Having helped revive the Kentucky Cup this year by sponsoring the five-stakes series, WinStar Farm will be present most everywhere at Turfway Park Saturday – with its name or stallions attached to stakes races, and to representatives from the farm handing out trophies to the respective winners.

WinStar is also a participant – and a leading one at that – running one of its better 3-year-olds, Cal Nation, against Will’s Wildcat, Matthewsburg, Phillipe, and seven other rivals and in the Grade 3, $100,000 Kentucky Cup Sprint.

AUBURN, Wash. – With the meeting winding down to its final two days, Emerald Downs horsemen rushed the entry box Wednesday morning, eager for one last shot at purses before the frosty months ahead. That created a pleasant scenario for Bret Anderson, Emerald’s director of racing, who was able to cobble together 11-race cards for both Saturday and Sunday.

Sword Trick has never been beaten in a main-track sprint, and those are the conditions he will be getting back to Saturday night in the $100,000 Texas Stallion Stakes at Retama Park near San Antonio.

The six-furlong race for 2-year-olds is one of two stakes on the card. There also is a $100,000 division of the race for fillies, with both races restricted to the offspring stallions nominated to the Stallion Stakes.

David Grening, the New York racing reporter for Daily Racing Form , has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 Walter Haight Award by the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, the organization announced on Thursday.

The Walter Haight Award is given to recognize “career excellence in turf writing,” the association said. Grening has been the New York reporter for the Form since 1998, when the publication was purchased by the Alpine Group. Before coming to the Racing Form , Grening covered racing for the New York Post and the Trentonian in New Jersey.

Trainer Wes Hawley claimed Get in Da House for $10,000 this past spring with one race in mind – the $150,000 A.L. “Red” Erwin at Louisiana Downs on Saturday. The fact that the horse has already won two stakes for Hawley and partner Bob Orth has been a bonus.

“We were kind of taking a shot,” Hawley said of the claim made at Fair Grounds in March. “I figured he was worth $10,000, maybe more, when I took him. I thought he might win a few races. I never dreamed he’d be this good.”

Approaching the quarter pole of last month’s Travers Stakes, Rattlesnake Bridge was making a four-wide bid into contention, seemingly about to set up a dramatic stretch drive with Stay Thirsty at Saratoga.

But in the final furlong, Stay Thirsty ran away from Rattlesnake Bridge and the remainder of the Travers field, putting himself among the leaders of the 3-year-old division. After drifting out somewhat in the stretch, Rattlesnake Bridge righted himself and finished a clear second.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Mike Maker must see dollar signs when he drives north on Interstate 71 from his home in Louisville to Turfway Park. The 42-year-old trainer has developed a knack for taking down the bigger prizes at Turfway, having twice won the track’s premier race, now known as the Vinery Spiral, with With a City (2006) and Dean’s Kitten (2010), as well as the last running of the Kentucky Cup Classic in 2009 with Furthest Land.

Suffolk Downs has announced a new stakes race, a purse increase, and the continuation of four-day racing weeks for the final two months of the 2011 season with the inaugural $100,000 Robert O’Malley Sprint Stakes set to be held on Oct.  22.

As in years past, the track didn’t announce a stakes schedule at the start of the season, waiting instead to gauge business trends. The new race, named for the longtime track executive who died in 2007, will be six furlongs for fillies and mares with nominations closing Oct. 8.

FLORENCE, Ky. – Realistically, it might not prove to be a springboard for the Breeders’ Cup this year, but the Kentucky Cup has to start somewhere.

Make that restart.

Having gone dormant a year while Turfway Park dealt with ongoing financial difficulties, the Kentucky Cup resurfaces Saturday with an interesting and competitive – if not star-studded – revival of a five-race, $600,000 series.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Last year, Kentucky-based trainer Mike Maker shipped up Stately Victor to capture Woodbine’s $150,000 Ontario Derby.

On Saturday, Maker will be looking to follow that blueprint with Derby Kitten in the 1 1/8-mile race for 3-year-olds.

Stately Victor had come with solid Polytrack credentials, having won the Grade 1 Blue Grass over 1 1/8 miles at Keeneland.

Derby Kitten also is a stakes winner at Keeneland, having captured the Grade 3, 1 1/16-mile Lexington in his only start to date on a synthetic surface.