LEXINGTON, Ky. - Jockey Matthew Straight was recovering Monday from a shoulder fracture sustained Sunday at Keeneland after being thrown from his mount, 107-1 shot Maid On a Mission, during the fifth race. The 26-year-old jockey was still hospitalized at the University of Kentucky Medical Center as of Monday morning but otherwise is fine, according to Keeneland medical personnel.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The Lumber Guy couldn’t hack it in the nine-furlong Wood Memorial on April 7, finishing fifth, beaten 6 1/4 lengths by Gemologist. Perhaps he will find cutting back to a one-turn mile more to his liking when he wheels back in two weeks to run in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Jerome Stakes.

While trainer Mike Hushion said the timing of the race isn’t ideal, the dimensions of the race are.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Moinday that It’s Tricky, winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Distaff Handicap, will make her next start in the Grade 1 Odgen Phipps at Belmont on May 28.

Though It’s Tricky won the Distaff by 3 1/2 lengths, there were some anxious moments when jockey Eddie Castro resorted to the whip leaving the three-eighths pole. [bc_video_id:249020:]

STICKNEY, Ill. – There are all sorts of little issues to ponder when handicapping the featured seventh race on Wednesday at Hawthorne, a second-level, two-turn dirt allowance race also open to $35,000 claimers. In fact, while the race looks decent for Chicago in April, a skeptical eye can be cast on all seven entrants.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Alpha, the Wood Memorial runner-up, did not ship to Churchill Downs as originally scheduled on Monday, his connections remain optimistic the multiple stakes winner can still make the Kentucky Derby on May 5.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – There were 451 horses claimed during Aqueduct’s inner-track meet and another 94 have been haltered since the main track opened on March 21.

The poster child for all this activity might be Full of Gut, who has been claimed in each of her last four starts and seven times in her career. Why so popular? Perhaps her record of 12 wins from 27 career starts has something to do with it.

Bodemeister has come a long ways in his short career, from an unstarted maiden a little more than three months ago to the possible favorite for the Kentucky Derby following his overpowering victory in the Arkansas Derby on Saturday.

Bodemeister needed a big payday on Saturday, and he got it, banking $600,000 to take away any worry about him making the field because of insufficient earnings. He had just $60,000 going into the race.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – They should all come back this good. A gelding named Spinning Move was unable to win so much as a maiden race as a 3-year-old, but after being away from the races for more than 16 months, he has returned with a vengeance for trainer Neil Howard, winning 2 of 3 starts and threatening to become a force in the turf-sprint niche for older horses.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The respective second- and third-place finishes in the Blue Grass Stakes on Saturday by Hansen and Gung Ho (31-1) added to an impressive recent record that trainer Mike Maker has compiled in the Keeneland showcase, particularly with longshots. Maker won the Blue Grass in 2010 with Stately Victor (40-1) and was beaten just a nose last year with Twinspired (24-1).

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Keeneland racing officials are looking for a field of perhaps 10 3-year-olds to run Saturday in the Coolmore Lexington Stakes, but with the apparent defection of Reveron, none of those horses has a realistic chance to make the Kentucky Derby field.