INGLEWOOD, Calif. – This spring, trainer Doug O’Neill has had as many winners in the Triple Crown as he has in the first four weeks of the Betfair Hollywood Park meeting.

While I’ll Have Another’s popular success in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes has left O’Neill at the top of racing, his Hollywood Park meeting has been slow. He has two wins with 16 starters through Sunday.

“It’s been quiet, but at the same time we’re part of some pretty cool history going on,” he said earlier this week.

Slowly, he says, the activity will increase on the home front.

It is with a mixture of frustration, hope, and envy that Michael Matz prepares Union Rags to take on I’ll Have Another in the 144th Belmont Stakes on June 9 at Belmont Park.

Frustration because of the terrible trip Union Rags had in the Kentucky Derby on May 5. Hope that Union Rags can show his best in the Belmont. And envy that another horse is going for the Triple Crown.

“I thought this horse could win the Triple Crown,” Matz said of Union Rags during a national teleconference Wednesday. “But you have to let it go, because it’s not going to come back.”

Marquee value is lacking in Friday’s nominal feature at Belmont Park, but there’s no arguing the fact that all seven shooting for their second-level allowance condition in race 8 are closely matched on paper.

ALTOONA, Iowa – With the Iowa Festival of Racing looming large the last weekend of June, Prairie Meadows conducts local preps for the Festival’s two sprint races, the $100,000 Saylorville and the $125,000 Iowa Sprint Handicap, this Friday night.

Average daily all-sources handle for the 29-day spring meet at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore jumped 14 percent, largely because of substantial gains in wagering on the track’s signal at out-of-state sites, according to figures provided by Pimlico on Wednesday.

Average handle, which includes figures from Pimlico’s closing-day Preakness Stakes card on Saturday, was $4.90 million, compared with $4.30 million last year. Both meets had 29 live racing days.

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – Owning Blackberry Czech, winner of the $268,200 Kindergarten Futurity at Los Alamitos last Sunday, was the last thing on owner Salvador Pimienta’s mind when he bought the filly’s dam several years ago.

Ra Noble was purchased with the intent of sending her to Mexico to race – until a mishap occurred the day she was scheduled to depart. Ra Noble injured her leg when she was being loaded onto a van, canceling the sale. She never left Pimienta’s home in Marana, Ariz.

With a little luck, Elana Mar would have had consecutive wins at Santa Anita over the winter.

A victory in a maiden race in January was followed by a troubled fifth in an optional claimer over a mile on turf on Feb. 23. She was beaten three-quarters of a length after bumping with a rival at the eighth pole.

The intentions of the bettor or bettors who targeted Monday's fifth race on Thistledown in Cleveland for $90,000 in late win bets remained unknown on Wednesday, according to officials who are familiar with the investigation into the wagers.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The training track turf course opened for its first official session Wednesday, and Roger Attfield, as usual, was the best customer.

Attfield sent out 12 of the 27 turf workers, with several prepping for upcoming stakes races including both offerings here this weekened.

Check Your Soul, with Alex Solis in the irons, was clocked in 59 seconds while going in company with two stablemates and has been entered in Saturday’s Eclipse.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The trainer-jockey combo of Paul Buttigieg and Justin Stein has been among the best at the Woodbine meet, with a record of 6-5-3 from 22 starters. They teamed up to capture Monday’s New Providence Stakes with Gypsy Ring, and will be represented by Is It Cool in Friday’s second race, an Ontario-sired allowance sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Is It Cool graduated second time out at 2 in a relatively slow maiden special over six furlongs Nov 5. She got the winter off after ending up fifth in an Ontario-sired allowance Nov. 24.