In its inaugural running, Saturday night’s $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston Race Park serves as a platform for Brushed by a Star and Joyful Victory to renew their rivalry, a venue for Kentucky Oaks alum Summer Applause to make her first start at 4, and the chance for the undefeated, $10,000 supplement Sisterly Love to test stakes rivals.

The 1 1/16-mile race also anchors a card of four stakes worth $725,000, including the Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Cup Turf led by Willcox Inn and King David.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jim Rogers is finally getting a crack at the King Cotton. The owner has long wanted to win the $60,000 sprint for older horses at Oaklawn Park, and on Saturday he will be represented by a leading contender in Alsvid.

“This is a race we’ve had on our radar for quite some time,” said Chris Hartman, who trains Alsvid.

They’re back. A week after landing the Lecomte Stakes with Oxbow, trainer Wayne Lukas and jockey Jon Court return to Fair Grounds with Oaklawn-based horses for two stakes races on Saturday’s card. Optimizer is among the favorites in the Grade 3, $125,000 Colonel E.R. Bradley Handicap, while Laurie’s Rocket’s faces a more challenging task when he meets Delaunay and Gantry in the $75,000 F.W. Gaudin Stakes.

Under the patient, exacting care of trainer Marty Jones, Tiz Flirtatious has developed into a mare certainly capable of competing at the graded stakes level. But after a pair of placings in graded races in her most recent starts, Jones is taking advantage of her California-bred conditions on Saturday by moving her back into statebred competition for the $100,000 Valentine Dancer for female grass horses over one mile at Santa Anita.

It is only a temporary move, for Jones envisions Tiz Flirtatious, 5, competing in graded stakes for most of this year.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Madame Giry had her five-race win streak snapped when second at Gulfstream Park in her last race, but she will attempt to get back to her winning ways Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs when she tops a field of 12 filly and mare turf sprinters in the $75,000 Lightning City Stakes.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The stakes winners Monument and Weewinnin have the big-race prizes to merit respect in Saturday’s $300,000 California Breeders’ Champion Stakes at Santa Anita.

The maiden race winner Omega Star has a recent victory that may give him the role of favorite in the one-mile race for 3-year-old California-breds.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Pataky Kid, winner of the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Futurity at 2, will launch his 3-year-old campaign next Saturday in the Grade 2 Hutcheson, trainer Tom Proctor confirmed Thursday.

Cold Cash 123 ended his 2012 campaign with a stunning eighth-place finish in the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15.

Had Cold Cash 123 won the 440-yard race, a case could have been made for him to be recognized as the World Champion Running Quarter Horse for the second consecutive year. Instead, the award went to One Dashing Eagle, the season’s star 2-year-old.

One day in the not too distant future, Daisy Devine once again will pick on someone her own size. But for the time being, trainer Andrew McKeever is content with keeping his star turf mare against relative lightweights.

Five weeks removed from a facile tally at 1-5 in a minor stakes at Fair Grounds, Daisy Devine will return Saturday to the turf course at the New Orleans track as a huge favorite once again, breaking from post 1 in the $75,000 Marie Krantz Memorial Stakes, the first of four Saturday stakes.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Can anyone beat the champ?

That’s the question that will be on everybody’s mind when the recently elected 2-year-old champion Shanghai Bobby launches his 3-year-old campaign against nine rivals in Saturday’s $400,000 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park.