Fresh off wrapping up 2012 Texas-bred horse of the year honors, Coyote Legend will launch his 6-year-old season in Saturday night’s $100,000 Star of Texas at Sam Houston Race Park. He is the defending champ in the mile and a sixteenth race for older horses, which is the richest of four Texas-bred stakes on the card. The program is part of the opening weekend festivities at the Houston track.

The stakes schedule for the 2013 spring meet at Keeneland Race Course was released Thursday with very minimal change from what has traditionally been offered at the Lexington, Ky., track.

As usual, the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes will anchor the spring meet, which runs April 5-26 on a Wednesday-to-Sunday basis. The Blue Grass occupies its usual spot on the meet on the second Saturday of the month, April 13.

Mike Maker trains five of the 28 horses that were nominated to the $50,000 Likely Exchange Stakes on Saturday at Turfway Park, but he felt all along he would run just one: Lotta Lovin.

Maker, the perennial kingpin at Turfway despite taking his best horses to Florida and Louisiana for the winter, is keenly aware of the filly’s record over the Polytrack surface at the northern Kentucky track: 3 wins and 1 third from 4 career starts, all in stakes.

Ore Pass, who romped in his career debut but regressed badly in his first against winners, and Heat Press, who earned a relatively high Beyer Speed Figure for trouncing maidens last month, are among the most intriguing prospects in a group of 10 3-year-olds entered for Saturday’s $100,000 Frank Whiteley Jr. Stakes at Laurel Park.

The cast for the seven-furlong sprint also includes Keep the Canoli, who cuts back in distance following a strong two-turn stakes effort at Delaware Park in the fall, and Alpha Mike Foxtrot, upset winner of the Maryland Juvenile Championship.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Emma’s Encore gave Allen Jerkens his first Grade 1 victory at Saratoga in five years when she won the Prioress last summer. On Saturday, Emma’s Encore will attempt to give the Hall of Fame trainer his first victory in Gulfstream Park’s Sunshine Millions series since Miss Shop captured the Filly and Mare Turf in 2007 when she takes on six rivals in the $150,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Sprint.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mucho Macho Man came within a half-length and a neck – the margins he was defeated in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Grade 1 Woodward – from likely putting his connections on the podium to accept an Eclipse Award Saturday night at Gulfstream Park. Instead, trainer Kathy Ritvo and her owners will have to be content to do their celebrating there a few hours earlier if Mucho Macho Man performs as expected and successfully defends his title in the $400,000 Florida Sunshine Millions Classic.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The rapidly improving Last Gunfighter takes another step up the class ladder Saturday when he heads a seven-horse field entered for the $75,000 Evening Attire Stakes at Aqueduct.

Last Gunfighter, a son of First Samurai, has won all three of his starts since being transferred to trainer Chad Brown, including a 4 3/4-length victory in the Raymond Earl, an overnight stakes run around one turn over Aqueduct’s main track in December.

Kiss My Hennessy will give up recency to his 11 rivals Saturday in the $85,000 Pepsi Cola at Sunland Park, but as a two-time stakes winner he is a leading contender in the six-furlong race for 3-year-olds bred in New Mexico.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A Jealous Woman ran the best race of her career when second to the highly promising Rhythm of Light in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita in November.

Since that race, things have not gone as smoothly.

A Jealous Woman missed training time in late December after apparently stepping on a stone while training. The setback is behind A Jealous Woman, who can win her second stakes in three starts in Saturday’s $75,000 Megahertz Stakes over a mile on turf for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.

NEW ORLEANS – In recent years, Fair Grounds has established itself as a place to bring a developing filly.

Last year, Believe You Can, trained by Larry Jones, became the seventh filly in the last 15 runnings of the Fair Grounds Oaks to also win the Kentucky Oaks.

“I don’t know why it would be any different for a girl than a boy,” Jones said of the track’s remarkable run with 3-year-old fillies. “There’s no rhyme or reason for it. Maybe it’s just the luck of the draw.”