LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ravi’s Song seems deserving of a little luck coming into Saturday night's Grade 3, $100,000 Mine Julep Handicap at Churchill Downs. After winning a pair of stakes last year at Fair Grounds, she has gone nearly 15 months without a victory, while experiencing a number of close second-place finishes.

Two such losses came on the same Churchill Downs turf course over which she will race Saturday, first in last June’s Mint Julep, when she fell a neck short of My Baby Baby, and later when she was a half-length behind Deluxe in Grade 3 Cardinal last November.

Diamond Joe should rule a heavy favorite in a field of Nebraska-bred 3-year-olds in the colts and geldings division of the $20,000 Lincoln Breeders’ Special going six furlongs on Saturday at Lincoln Race Course.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Belmont Stakes lost one starter on Thursday morning. Then it nearly lost its star.

Alpha, one of four graded stakes winners in the prospective field for the Belmont Stakes was withdrawn from consideration because of a fever, according to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.

Meanwhile, the race could have lost its marquee player - Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another - when the 3-year-old filly Isleta, trained by Carl Domino, dumped her rider and got loose shortly after I'll Have Another came on the track for training around 8:45 a.m.

Sweet Dixie Van will have recency on her chief rivals, Illusive Crystals and Vanasee, on Saturday when she makes her third start of the year in the $30,000 Ingrid Knotts at Arapahoe Park. The six-furlong race is for fillies and mares bred in Colorado.

Sweet Dixie Van has been racing at Will Rogers Downs this spring, while the Ingrid Knotts will be the first start since last year’s Arapahoe meet for both Illusive Crystals and Vanasee. Vanasee is coupled with Sweet Dixie Vann.

A clean trip might be all Cougar Hollow needs to win Saturday’s featured seventh race at Lone Star Park. He is part of a nine-horse field in the first-level allowance for 3-year-olds and up at a mile on turf.

Also set to start is Stop Talking, a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Summer Colony who won his maiden at Lone Star on May 3.

ELMONT, N.Y. – C C’s Pal and Nicole H were separated by a nose when they were second and fourth, respectively, in last Saturday’s $150,000 My Juliet Stakes at Parx Racing.

The two 5-year-old mares come back on short rest to knock heads again when they head a seven-horse field entered in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont Park.

MIAMI – Conway Two Step has not started since September, when she registered an impressive 2 1/2-length victory over Frolic’s Revenge in the Brave Raj Stakes. When Conway Two Step finally returns to make her 3-year-old debut Saturday, she will find the same Frolic’s Revenge waiting as the one to beat in Calder’s $55,000 Regal Gal Stakes.

Conway Two Step’s promising 2-year-old campaign came to a quick halt one week after the Brave Raj, when she suffered a bout of colic that became serious enough to ultimately require surgery.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Trainer Wayne Catalano and owner Frank Calabrese put an indelible stamp on the Arlington Park meeting during the peak of their association. From 2000 to 2012, Calabrese won outright or shared the Arlington owners title every season, and during that span, Catalano was leading trainer eight times. Catalano and Calabrese parted ways a couple of years ago, and they will meet as rivals in the $65,000 Meafara Stakes on Saturday at Arlington, with the Catalano-trained Atlantic Tap and the Calabrese-owned Sabrina’s Dance likely to hook up in an early pace battle.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer Bob Baffert is separating his top sprinters Roman Threat and The Factor in Grade 1 stakes in coming weeks.

Roman Threat, who won his first stakes in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park on Monday, will not start again until the $300,000 Bing Crosby Stakes at Del Mar on July 28 and will skip the $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap on June 30.

“I’ll probably just wait,” Baffert said.

Old Bushmill will attempt to improve his record over the Louisiana Downs turf course to 4 for 4 on Saturday when he runs in the $50,000 John Franks Memorial. The one-mile race is one of two stakes on the card, both restricted to horses bred in Louisiana.

The races are the first stakes of the meet that began in May. Old Bushmill is part of a competitive, nine-horse field that includes fellow stakes winners Kissimmee Kyle, Productive Envoy, Wildrally, Classic Cascade, and String King.

“That group, we’ve all beat each other,” said Morris Nicks, who trains Old Bushmill.