ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Strait of Dover, who would have been a solid choice here in Sunday’s Plate Trial, now will be heading straight to the Queen’s Plate.

“We pulled another blood on him [Friday] morning, and it was not a whole lot better,” said trainer Danny Vella, who had been put on alert when the results of a blood test on Thursday were not satisfactory. “It looks like he’s trying to come down with something.

“We’ll back off him for a week, and he’ll be fine. He’ll have two big works before the Plate.”

An off-season construction project has hopefully solved two problems that have discouraged patrons from attending the races at Colonial Downs each summer.

By shifting the focus of the facility’s light standards from the 1  1/4-mile dirt track, where the lights were primarily used for harness racing in the fall, to the turf course, where 80 percent of Colonial’s Thoroughbred races are run, the Virginia track can avoid running most of its eight-week, 32-date season during the day, when oppressive heat and traffic jams from beachgoers on Interstate 64 were major drawbacks to fans.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – At some point, Good Deed might feel like she’s surrounded by 5-year-old mares – unless, of course, she can just flat outrun them.

As a 3-year-old filly trying older mares for the first time Saturday night in the Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs, Good Deed will face a trio of Bret Calhoun-trained 5-year-olds – Gleaming, Beat the Blues, and Speedacious – in what shapes up as an intriguing renewal of the six-furlong race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Dixie Strike, an impressive winner of the Grade 3 Selene Stakes over 1 1/16 miles here May 13, has been made the 6-5 morning-line favorite for Sunday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.

A field of nine was announced at the post-position draw here Thursday for the Woodbine Oaks, a 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies.

Dixie Strike, who will be ridden by Patrick Husbands, is one of three Woodbine Oaks entrants conditioned by Mark Casse, along with Northern Passion and Black Bird Rock.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Devil in Disguise and Clear the Runway look like the main players in the $50,000 River Rock Casino for 3-year-olds at Hastings Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile feature drew six horses and goes as the seventh race. Post time for the first race is 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

The River Rock is the first middle-distance stakes race for 3-year-olds at Hastings this year and Devil in Disguise figures to relish the added distance.

After 12 days of racing there is a close race developing for leading trainer at Northlands Park. Greg Tracy, Robertino Diodoro and Ron Grieves are all tied with seven wins apiece.

Grieves could move to the lead on Saturday with three horses entered compared to one for Diodoro and none for Tracy. All three horses Grieves entered, Trust in Time in the third, Cruzenforchicks in the sixth, and Rum Chase in the seventh, look very live.

Look At the Time, who finished fifth in the Grade 2 American Turf at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks Day last month, returns to Louisiana-bred company Saturday night as he heads up the field in the $50,000 Rajun Cajun Stakes at Evangeline Downs.

The Wes Hawley-trained Look At the Time will square off against nine fellow 3-year-olds at seven furlongs.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It has been nearly 10 years since Ken McPeek pulled off a Triple Crown shocker by sending out a 70-1 shot named Sarava to win the Belmont Stakes. McPeek was booked on a Friday night flight from Kentucky for New York, where he will prepare what he called “a couple of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost horses” in Atigun and Unstoppable U in their bids to thwart I’ll Have Another from becoming the 12th Triple Crown winner.

“You never know, I might have another Sarava,” said McPeek.

ALTOONA, Iowa -- With the Grade 3 $200,000 Iowa Oaks and the Grade 3 $250,000 Iowa Derby just four weeks away, Prairie Meadows stages a pair of key preps for those events on Saturday night, the $60,000 Panthers Stakes and the $60,000 Prairie Mile.

The Panthers, for 3-year-old fillies going a two-turn mile, has attracted six runners, headed by Tapajo, an impressive 1 1/4-length winner of the six-furlong, $60,000 Goldfinch Stakes on opening night, April 20, here.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Dancing Raven, winner of the restricted Ballade Stakes here last year, has ended on the fringes when facing graded stakes fillies and mares in her two starts this spring.

On Saturday, Dancing Raven will be back with her own kind in the $125,000 Ballade, a six-furlong stakes for Ontario-sired fillies and mares, and looms the one to beat for trainer Michael Doyle.