VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Northern Causeway, the 2011 Horse of the Year in British Columbia, returns to Hastings Sunday in the $50,000 John Longden 6000. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up drew a full field of 11 horses and anchors a solid eight-race card that begins at 1:50 p.m.

Assiniboia Downs always has billed itself as the home of the Manitoba Derby and now also will be calling itself the home of the 15-percent pick four for the 60-day meeting that opens in Winnipeg on Sunday.

Toss in a purse increase of almost 8 percent, spurred by an equivalent increase in live handle last year, and optimism was the order of the day when opening-day entries were drawn on Thursday.

“It’s an exciting time to race in Winnipeg,” said Darren Dunn, chief executive officer at Assiniboia Downs.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The addition of Jeff Burningham, Ryan Pacheco, and Enrique Gonzalez has added considerable depth to the local jockey colony at Hastings.

If one were to judge the chances of Aidan O’Brien-trained overseas shippers by the way they looked during their first morning training session at a new venue, one would think they never won.

Mike Smith knew something was wrong the second the music stopped. It was Derby Day 1994, and as far as Smith was concerned the 120th running of America’s most famous horse race was Holy Bull’s to lose. Only trouble was, as the gray colt took his place in the post parade in front of 100,000 fans, he clearly was not the keen, looking-for-trouble Holy Bull who blew away his opposition in the Florida Derby and the Blue Grass.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The brilliantly fast Essence Hit Man will try to carry his speed out to seven furlongs Sunday at Woodbine in the Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil Stakes.

Essence Hit Man captured the 2011 Sovereign Award for Canadian champion sprinter on the strength of his two six-furlong stakes scores, in the Jacques Cartier and Grade 3 Kennedy Road.

Essence Hit Man won the Jacques Cartier for the second year in a row after a winter break April 7. He set lively fractions before coasting home on top in 1:09.26, a time which earned him a career-high 104 Beyer Figure.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - All 20 prospective starters in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby visited the racetrack on Friday morning for a variety of training activity that ranged from a very easy jog by Creative Cause to a couple of two mile gallops from Optimizer and Done Talking.

[KENTUCKY DERBY: Get PPs, watch analysis video, read latest updates]

For the fourth time in the last five years, Howard Wolfendale saddled the winner of the closing-day stakes feature at Atlantic City’s all-turf meet, the $60,000 Tony Gatto/Dream Big on Thursday.

Ju Jitsu Jax, who battled up front early with Disco Dandy, swung three wide into the stretch under Kendrick Carmouche and was all-out to reach the wire of the five-furlong sprint a half-length in front of 5-2 favorite Little Nick. It was another length back to Disco Dandy in third.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Danny Vella’s barn, although a little shy in the win column, has been live this year with two victories and a total of 10 in-the-money finishes from 18 starters heading into Friday’s Woodbine program.

But, as Vella says, “There’s nothing the matter that a few winners won’t cure.”

And a horse who could pump up the stable in a big way is Big Band Sound, who will be among seven entrants in the Grade 3, $150,000 Vigil Stakes at seven furlongs here Sunday.

Trainer Andy Mathis says his 3-year-old filly Oh Molly Brannigan is running with so much confidence that he has to run her in Sunday’s $75,000 Golden Poppy at 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Golden Gate Fields.

Three straight wire-to-wire victories since stretching out to routes will do that for a Thoroughbred.

The same holds true for a trainer.

“I’m a lot more confident than I was three months ago,” said Mathis, who hopes to notch his first stakes victory in the Golden Poppy, where his budding star will meet six rivals.