ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sunday’s Connaught Cup, a seven-furlong race that is the first turf stakes of the Woodbine meeting, has lured a competitive field of 11, and one horse who could be overlooked is Riding the River, a 5-year-old gelding trained by Dave Cotey.

“If he can regain his best form and get a good trip, he’ll be right there,” said Cotey, who also owns Riding the River in partnership with Hugh Galbraith and Jim McNair.

Unfortunately for Cotey, good trips and Riding the River were seldom mentioned in the same breath last year.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Phil Hall was encouraged enough by The Gov’s win in a mile and sixteenth open allowance race May 21 to give him a shot in the $50,000 River Rock Casino next Saturday. The River Rock is the first middle-distance stakes race at the meet and it will start separating which horses might be players in the Grade 3, $200,000 British Columbia Derby Sept. 9 and which ones will be looking for easier spots.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Chad Hoverson had a hard time choosing between riding Ouch or Gosailgo in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-old fillies that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew nine horses and it appears to be a wide-open event.

Ouch and Gosail both have good breeding and have shown a lot of potential.

Hoverson made the tough choice of riding Ouch. Frank Fuentes will ride Gosailgo.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Stormy Lord goes for his second straight triumph in the $150,000 Connaught Cup Stakes Sunday at Woodbine. The seven-furlong turf sprint drew 10 others, and seems fairly wide open.

Stormy Lord put together a lucrative 2011 campaign, during which he won 4 of 7 starts and around $400,000. Aside from the Grade 2 Connaught Cup, he won the Labeeb Stakes, the Ontario Jockey Club Stakes, and the PTHA President’s Cup Stakes at Parx.

“He’s a very handy horse,” said trainer Ian Black. “He had a good season. He was in the right spots on the right day.

It will be the classic girl vs. boys showdown when Agressive Elegance faces License to Bling and 10 other colts and geldings in the $50,000 Green Carpet at River Downs on Sunday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It isn’t often that Rusty Arnold runs a horse back in nine days – but it isn’t often that he has one throw his jockey at the start as the favorite, either.

A 3-year-old gelding named Southern Parkway did just that May 18 on the Churchill Downs turf course, spilling Jesus Castanon when stumbling badly at the break. The only one hurt was Castanon, who suffered fractures in two small bones in his left hand and is sidelined for about a month as a result.

An investigation into a series of highly unusual win bets placed on the fifth race at Thistledown in Ohio on Monday has not turned up any evidence that any participants in the race had any connections to the bettors, according to officials with knowledge of the investigation.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux will enter a six-week out-patient alcohol rehabilitation program, his agent, J.R. Pegram confirmed on Friday.

The program, which begins Tuesday, will allow Desormeaux to continue to ride as he undergoes therapy.

Pegram said that Desormeaux will participate in therapy sessions each night for four to five hours. Pegram said some sessions will be done individually and some in a group setting.

Pegram said Desormeaux preferred the extended out-patient program as compared to a 28-day in-patient facility.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Jim Thibert, the chief executive officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium has advised track management and horsemen that the consortium’s offer to privatize a local casino has not been accepted by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation.

The Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium is in the final year of a lease agreement for the track with Nordic Gaming. It recognizes that without a percentage of casino profits or a government subsidy, the 2013 purse account is in jeopardy.

ELMONT, N.Y. – I’ll Have Another, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, went for a one-mile gallop in the rain Friday morning at Belmont Park where on June 9, in the Belmont Stakes, he will attempt to become Thoroughbred racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner.

Friday marked the first day I’ll Have Another galloped since his neck victory over Bodemeister in the Preakness Stakes on May 18. He returned to the track Wednesday and jogged for two days.