OLDSMAR, Fla. – On Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs, 3-year-olds will take what their connections hope are the first steps to the Grade  2 Tampa Bay Derby and Grade 3 Florida Oaks when they go postward in the $100,000 Pasco and $100,000 Gasparilla Stakes, both at seven furlongs.

PHOENIX – Why Not Be Perfect always had ability, but it looks as though the 6-year-old may have put it all together. He comes off two smashing victories to lead Saturday’s $75,000 Cotton Fitzsimmons Mile Handicap. The mile grass event drew a good field of 11.

[bc_video_id:281201:]ARCADIA, Calif. – Handsome Mike’s upset win in the Pennsylvania Derby last September looked like a fluke after he was comprehensively beaten in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Hollywood Derby in November.

Trainer Doug O’Neill hopes to show that Handsome Mike is better than those results when the colt makes his 4-year-old debut in Saturday’s $150,000 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita. O’Neill blames himself for Handsome Mike’s ninth-place finish in the BC Classic here on Nov. 3 and a 10th in the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 25.

Bold Affair won five stakes in Maryland during 2012. But bettors will have to ask themselves whether her failure as the 2-5 favorite in the Thirty Eight Go Go three weeks ago was merely a by-product of a troubled trip or a warning sign that the sharp form she maintained during a 10-race campaign is due to deteriorate.

At anything close to her best, the 5-year-old Bold Affair should trounce her seven rivals in Saturday’s $100,000 What a Summer Stakes at Laurel Park. But if she doesn’t run faster than she did last time out, Bold Affair could be in big trouble.

Zeewat looks like a standout as 3-year-olds take their first steps along the Derby trail Saturday in the $100,000 California Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

Zeewat added blinkers and scored a resounding victory in the one-mile Gold Rush, Golden Gate’s prep for Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile California Derby, defeating rivals Condiment by 3 1/4 lengths and My Best Bet by 4 1/4 lengths. He did it by settling behind a slow early pace, taking the lead on his own, and pulling away when jockey Russell Baze finally asked him to run in the stretch.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bred in Canada and based in Maryland, Lady Banks has made her mark in New York.

Lady Banks will try to become a stakes winner Saturday when she tops a six-horse field of 3-year-old fillies entered in the $75,000 Ruthless Stakes going six furlongs at Aqueduct.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The complexion of Saturday’s $150,000 Ft. Lauderdale changed dramatically the morning of the race with the news that Dominus, the 123-pound highweight and likely favorite, had been scratched from the Grade 2 turf event.

Fair Grounds canceled its Thursday card after heavy rain hit the track late in the morning. The cancellation was the first of the 2012-2013 meet.

Rain began falling in New Orleans earlier in the morning before a line of strong storms with powerful rain hit the area around 11:30. More strong storms were possible later in the afternoon.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Jockey Calvin Borel, one win shy from career victory 5,000 but now sidelined several weeks from reaching the milestone after having been found to have a broken bone in his left wrist, will likely make his return to riding at Oaklawn, said his agent, Jerry Hissam, although there is a chance the comeback could come at Fair Grounds.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Alternation, who won last year’s Grade 2 Oaklawn Handicap, was freshened in Kentucky this fall and returned to Oaklawn in mid-December. He has been galloping, said his trainer, Donnie Von Hemel.

“It will be a bit before he’s ready to breeze,” said Von Hemel, who trains the horse for Pin Oak Stable.

Von Hemel said there is no set time frame for Alternation’s return, but that defense of his Oaklawn Handicap title is a goal. The $500,000 race will be run on the closing day card, April 13.