the 9-year-old has never won a route race on dirt, something he could be favored to do Sunday at Oaklawn in the $60,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Stakes.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – If they don’t stop soon, this might become a Grade 1 trend.

Keeneland carded 16 possible starters for the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes on opening weekend, and when the marquee race of the spring meet, the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes, is run next Saturday, April 13, there might also be 16 on the program, including two also-eligibles, because the maximum number of starters is 14.

[BLUE GRASS STAKES: Get Keeneland PPs, watch video previews]