LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A colt named Phillippe was quite productive at 3, finishing second in three stakes while earning more than $90,000 for his owner-breeder, Don Adam of the Courtlandt Farms. But the proverbial sledding has been tougher at 4, as he has yet to finish better than fifth in three races this year.

“You’d have thought he’d already won a ‘two other than,’ but he was so competitive in those stakes last year that I hardly gave him a chance,” said trainer Jimmy Baker. “This year, running against older horses, it’s been a different ballgame.”

AUBURN, Wash. - Sparks could fly Friday at Emerald Downs when Seattle Game and Champali Lace hook up in the feature race. The seven-race card kicks off at 6 p.m. Pacific, and the feature, a $10,000 claiming sprint for fillies and mares, is the sixth race on the program.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – An outside draw into a compact field puts Namaskara in a favorable spot in the featured $44,000, second-level optional claimer for fillies and mares on the first Friday program of the meet at Monmouth Park.

After racing weekends in May, Monmouth now extends to a Friday through Sunday schedule. First post will be 12:45 p.m. Eastern for the 10-race card.

Namaskara, a 4-year-old homebred for Flaxman Holdings Limited trained by Graham Motion, has the outside post against six rivals going 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Management at Hastings is hoping the positive trend at the current meet will continue with the first evening card this Friday. Post time for the seven races scheduled is 7:15 p.m. Pacific. There are 11 Fridays scheduled through Aug. 17.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Frostad saddled three winners of the Woodbine Oaks during his days with Sam-Son Farm, which began in 1994 and ended this spring.

On Sunday, Frostad will be looking to take down a Woodbine Oaks in his new guise as a public trainer when he sends out Irish Mission for the $500,000, 1 1/8 mile-race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Irish Mission, owned by Robert S. Evans, was purchased from Sam-Son for $375,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale in August of 2010.

Cold Cash 123, the reigning Quarter Horse World Champion, is coming to California this fall. But when he will arrive and who will train him remains to be seen.

Last Sunday at Remington Park, Cold Cash 123 earned an automatic berth to the $750,000 Champion of Champions at Los Alamitos on Dec. 15 with a victory in the $250,000 Remington Park Championship in Oklahoma.

Trained by Texas-based Sleepy Gilbreath for Michigan residents Walter and Carolyn Bay, Cold Cash 123 is unbeaten in two starts this year, having won the Leo Stakes at Remington Park in March.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Spectacular Sky ran the best race of her career in an optional claimer over 6 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita back in February. A repeat of that performance may be good enough to win Friday’s $70,000 Reminiscing Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Run over 7 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares who have not won a stakes worth $50,000 to the winner, the Reminiscing Stakes will be the longest start for the 4-year-old Spectacular Sky since she finished a well-beaten fifth in an optional claimer over 1 1/16 miles here last May.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Steve Attard will take two shots at Friday’s featured eighth race at Woodbine when he saddles uncoupled Guitar Solo and Iwillgotothemoon in the second-level optional $62,500 claimer on the turf.

Guitar Solo is experimenting on the grass with a dirt-oriented pedigree, but having turf breeding isn’t a prerequisite for success in turf sprints, in which speed usually trumps stamina.

Pollard’s Boy and Love Those Boots, both idle since producing career-best Beyer Speed Figures last fall, will try to pick up where they left off when they return in the Danzig, the first of two $75,000 stakes for Pennsylvania-breds sprinting six furlongs on Friday night’s card at Penn National.

Get in Da House has one major objective this summer: the $200,000 Governor’s Cup at Remington Park on Aug. 11. He is the lone horse eligible for a $20,000 bonus tied to the race, and has several routes he can take to get there after running second in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap on Monday.