NORTH RANDALL, Ohio - Raise the Reward displayed a great deal of determination to hold Catlaunch safe and capture the $50,000 Michael F. Rowland Memorial Handicap here on Saturday.

Raise the Reward hopped a bit at the start of the six-furlong race, recovered quickly to settle just off the pace while between horses, went up to engage Catlaunch on the middle of the turn, then battled with that one until deep stretch, eventually prevailing by a length. It was 1 3/4 lengths farther back to Best Air, who finished third in the 12-horse field of accredited Ohio 3-year-olds and up.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Favored Hunters Bay trounced a solid group of older horses Saturday at Woodbine in the Grade 3, $156,300 Eclipse Stakes.

Emma Wilson rated Hunters Bay just off a trio of front-runners in the 1 1/16-mile route and then made a three-wide bid on the far turn. Hunters Bay went by Chicago shipper Mister Marti Gras early in the stretch, before drawing off for a three-length score in 1:42.63, which was just .41 of a second off the Polytrack record.

Winning Image got loose on the lead, then had to repel challenges from three rivals in deep stretch to score a narrow victory in Saturday’s $150,000 My Juliet Stakes at Parx Racing.

Sent off as the fourth choice in a field of five fillies and mares, the 5-year-old Winning Image ($12.20) broke fastest of all from the rail under Jose Caraballo and despite ducking in slightly leaving the chute, forged a two-length advantage in the opening quarter-mile, run in 22.15 seconds, of the six-furlong My Juliet.

As the only stakes winner in the lineup, and coming off a good effort in her first start of the season, Somali Lemonade will be favored over seven other 3-year-old fillies in Monday’s $200,000 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park.

The Grade 2 Sands Point, scheduled for the inner turf at 1 1/16 miles, is race 7 and the first leg of an all-stakes pick four with a $500,000 guaranteed pool. Post time is 4:06 p.m. Eastern.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The conversation between owner Samantha Siegel and trainer Ron Ellis was quick and to the point.

Rail Trip, a four-time stakes winner with Ellis in 2009 and 2010, had lost his rider at the start of a minor stakes at Aqueduct last November when Siegel decided she had seen enough. A winless five-race campaign for Rail Trip in New York was about to end. The gelding was on his way back to California and Ellis.

“I told him, ‘How would you like to have Rail Trip?’ ” Siegel recalls. “I kind of knew the answer.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – A refreshed Unbridled Humor heads back to work in the Grade 3, $100,000 Violet Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf, the Memorial Day feature at Monmouth Park.

The 10-race card gets underway at 12:50 p.m. Eastern and concludes the holiday racing weekend on the Jersey Shore. Starting June 1, Monmouth expands to a three-day schedule of Friday through Sunday.

The Violet, a longtime fixture at the Meadowlands Racetrack, attracted a field of eight for the 1 1/16-mile race.

As the weekend unfolded, the field remained in flux.

Plus One ran only 12 days ago, but trainer Tim Hamm said he just couldn’t pass up Tuesday evening’s entry-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies at Presque Isle Downs.

“She faced older, multiple winners in her last and ran a big race,” Hamm said. “It was just a great effort and shae came back and is doing really good, so we had to run her in this spot.”

Plus One set blazing fractions of of 21.60 and 44.60 secondsin that five-furlong allowance here on May 17 but was caught in deep stretch and beaten a neck.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – From a numerical standpoint, no horse has run a better dirt race this year than Nates Mineshaft. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 113 for his tour-de-force New Orleans Handicap, and if he runs back to that North American-high Monday in the Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, the 1 1/16-mile racewill be a race for second. But if Nates Mineshaft fails to recapture his form of two starts ago, fellow graded winners Marilyn’s Guy and Apart look poised to add to their credentials in what is the richest race of the meet at Lone Star Park.

There’s a familiar storyline heading into Monday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap at Golden Gate Fields: A highly accomplished veteran millionaire heads the field and will be the target of several very sharp opponents.

But instead of the favorite being Bold Chieftain, who lost the race by a head in each of the past three years, it will be Awesome Gem.

Among his main opponents in the 1 1/16-mile Tapeta race are Hudson Landing, Gallant Son, Positive Response and Anthony’s Cross.

Gibson Crystal is the likely favorite, but will have her work cut out for her as a solid field of older fillies and mares goes six furlongs in the $15,000 Bluegrass Stakes at Lincoln Race Course on Monday.