Desert Ransom added another talking point to his budding résumé last Saturday at Louisiana Downs, when he became a stakes winner in the $50,000 Minstrel. Heading into the race, he had already put up the year’s second-highest Beyer Speed Figure for a 2-year-old, an 86.

For his Minstrel effort, Desert Ransom earned a Beyer of 76. He dueled early in the five-furlong turf sprint and then drew clear for a 3 1/2-length win. It was Desert Ransom’s first start on turf, and with the score, he improved his career record to 2 for 3.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three of the more impressive winners of 2-year-old maiden races at the Churchill Downs spring meet will convene Saturday night in what is shaping up as an outstanding renewal of the Grade 3, $100,000 Bashford Manor Stakes.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Garrett Gomez admits he will miss rival jockey Joel Rosario, who has relocated to New York for the rest of the summer.

“I enjoyed the competition,” he said last weekend. “I wish he wasn’t going, myself.”

But it was not as if Gomez tried to talk Rosario out of the move.

Without Rosario, Gomez, and many of his colleagues in the jockey’s room, will benefit from the absence of such a leading rider.

“It will open up a lot of doors for a lot of riders, myself included,” Gomez said.

Northern California will hold its first stakes of 2012 for older fillies and mares Saturday at the Alameda County Fair.

The $50,000-added Alameda County Fillies and Mares Stakes at 1 1/16 miles drew nine nominations, including five from trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. The group includes the 3-year-old filly Sweet Nothings, who at least got to run in the California Oaks, where she placed second, and Golden Poppy, where she placed third, at Golden Gate Fields.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A couple of city girls, Whipsaw City and Trix in the City, head a field of nine turf-meant fillies and mares in Thursday’s $85,000 Glowing Honor overnight stakes. Scheduled for seven furlongs on the Widener course, the Glowing Honor is race 9 on a 10-race program.

MIAMI – It’s been a decade since trainer D. Wayne Lukas brought Orientate down to Calder to win the 2002 Smile Sprint Handicap, the second in a string of five straight victories for the ultimate division champion that concluded with his triumph three months later in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Alternation, who lost for the first time in five 2012 starts when he finished fifth June 16 in the Stephen Foster Handicap, won’t race again until August, trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Monday.

Alternation will remain in light training, engaging in exercise like jogging at Arlington’s training track, but won’t race again until Aug. 11, when Von Hemel and owner-breeder Pin Oak Farm hope to start him in the $200,000 Governor’s Cup at Remington Park. Last October, Alternation finished a close second to Redeemed in the Oklahoma Derby at Remington.

Hooh Why will try to win her fourth turf race of the season when she takes on 10 other older fillies and mares Wednesday evening in the $100,000 Girls Incorporated of Shelbyville at Indiana Downs.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Six last-out maiden winners at six different tracks square off in Wednesday’s Track Barron, an $85,000 overnight event that serves as the first stakes of the season for 2-year-olds in New York.

The 5 1/2-furlong Track Barron, carded as race 8, is the only scheduled dirt race in a pick-six sequence with a $39,758 carryover from Sunday. After another round of rain Monday, it’s possible at least some of those five scheduled turf races could join 59 others that have already been rained off at the meet.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockey Justin Stein, who celebrated his first Queen’s Plate victory Sunday aboard Strait of Dover, will have much less fish to fry Wednesday night at Woodbine when he rides Love in Egbert in the headliner.

Love in Egbert should be favored in the eighth and final race on the card, a seven-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired nonwinners of two. She commenced her career by finishing second in three straight shorter maiden special weight sprints, including two in April.