Song of Humor, winner of the Grasmick Stakes at a half-mile on opening weekend at Fonner Park, heads a field of nine older runners in the $25,000 Budweiser-Tondi Stakes at six furlongs.

Standing in the way are the two horses who have accounted for the last three runnings of the Budweiser-Tondi. Reach One More, trained by Chuck Turco, won this race last year by a neck over two-time defending champion The Nutz, trained by Steve Hall. Both horses will be making their seasonal debuts in what should be a wide-open race.

Romancing the Gold, who won a first-level allowance race at Aqueduct on Wednesday, could possibly make his next start in the $1 million Wood Memorial on April 7, trainer Jeremiah Englehart said Thursday.

Bouncing back from a sixth-place finish in this same condition on Feb. 3, Romancing the Gold won Wednesday by one length, running a mile and 70 yards in 1:44.73, and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 78.

Englehart said that Romancing the Gold came out of his previous race with a muscle strain.

Aqueduct enjoyed a second straight solid month in terms of handle, posting big gains in all-sources and ontrack handle in February when compared with last year.

Average daily all-sources handle was $6,366,370, up 20 percent from the 2011 figure of $5,324,562. Total daily handle was up 48 percent to $133,693,761 from $90,517,548. There were four more racing days and 44 more races run in February 2012 than February 2011 when there were four cancellations.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Tapizar and Alternation distinguished themselves on different coasts last year at 3, with Tapizar taking the Grade 3 Sham at Santa Anita and Alternation accounting for the Grade 2 Peter Pan at Belmont Park. Both horses have already won stakes at 4, too, which makes their first meeting Saturday in the Grade 3, $125,000 Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn a real look at a pair of colts poised to be serious players in the older-horse ranks in 2012.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – New York Racing Association officials said they are frustrated and baffled by the significant number of fatal breakdowns that have occurred this winter at Aqueduct, but maintain that the inner track is safe.

“We’re not going to send jockeys and horses out there if the track wasn’t 100 percent safe,’’ P.J. Campo, NYRA vice president/director of racing, said Thursday in a meeting with New York’s racing reporters at Aqueduct.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Trainer Gary Hartlage has long maintained the major objective with On Fire Baby is to be racing at Churchill Downs the first weekend in May. Whether that’s in the Kentucky Oaks or the Kentucky Derby could be determined on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The Usual Q.T., a multiple Grade 1 stakes winner in California, has been retired after suffering a sesamoid injury, trainer Jim Cassidy said.

The Usual Q.T. won 8 of 23 starts and $1,531,240 in a career that spanned from the fall of 2008 until January of this year. The Usual Q.T. won five stakes, most notably the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in 2009 and the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes in 2010, the final victory of his career.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A handicapping conundrum as old as the sport comes front and center Saturday at Santa Anita in the Grade 2, $300,000 San Felipe Stakes, when the raw, yet untested talent of Bodemeister takes on stakes-proven runners such as Creative Cause and Liaison in this key prep for both the April 7 Santa Anita Derby and the May 5 Kentucky Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Indigo River had little difficulty winning her first two starts in the United States – an optional claimer in January and the Sweet Life Stakes last month. Those races were sprints on the hillside turf course, and they lead to her first start at a mile on turf in Saturday’s $70,000 China Doll Stakes at Santa Anita.

“This will see if she’ll settle and go two turns,” trainer Jeff Mullins said. “The pedigree says she will, but that doesn’t always mean everything.”

ARCADIA, Calif. - Brother Francis, third in the Grade 1 CashCall Futurity at Hollywood Park in December, will be heavily favored to win a maiden race over a mile on turf in Saturday’s second race.

Trainer Jim Cassidy envisions Saturday’s maiden race as a prep for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 7, whether Brother Francis wins or loses. Another option would have been the much tougher $300,000 San Felipe Stakes for 3-year-olds over 1 1/16 miles on Saturday.