Tapajo, rated kindly by jockey Alex Birzer, found an opening at the furlong marker and surged clear to take the $60,000 Goldfinch Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year old fillies on Friday, opening night of the Prairie Meadows meeting.

Owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and trained by Steve Asmussen, Tapajo scored by 1 1/4 lengths over pacesetting second choice Nurse Goodnight. Appealing Susan chased the leaders throughout and finished a length farther back in third. Tapajo paid $5 as the favorite.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Great Warrior, the winner of an optional claimer for sprinters in a 25-1 upset at Santa Anita on Thursday, will be pointed for the $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 30.Unraced since finishing 12th in the Grade 2 Oak Tree Derby last October, Great Warrior, 4, was ridden by Omar Berrio, his first winner since Great Warrior won the Pomona Derby at Fairplex Park last September.

Berrio works primarily as an exercise rider for A.C. Avila, who trains Great Warrior. Thursday's race was his ninth mount of 2012.

ARCADIA, Calif. - On Next Saturday's California Gold Rush day for statebreds, the $300,000 Melair Stakes for 3-year-olds fillies over 1 1/8 miles is expected to be led by Willa B Awesome, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on March 31. The $300,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/8 miles lost its favorite on Thursday when trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said that Rousing Sermon will be pointed for the Kentucky Derby.

Without Rousing Sermon, the leading contender is Derby Gold, the winner of the Echo Eddie Stakes for statebred sprinters on Dec. 31.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Reneesgotzip, second in two Grade 1 stakes for 3-year-olds fillies this spring - the Las Virgenes and Santa Anita Oaks - will not start in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 4 and will be pointed for the $300,000 Acorn Stakes on May 28 at Belmont Park, trainer Peter Miller said.

Miller said that Reneesgotzip will be kept to races around one turn this year, with the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Santa Anita on Nov. 2 as a long-term goal. Both the Las Virgenes over a mile and the Santa Anita Oaks over 1 1/16 miles were around two turns.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – On a day that otherwise belonged to jockey Julien Leparoux, who rode a record-tying six winners, Pachattack and jockey Rajiv Maragh won the Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare on Friday at Keeneland.

Trainer Jeremiah Englehart and jockey Wilfredo Rohena combined to win five races on Friday’s opening day nine-race card at Finger Lakes.

Another Englehart runner, Star Dance M D, got beat a half-length in the opener at Aqueduct.

At Finger Lakes, Englehart won the third with Seeking El Dorado ($4.60), the fifth with Malla ($18.80), the sixth with Check the Cites ($4.60), the seventh with Brazen Kat ($5.70) and the ninth with Phantom F Four ($3.10). Three of his winners got claimed as did Star Dance M D.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Julien Leparoux matched a record shared by two other jockeys in riding six winners at Keeneland on Friday. His riding achievement matched the win mark shared by jockeys Randy Romero and Craig Perret, who each won six races apiece on different days during the spring meet at Keeneland in 1990.

Leparoux had a chance to own the record outright if he had won the featured Doubledogdare, but his mount, Kathmanblu, finished second, beaten a neck by favored Pachattack in a stirring stretch duel.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Jim Lawson, who has served as a Woodbine Entertainment Group director since June 2008, has been appointed a vice chairman of the company.

WEG announced Lawson’s appointment following a board of directors meeting here Friday.

Lawson also sits on several committees at Woodbine, including the Thoroughbred racing committee, and is the chief steward of the Jockey Club of Canada.

Active in the racing industry, Lawson is an owner and manages Jim Dandy Stable.

As the leading trainer at Lone Star Park the past two years, trainer Bret Calhoun has made many trips to the track’s winner’s circle. He just wasn’t there Thursday night, although it proved a milestone day, when favored Forty Winks won the third race to give him 2,000 victories in his career.

Calhoun didn’t reach that lofty number by dwelling on the past, or even simply eyeing the present. He, like most successful trainers and people, keeps looking to the future.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The prestige of the San Juan Capistrano Handicap may have slipped, but for fans of Santa Anita, the 1 3/4-mile turf race always brings heartfelt symbolism.

As the traditional closing-day feature, the Grade 2 San Juan is the end of the line. It is time to turn the page. After the final card of the Santa Anita winter meet on Sunday, the circuit packs up and moves to Hollywood Park for a spring meet that begins Thursday.