VANCOUVER, British Columbia − Trainer Tak Inouye will try to win Sunday’s $50,000 Boulevard Casino Stakes at Hastings with Lil Miss Bean, who figures to be a bit of a longshot in the six-furlong sprint for 2-year-old fillies. Inouye knows something about longshots, though. He won the 1965 Queen’s Plate aboard Whistling Sea, the Roy Johnson-trained horse who became the first Western-based runner to win the race. Inouye was a longshot just to ride Whistling Sea, let alone win the race.

FORT ERIE, Ontario − The Prince of Wales Stakes, scheduled for next Sunday at Fort Erie, will have its post-position draw Wednesday, and the drawmaster will be the none other than Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, winner of the Triple Crown in 1973 with the mighty Secretariat.

The Prince of Wales is the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. The first leg, the Queen’s Plate, was won by Strait of Dover on June 24 at Woodbine.

Flags flew at half staff and there was a moment of silence preceding the national anthem at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif., on Friday, a day after jockey Jorge Herrera, 33, was killed in a racing accident there.

Herrera’s death was the first at Pleasanton since Juan Gonzalez, exactly 37 years earlier, on July 5, 1975.

Maiden races for 2-year-olds at Del Mar this summer will have a maximum of 10 starters, director of racing Tom Robbins said on Thursday.

The decision comes a day after the New York Racing Association announced that 2-year-old maiden races for sprinters at Saratoga this summer will have a maximum of eight starters.

Robbins said the decision was reached after consulting with the Thoroughbred Owners of California. The issue was discussed in the past, but Robbins said the owners’ group rejected the limited field size in a conversation several years ago.

Trainer Bobby Martinez and jockey David Alvarez have the fastest qualifiers for a rich Quarter Horse stakes double at Delta Downs on Saturday night. The men will team with Shakem Little Corona in the Grade 2, $327,715 Firecracker Futurity and Runaway Wagon in the $144,065 Firecracker Derby.

Shakem Little Corona won her 350-yard trial for the Firecracker Futurity in 17.30 seconds June 16 to remain undefeated in two starts. She won by a half-length under Alvarez. Shakem Little Corona, who races for Bobby J. Barnett, will break from post 4.

The restricted $60,000 Iowa Stallion Stakes, a mile and 70-yard race for eligible and nominated 3-year-olds, headlines Saturday evening’s nine-race program at Prairie Meadows.

The field of seven, which is composed of four geldings, two fillies, and the Minnesota-bred colt Sun Country, is headed by the Iowa-bred filly Rudy’s Edge, who has won two straight route races locally, both for trainer Lynn Chleborad. Most recently, Rudy’s Edge used her tactical speed to good effect when holding older female rivals safe by a half-length in a June 21 Iowa-bred allowance.

A pair of first-level allowances serve as the nominal features on the first Saturday of the 2012 meet at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., with both offering up $33,000 purses.

The first allowance goes as race 4 on the nine-race card and is for 3-year-old fillies going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track. Cheery, with Corey Lanerie riding for trainer Al Stall Jr., looks like a major contender on a turnback after finishing second in a recent two-turn race at Churchill Downs for this same condition. Whispering Wisdom and Totally Tucker figure as her chief threats in a field of six.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert will need the entire nation to keep apart his deep roster of 3-year-olds in coming months.

With horses such as Bodemeister, the runner-up in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, and Paynter, second in the Belmont Stakes, leading the team, Baffert added another horse to watch on Wednesday when Blueskiesnrainbows won his first stakes in the $150,000 Swaps Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s not enough that trainer Christophe Clement is winning all the turf races at Belmont Park this meet. Now, he’s starting to be a factor in the juvenile races on dirt as well.

On Wednesday, Clement sent out Native One, a 2-year-old filly by Indian Charlie, to a good-looking six-length victory over heavily favored Sweet N Discreet, trained by Todd Pletcher.

Native One, owned and bred by Edward Cox Jr., ran five furlongs in 57.84 seconds and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 81.

Trainer Mark Casse is well aware that a short field can spell trouble for an odds-on favorite in the case of a too-slow pace.

“These races do seem to become quite a bit more tactical,” said Casse.