INGLEWOOD, Calif. – By default, Stoney Fleece has inherited the role of favorite for Saturday’s $300,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-old California-breds at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Two other candidates for that role were not entered. Rousing Sermon, who won the California Cup Juvenile last fall, is being pointed to the Kentucky Derby on May 5. Derby Gold, who won the Echo Eddie Stakes at Santa Anita in his stakes debut last month, fought sore shins earlier this month, trainer Bob Baffert said, and is not starting Saturday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A Jealous Woman was strides from her first stakes win in the American Beauty Stakes at Santa Anita earlier this month when Belle Royale rallied wide to win by a half-length.

“She gave me everything,” jockey Brice Blanc said. “She drew away from everybody and did everything right.”

Blanc rides A Jealous Woman again in Saturday’s $125,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park, hoping that the 6-year-old mare can finally have a breakthrough performance in a stakes.

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1. Black Gold, bred and owned by Rosa Hoots, captured the inaugural Derby Trial by eight lengths as the 3-5 betting favorite.

Hoots paid to breed an Oklahoma-bred mare, Useeit, owned and raced by her and her late husband, Al, to Col. Edward R. Bradley’s fashionable stallion Black Toney.

LOUISVLLE, Ky. – Thursday was a another day of relative inactivity on the Kentucky Derby watch here at Churchill Downs, where early morning showers gave way to sunshine and warm temperatures by the time the special Derby-Oaks training session began at 8:30 a.m. Only seven potential Derby starters trained, including likely favorite Bodemeister, who merely jogged one mile the wrong way accompanied by a pony on his first day back to the track following Tuesday’s five-furlong breeze.

From the 1930’s through the 1970’s, the parking lots at Churchill Downs were filled with tour buses the Tuesday of Kentucky Derby week, bringing people from as far away as St. Louis, Chicago, and Atlanta.

Attendance on that afternoon would soar, at times in the 1940’s and 1950’s rivaling the crowds that would attend the Kentucky Oaks three days later.

The travelers, most of whom did not have seating for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, were there in hopes of seeing their Derby favorite or the potential Derby winner in that afternoon’s Derby Trial.

From a business perspective, the first quarter of 2012 was good for the New York Racing Association, which saw significant increases in handle at Aqueduct.

Due in large part to great weather, which enabled Aqueduct to run 78 dates from Jan. 1 through April 22, total handle on Aqueduct’s races was $513,798,303, a 22.6 percent increase from the $419,112,928 wagered in 2011 when 73 cards were run during the same time period. Average daily handle was $6,587,158, or 14.7 percent higher than the 2011 figure of $5,741,273.

A berth for the Grade 1, $125,000 Red Cell Distance Challenge Championship will be on the line in Saturday night’s $22,500 Texas Distance Challenge at Sam Houston Race Park. A field of six horses will go in the 870-yard race, with the winner to earn a berth into the rich Distance Challenge Championship at Prairie Meadows on Oct. 27.

Candy Cartel will be seeking her seventh consecutive win when she takes on male rivals Saturday night in the $100,000 Sooner State for Quarter Horses at Remington Park. The restricted Grade 1 is for 3-year-olds and up bred in Oklahoma.

Candy Cartel is the lone filly or mare in the 400-yard race that also drew A Toss Up, who has won two stakes in his last three starts at Remington, the $246,000 Oklahoma-Bred Derby on April 14, and the Grade 2 Eastex Handicap over older rivals on March 4.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – The Fonner Park season reaches its pinnacle Saturday when a field 10 older horses meet in the $75,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes going 1 1/16 miles.

Shadowbdancing, winner of this race in 2010 and fourth in last year’s edition for trainer Terrel Gore, ships here off a strong second in the Cryptoclearance Stakes at Hawthorne on April 7 in his seasonal debut. Gore brings in Israel Ocampo to ride the 3-1 morning line favorite.

OPELOUSAS, La. – The first turf stakes of the young Evangeline Downs meeting, Saturday’s $50,000 John Henry, has attracted a full field of 12.