ARCADIA, Calif. – Since the summer of 2011, Ismene has impressed trainer Bill Spawr with nearly all her actions, particularly her workouts and her unbeaten three-race campaign that year.

“I couldn’t believe when we got her at Del Mar,” he said, recalling that season. “I thought something was wrong with my watch.”

Spawr’s watch was fine. Ismene was plain fast, a point proven with two stakes wins in 2011. She missed 2012 because of a knee injury and hind end soreness and makes her 4-year-old debut in an optional claimer over six furlongs at Santa Anita on Friday.

Coinciding with the unofficial “reopening” of the Fair Grounds turf course this week, the New Orleans track will feature three turf races among its four stakes on a terrific 12-race Saturday card.

Two of those grass races – the Marie Krantz Memorial and the Col. E.R. Bradley Handicap – are rescheduled events after being postponed last Saturday, when wet conditions rendered the course unusable. In fact, until this week, only one race had been run over the turf course since Jan. 1.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Aqueduct’s Friday card is Exhibit A why the New York Racing Association Reorganization Board at its meeting the same day should do more than just consider reducing this track’s winter schedule.

Only 60 horses were entered for the nine races, and there will be at least one scratch from three races due to the same jockey being named on both halves of an entry. Four races have only five betting interests, and only two races have as many as eight betting interests.

Jockey Russell Baze is approaching another milestone that he can reach Friday at Golden Gate Fields.

Baze, who picked up three wins Monday to increase his career total to 11,836, is just six mounts away from riding in his 50,000th Thoroughbred race. He will be the first U.S.-based rider to reach that mark.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. –After looking for weeks for an ideal spot for Escrow Kid and not really finding anything to his exact liking, trainer Rudy Rodriguez entered him in Friday’s featured seventh race at Gulfstream Park, an optional claimer in which he will be taking on some accomplished turf sprinters, like Awakino Cat.

That is, of course, unless it rains.

“I’m hoping for rain,” Rodriguez said. “That would be nice.”

Jockey Ramon Dominguez, who suffered a slightly displaced skull fracture in a spill last Friday at Aqueduct, was moved on Tuesday from Jamaica Medical Center Hospital in Queens, N.Y., to New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, according to his wife, Sharon.

"Ramon is doing really well and resting comfortably," Sharon Dominguez said in a press release issued through the New York Racing Association.

More Chocolate, upset winner of the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes on Sunday, will start in the $300,000 Santa Margarita Stakes over 1 1/8 miles on March 16, trainer John Sadler said. He plans to skip the $200,000 Santa Maria Stakes on Feb. 16 to have More Chocolate ready for the richest race of the meeting for older females.

“She’s already run twice at the meeting,” Sadler said. “I want to try her at a mile and an eighth.”

Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 trained by Richard Mandella, will be pointed to the $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes on March 2 after her surprising second to Renee’s Titan in Monday’s $150,000 Santa Ynez Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs.

Renee’s Titan ($43.80) closed more than five lengths in the final furlong to win the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes by three-quarters of a length over Beholder, the 1-5 favorite who finished a nose in front of pacesetter Dawn’s Charm.

Larry Jones didn’t win a Saturday stakes at Fair Grounds, but the losses he took left him optimistic. Mark Valeski finished second in the Louisiana Handicap, a race he probably needed for fitness, while 3-year-old filly Smitten rallied for third in the Silverbulletday, a race she probably needed for experience.

Mark Valeski, unraced since May 12 because of a knee injury, pressed Hurricane Ike’s slow pace in the Louisiana Handicap, but could not hold clear Infrattini while drifting out in the final furlong.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oxbow and Will Take Charge have put their Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, front and center on the Kentucky Derby trail after a holiday weekend in which they won 3-year-old preps at two different tracks. Oxbow romped by 11 lengths in the Grade 3, $200,000 Lecomte at Fair Grounds on Saturday, while Will Take Charge fought for a neck win in the $150,000 Smarty Jones at Oaklawn on Monday.