Mother Nature must like the El Joven at La Senorita.

The drought conditions that have kept Retama Park from racing on turf all season have lifted some and the San Antonio-area track will be able to run Saturday night’s stakes double on the grass. They will be the first turf races at the meet that opened Sept. 1.

“I think the ground will have some cut and give because we’ve had some bunches of rain here the past couple of weeks,” said Doug Vair, a spokesman for Retama. “I don’t think the ground will be hard.”

STICKNEY, Ill. – His intended start in the Kent Stakes last month at Delaware lost to torrential rain, Willcox Inn is back in Chicago this weekend, where he’s likely to start as the favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Hawthorne Derby, a nine-furlong grass race.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – The Fort Erie rider standings have a new leader as the meet nears its Nov. 1 closing date.

Jockey Kirk Johnson came on strong in September and has passed Krista Carignan, the leader through most of the Fort’s racing season.Carignan put away her tack last month for personal reasons.

When Carignan stopped riding she held a comfortable lead that gave her a slim chance to hold on for a second straight riding title. Her need was for the chasing riders in the title hunt to falter, but that has not happened and now a new battle looms for the riding title.

Tin Top Cat has won seven stakes races at four different tracks in the Southwest, but she will find herself charting some new territory Saturday night when she runs in the $50,000 Flashy Lady. The six-furlong race for fillies and mares will be her first start at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

“She’s been very adaptable to any racetrack we’ve run her on,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains Tin Top Cat. “Every track is different, but Remington is not a tricky surface.

“It’s not something I’ve been concerned about.”

MIAMI – Trainer Stanley Gold has swept a division of the Florida Stallion Stakes each of the last two years with Jackson Bend and Awesome Feather. On Saturday, Gold will attempt to complete a sweep for an unprecedented third consecutive season when he sends out Fort Loudon in Calder’s $300,000 In Reality.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The highlight of Dreamy Kid’s summer was a 19-1 upset in the Grade 2 Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park in July, his stakes debut. The next two months were not as kind.

A seventh in the Grade 2 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park on Aug. 6 was followed by a troubled sixth in the Grade 2 Del Mar Derby on Sept. 4. The Del Mar Derby was Dreamy Kid’s debut on turf. Even though Dreamy Kid was beaten, trainer Neil Drysdale saw enough from that performance to point the colt to Saturday’s $150,000 Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita.

NORTH RANDALL, Ohio – The 25th renewal of the Best of Ohio series of five stakes for Ohio-breds will offer $350,000 in purses on Saturday’s eight-race card at Thistledown. The races traditionally play a strong role in determining year-end Ohio-bred divisional champions.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It will be a once-in-a-lifetime race – literally. Although the $125,000 Keeneland 75th Anniversary Stakes might eventually be run every fall meet under a different name, its unveiling here Saturday carries the one-time purpose of celebrating the founding of this pastoral track on Oct. 15, 1936, while also getting some serious prep work done toward the 2011 Breeders’ Cup.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Graham Motion has already had a dream year, having won the Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom. Motion isn’t the type to make “leading trainer” at any given meet as a goal, but after the first 4 of 17 days here, he was atop the standings with 4 wins from 12 starts.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Doesn’t this Aidan O’Brien guy know you’re not supposed to run a horse back in seven days? Maybe it was the thing to do back in the old country when Queen Elizabeth II was coronated in 1953, but hey, somebody tell him that things have changed in the world of racing since then.