Shirley Elizabeth will be a very short-priced favorite to capture the first of two $50,000 divisions of the Oklahoma Stallion Stakes being held Friday night at Remington Park. He runs in the night’s second race, which is for 2-year-olds at six furlongs. Shirley Elizabeth will face four other colts and geldings, including three maidens, off a runner-up finish in the Oklahoma Classics Juvenile. He is adding blinkers, which is a high-percentage move for trainer Karl Broberg.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The short-term goal for Richard’s Kid is a win in Saturday’s $250,000 Native Diver Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

The long-term hope is that the 7-year-old can have enough success Saturday and early in the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting to justify a trip to the Middle East for the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March.

“I think Dubai is the main goal in front of us,” trainer Doug O’Neill said Wednesday.

Alsvid turned in a rapid final work for the $150,000 Zia Park Derby, a race in which he could go favored as Southern California shipper Private Zone will be scratched. The Zia Park Derby is one of four six-figure stakes Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., has packed into its Saturday and Sunday cards as part of its final week of racing. The track’s mixed meet closes Tuesday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Early is better.

That’s what Gulfstream Park officials are hoping when they launch the 2012-13 season on Saturday, Dec. 1, the earliest opening in track history.

Tom Albertrani enjoyed a memorable Thanksgiving weekend, winning Saturday’s Grade 2 William McKnight Handicap at Calder with Twilight Eclipse and Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch with Better Lucky.

Saturday, Albertrani will seek to continue his roll when he sends out Delightful Quality in the $75,000 Garland of Roses Stakes at Aqueduct.
A field of seven was entered for the Garland of Roses, including the supplemental coupled entry of Jelly Cable and Moonlit Malibu from the Kentucky-based barn of Eric Reed.

Arlington Park has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Racing Board alleging the board acted improperly in issuing its 2013 racing dates awards at a meeting in September.

The suit, filed with the Cook County Circuit Court, contends that the IRB acted punitively against Arlington when it switched 18 dark-host days next year from Arlington to Hawthorne, and that the board violated the Open Meetings Act when it issued dates awards at its Sept. 26 meeting.

He and his wife April just had their first child, a girl named Naelah, two months ago.

He won four graded stakes at Churchill Downs, including a sweep of the last three of the fall meet that ended Sunday.

And he has been clean of drugs and alcohol for more than two years.

Life is pretty good for 26-year-old Miguel Mena, no?

“Life is great,” Mena said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Through eight races, the 3-year-old colt Dreamcatcher has looked like a colt who would thrive in distance races and on turf. He will get at least one, and possibly both, of those conditions in Friday’s fifth race at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Dreamcatcher is entered in an optional claimer over 1 1/4 miles on turf. As of Wednesday, it was uncertain whether wet weather in the forecast for Thursday and Friday could force the race to the main track.

“We think he wants to run that far,” trainer John Sadler said. “He ran his best race last time.”

A tibia injury kept Freedom Choice from starting in the Ed Burke Million Futurity final at Los Alamitos in June. Nearly six months later, Freedom Choice has proven again he belongs in such races.

Last Sunday, Freedom Choice set the fastest qualifying time for the $2,108,275 Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Dec. 16. Ridden by Cruz Mendez, who had five winners in the 13 trial races, Freedom Choice ran 400 yards in 19.62 seconds to lead all qualifiers to the track’s richest race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Dave Cotey has been looking forward to Saturday’s Display Stakes at Woodbine on several counts.

Cotey will be sending out both Mercenary and My Name Is Michael for the $150,000 Display, a 1 1/16-mile race for 2-year-olds.

And, Cotey also is excited about giving the call on Mercenary to Skye Chernetz, the apprentice jockey who has been his go-to rider since she began her career here this spring and will be participating in her first stakes race.