AUBURN, Wash. – Tim McCanna spent much of the winter and early spring hauling horses the 700 miles between the San Francisco Bay Area and his ranch in Yakima, Wash. “Doing laps” is what the trainer called his long-haul routine, all part of his effort to build a formidable racing stable at Golden Gate Fields to rival his powerhouse at Emerald Downs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – European imports spice up a pair of turf allowance races scheduled as the co-features on Friday’s nine-race card at Aqueduct.

Laughing, a half-sister to the Irish-bred Comic Strip – an eight-time Group 1 winner in Hong Kong – tops a $69,000 second-level allowance race going a mile in the day’s third event.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The marathon $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap, the closing day feature of the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita on Sunday, will not have a large field.

As of Wednesday, the race over about 1 3/4 miles on turf had five probable starters, led by 2010 winner Bourbon Bay. Trained by Neil Drysdale, Bourbon Bay won the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on turf on March 25.

STICKNEY, Ill. – Word came Wednesday that Cisco Torres would be off his mounts at Hawthorne. Echoes of the past, there. Torres entered Wednesday’s card leading the jockey standings at the spring meet here, with 42 wins to second-best Tim Thornton’s 26. But for much of his riding career, success has often led Torres down the same road as failure. First in the standings or 26th, substance abuse and its blowback continuously knocked Torres off whatever perch he climbed.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Blingo and Tiz Point finished sixth and eighth in the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes on the main track at Santa Anita on March 10, losses that ended any chance of them starting in a Triple Crown race.

Both horses were proven on turf before the San Felipe and will return to that surface in Friday’s $75,000 La Puente Stakes over 1 1/8 miles for 3-year-olds at Santa Anita.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Pachattack was good enough to run third in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic last fall, but that’s not the scary part. What makes the 6-year-old Pachattack such a major threat to win the Doubledogdare Stakes on Friday at Keeneland is the way she performs over Polytrack, as witnessed by her six-length romp last spring in the Grade 3 Arlington Matron and a sharp runner-up finish in the Grade 1 Spinster here last fall.

There’s reason for optimism as Finger Lakes launches its 50th season of live racing Friday.

Nine stakes that were slashed from last year’s schedule because of a dramatic reduction in purse supplement funding from the New York Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund have been restored, giving the western New York track that opened on May 23, 1962, a 13-stakes package worth slightly more than $1 million.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Town Prize’s 3-year-old debut had been delayed on three occasions at three different racetracks.

But Town Prize’s return proved to be well worth waiting for, as the homebred 3-year-old was a romping winner of last Sunday’s $155,800 Woodstock Stakes under jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva for owner/breeder Bill Sorokolit and trainer Darwin Banach.

“He’s doing fantastic,” said trainer Darwin Banach, a couple of mornings after watching Town Prize score by a widening 5 1/4 lengths in the six-furlong Woodstock for 3-year-olds.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Significant changes mark the beginning of the 24th year of Thoroughbred racing at Prairie Meadows, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 11.

Prairie Meadows has adjusted its four-day racing week and will replace Monday and Tuesday evening cards with Thursday night and Sunday afternoon racing. The more traditional format will be Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with a first post of 6:30 p.m. and Sundays beginning at 1 p.m.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Mark Casse, Woodbine’s perennial leading trainer, has been a slow starter at the meet in recent years, and this year is no exception. It shouldn’t be too long before he heats up, however, and he will send out the entry of Golden History and Sky Dreamer in Friday’s eighth race, a first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies.