Jockey Dale Beckner reached a personal milestone with a victory number 1,000 on Tuesday evening at Presque Isle Downs aboard Pompous Time ($22.60) for trainer John Bourke. The 39 year-old Spokane, Wash., native won the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice rider in 1994. Beckner has suffered several setbacks from injuries in his career, most recently in August 2009 when he suffered muliple facial fractures when injured in a spill locally. Beckner’s mount Private Exchange broke down in the first race on August 28 and he was trampled by a trailing horse.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Game On Dude, runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs last November, will make his first start since a 12th in the Dubai World Cup in Saturday’s $150,000 Californian Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Trainer Bob Baffert finalized his plans after watching Game On Dude work seven furlongs in 1:24 at Santa Anita last Sunday, the horse’s fifth workout since returning to training following the Dubai World Cup on March 31. Baffert said he timed Game On Dude galloping out a mile in 1:37.

AUBURN, Wash. – Bob Meeking has been saddling horses since the year 1947 BC – Before Citation – in a rollicking training career spanning parts of eight decades. Still going strong at 83, he has been witness to four Triple Crown winners since taking out his first trainer’s license. He would like nothing more than to see I’ll Have Another make it five with a victory a week from Saturday in the Belmont Stakes.

The time has arrived, Patrice Wolfson said Wednesday, to pass the Triple Crown torch. Wolfson and her late husband, Lou, owned the last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, who swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in 1978. The torch has been in her hands so long, she might have third-degree burns.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – When Rich Papiese, the principal in Midwest Thoroughbreds, announced that he would be stabling his Chicago string trained by Roger Brueggemann at Hawthorne this summer, he asserted that Midwest would be as active as any owner at Arlington Park despite not keeping horses on the grounds. And Papiese has been true to his word. Through Monday’s races, Midwest has sent out more runners (33) and won more races (6) than any other Arlington owner, and the Midwest-Brueggemann connection has horses entered in all three allowances races on the Friday program here.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Sunlight Sonata, who was pulled up in a stakes three weeks ago but came back none the worse for wear, is the one to beat in Friday’s featured optional claiming sprint scheduled for the inner turf at six furlongs.

After a wire-to-wire win over maiden turf sprinters in her seasonal bow last year, Sunlight Sonata raced competitively in three stakes starts, among them the Lake George, in which she set the pace against multiple stakes-winning stablemate Winter Memories.

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.