Trainer Dennis Patterson has looked forward to Saturday’s $75,000 California State Fair Sprint Handicap in Sacramento for some time.

It’s Northern California’s first sprint stakes of 2012 for older fillies and mares, and Patterson believes the six-furlong race is a great spot for the 6-year-old mare Advance Ticket.

And why not? In 22 straight sprints since finishing fourth on Oct. 2, 2009, Advance Ticket has not finished worse than third, including a third in her stakes debut in the Irish O’Brien at Santa Anita this spring.

CINCINNATI – Motega will try to return to her winning ways when facing a full field of 12 Ohio-bred 3-year-old fillies in the $75,000 Norm Barron Queen City Oaks on Saturday at River Downs. The card also features the $50,000 Tah Dah for 2-year-old Ohio-bred fillies.

Beginning with the six-furlong Edmonton Juvenile in the first race, Northlands Park will feature four $50,000 stakes races Saturday. The Princess Margaret for 2-year-old fillies follows in the third race. Seven older fillies and mares will contest the one-mile John Patrick Handicap in the seventh, and closing out the stakes bonanza is the one-mile Spangled Jimmy where Commander figures to be favored in the 10-horse field.

Post time for the stakes-rich card is 1 p.m. Mountain.

Marquee races demand marquee racehorses, and Colonial Downs just may have one in Silver Max for their annual highlight, the Virginia Derby. Silver Max has been sensational in putting together a five-race win streak and will be a huge favorite Saturday night when the Grade 2, $600,000 Virginia Derby is run for the 15th time at Colonial in New Kent, Va.

Forrest Kaelin is old-school, which helps to explain the two recent workouts at Ellis Park for his stable star, Good Lord, since the Churchill Downs meet ended.

“I’m not real big on shipping,” said Kaelin, 77. “I like to train where we’re going to run. Even though I live up in Louisville most of the year, we bring everything down here to Ellis for the summer.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Peter Gregory is hoping a big effort by High End Man in a first-level allowance race at Hastings Saturday will propel the horse into the $50,000 Stellar’s Jay on B.C. Cup Day Aug. 6.

High End Man certainly looks like the one to beat in the 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, which drew six horses and goes as the third race.

Also on the eight-race card is the first leg of the Pacific Custom Brokers Marathon Series. The race overfilled and was split into two divisions, going as race 5 and 7.

There’s little doubt that Utley possesses the pedigree to be a superior racehorse. A son of Smart Strike, Utley is a half-brother to Group 1 or Grade 1 winners Rainbow View and Just as Well, along with the Grade 3 winner Winning View. His dam, No Matter What, a daughter of the great Nureyev, won the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks on turf.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Prairie Meadows stages a pair of 2-year-old stakes on Saturday night, the $75,000 Prairie Gold Lassie for fillies and the $75,000 Prairie Gold Juvenile, which drew eight colts and geldings. With both races contested at 5 1/2 furlongs, talented shippers from Kentucky, Illinois, and Minnesota aim to measure their talent against some strong locally based runners.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Zo Impressive and Disposablepleasure separated themselves from the rest of a field that included Acorn winner Contested when they finished one-two in the Grade 1 Mother Goose last month at Belmont Park. But when the two talented 3-year-old fillies meet again in Saturday’s Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga, the race figures to be anything but a two-horse affair.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – In addition to camel and ostrich races, the $50,000 John Bullit Stakes will be contested over a mile and sixteenth on the turf course on Extreme Race Day at Canterbury Park on Saturday. Several contenders in this closely matched field are coming into the contest riding winning streaks, including Arlington shipper Mr. Mischief.

Fresh off a victory in the $114,000 Black Tie Affair Handicap for Illinois-breds at Arlington, Mr. Mischief has not trailed at a single call in 2012 and will try to take advantage of what has recently been a speed-favoring turf course.