ANDERSON, Ind. – A Z Warrior was a Grade 1 winner last fall but didn’t progress sufficiently for Bob Baffert to make the Kentucky Oaks, which Baffert won anyway with Plum Pretty.

Daisy Devine earned a spot in the Oaks with a terrific winter campaign in Louisiana, but little has gone right for her since. She was seventh in the Oaks, then ran even worse when she was drubbed as an odds-on favorite in her only subsequent start.

It’s Tricky embodies the notion that one would rather have a fast horse with a bad mind than a slow horse with a good one.

Once It’s Tricky finds herself in a horse race she’s fine – really fine. Back-to-back Grade 1 wins in the Acorn and Coaching Club American Oaks in New York put her in the 3-year-old-filly championship conversation. It’s the more mundane stuff with which It’s Tricky struggles. A couple minutes after winning the Coaching Club at Saratoga, It’s Tricky ejected jockey Eddie Castro from the saddle. And that was not the first incident.

ARCADIA, Calif. – After an odyssey that sent him to West Virginia and Texas, in addition to Hollywood Park and Del Mar, Game On Dude returns to the scene of the crime, er, his greatest win, when he heads the field Saturday in the Grade 1, $250,000 Goodwood Stakes at Santa Anita.

It was here on March 5 that Game On Dude survived a rough stretch run and lengthy stewards’ inquiry to win the Santa Anita Handicap. And though he has run well in four subsequent starts, Game On Dude has not won since the Big Cap, which marked his second straight victory at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The first major transition of Drill’s career occurred in consecutive starts during the summer at Del Mar, when the highly-promising 2-year-old beat maidens in August and then won the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 7.

“There is a lot of raw talent there,” trainer Bob Baffert said.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Kiaran McLaughlin was the only trainer present at Thursday’s traditional post position draw for Saturday’s 11-race program at Belmont Park. He let out an audible “yeah” when his 4-year-old colt Trappe Shot drew post 8 in the nine-horse field entered for the Grade 1, $350,000 Vosburgh Invitational.

In a six-furlong race loaded with speed, McLaughlin wanted Trappe Shot, who has a history of breaking slow and who runs from just off the pace, outside of the front-runners.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The last five months have built toward two Saturdays this fall for Dubawi Heights.

After the 4-year-old Dubawi Heights won her first stakes in the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap at Hollywood Park in late April, trainer Simon Callaghan had Saturday’s $250,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Santa Anita as a goal, followed, he hoped, by the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Churchill Downs on Nov. 4.

Next weekend’s $400,000 Alcibiades at Keeneland and $300,000 Frizette at Belmont Park, both Grade 1 stakes, are more lucrative and prestigious races for 2-year-old fillies. Nevertheless, trainer Tony Dutrow prefers to stay at home with star filly Grace Hall for the relatively minor $75,000 Blue Hen Stakes on Saturday at Delaware Park.

Unbeaten in her first two starts, including last month’s Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, Grace Hall will stretch out beyond seven furlongs in the first time in the mile-and-70-yard Blue Hen.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Juveniles will be featured on the penultimate card of the 2011 Hastings meet on Saturday.

Headlining the 10-race card is the $75,000 Ascot Graduation for 2-year-old colts and geldings. All eight of the entrants will be stretching out to a mile and a sixteenth for the first time. The same goes for the seven 2-year-old fillies in the $75,000 Fantasy. Also on the card is the $50,000 CTHS Sales Stakes for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, where La Belle Rose looks like the one to beat.

Assiniboia Downs wound up its 60-day meeting last Sunday with total all-sources handle of $9,065,832 on its live product, up from $8,896,330 in 2010.

The figures translate to an average live daily handle of $151,097, a 10.4 percent increase from the corresponding $136,867 figure for last year’s 65-day meeting.

The average ontrack daily handle was down slightly, to $68,242 from last year’s $69,239.

Average field size at the meet decreased from 7.93 to 7.5 horses per race.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Welcome back, traveler.

Cape Blanco seeks a third straight Grade 1 victory Saturday in the $500,000 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park.

While his dominant wins in the Man o’ War at Belmont and the Arlington Million are notable accomplishments, the fact that Cape Blanco shuttled back and forth from trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle training center in Ireland to the United States for each race makes the feat even more remarkable.

So much for jet lag.