ALTOONA, Iowa - The 7-year-old Wiredfortwotwenty controlled the pace and responded gamely when challenged to fend off 2-5 favorite Rothko and win the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap at Prairie Meadows. The Sprint was one of three stakes at Prairie Meadows Friday night, along with the $107,000 Iowa Distaff and the $90,000 Saylorville.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - John Scott is bound for a stakes at Del Mar later this summer after outfinishing Rail Trip, the winner of the 2009 Hollywood Gold Cup, in Thursday’s sixth race.
Ridden by Victor Espinoza for trainer Carla Gaines, John Scott led or disputed the pace throughout the 1 1/16 miles of the race, and held off Rail Trip to win the optional claimer by a half-length in 1:44.25.

“The horse is a fighter,” Gaines said.

AUBURN, Wash. – There’s warm, there’s hot, there’s red-hot, and then there’s Frank Lucarelli. The veteran trainer has been scalding over the past two weeks, winning with seven of his nine starters at Emerald Downs. And even that is selling Lucarelli short, since one of his losers ran second behind one of his winners. That makes it seven wins in eight races, helping Lucarelli build a 22-19 lead over Howard Belvoir and Tim McCanna in the Emerald trainer standings.

AUBURN, Wash. – A pair of restricted stakes for 2-year-olds headline a 10-race card Sunday at Emerald Downs, and with most of the runners making their first career start, handicappers will have to do some educated guesswork to identify the winners. First post is 2 p.m. Pacific, and the stakes – the $25,000 Son of Briartic for fillies, the $25,000 Slewdledo for colts and geldings – will go as races 7 and 9.

Of the 694 career wins Cody Autrey has compiled since he began training in fall 2000, just 33 have come with 2-year-olds. But that number should grow over the next few years. Autrey, who has operated an active claiming stable throughout his young career, is now making a deliberate effort to add more 2-year-olds to the barn’s mix.

Streakin’ Mohican made a splash in his Arapahoe Park debut last month, when he won a sprint stakes with a Beyer Speed Figure of 100. It was the horse’s first start for Robert Rosette and trainer Bill Brashears after being claimed in Southern California, and Streakin’ Mohican will be out to build on the success Sunday in the $40,000 Front Range at Arapahoe.

“We were pretty excited the day we got him, and just hope the magic keeps happening,” said Brashears.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The connections of Obviously expect a subtle equipment change to make a difference Sunday at Betfair Hollywood Park, where he renews a rivalry with Rauschenberg, whose improved form coincided with a not-so-subtle change in gender.

The geldings Obviously and Rauschenberg meet in the $68,000 Robert Kerlan Memorial Handicap, a six-furlong turf stakes that attracted a solid field including 2011 Kerlan winner Gallant Son, good miler John Johny Jak, and razor-sharp Comma to the Top.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – When Called to Serve makes his stakes debut in Wednesday’s $150,000 Swaps Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park, he will fulfill an expectation that owner Marc Ferrell has had for nearly two years.

Ferrell, 42, paid $290,000 for Called to Serve at the 2010 Keeneland September yearling sale, which he admits was a big ticket for his racing operation.

“I generally wouldn’t spend that much for a yearling, but he had everything you had to have,” Ferrell said. “He was the whole package.”

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Cry Cry Cry looks primed for a big effort in her second start at the meet and could be the one in a $25,000 claiming race for fillies and mares that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew eight horses and appears to be a highly competitive event.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Trainer Patrick Biancone says the filly Quaintly is “50-50” to run in the Grade 1, $500,000 United Nations Stakes.

Dan Dufford, Monmouth Park’s stakes coordinator, is banking on the odds being higher than that.

Dufford is in the process of rounding up runners for meet’s premier turf race on July 7. So far, it has been a slow process for the 1 3/8-mile stakes.

Dufford is counting on Quaintly and Eldaafer, winner of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Marathon, to make the U.N. He lists Slim Shadey as a possible entrant.