DEL MAR, Calif. – The absence of Mr. Commons from Saturday’s $150,000 La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar because of a bruised foot will make Santa Anita Derby winner Midnight Interlude the favorite in the turf race over 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-olds.

In a poor economic and racing climate over the past few years, many trainers have seen their stables dwindle in numbers, if not in quality – as owners have eliminated or downsized their stables.

Mike Stidham is one of the few trainers to swim successfully against that tide. With divisions at Delaware Park and Arlington Park, he is loaded with horses, even fast horses – a fact on display Saturday when his training reach even extends beyond those two tracks.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Double Desert landed the outside post for the $50,000 New Jersey-bred starter-allowance feature on Friday at Monmouth Park.

That suits trainer Rory Huston just fine.

A 4-year-old, Double Desert has the 12 hole in the one mile, 70-yard race where she again figures to be a major factor following consecutive seconds in her most recent outings at this same level.

Given her history of starting gate issues, the less time standing around the better, as far as Huston is concerned.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The last time that Unzip Me ran five furlongs on turf she finished third against males in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs last fall.

Whether she returns to that race this season depends partially on how she does in Friday’s $85,000 Daisycutter Handicap over five furlongs on turf at Del Mar.

“We’ll see how things go here and if we can keep her on track like she is now,” trainer Marty Jones said. “We’ll find out on Friday where we’re at with her.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Earlie Fires has won 2,886 races at Arlington Park, by far more than anyone in track history. Retired since September 2008, the 64-year-old Hall of Fame jockey says he is enjoying his time on the ground as much as humanly possible, having traveled extensively throughout the United States in recent months.

For the second straight year, however, Fires will be back in the saddle for one race by participating in a jockey challenge on the Arlington Million eve program that pits five retired riders versus five active Arlington riders.

The Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby, which has now produced two Classic winners with Ruler On Ice’s score in this year’s Belmont Stakes, will once again highlight the stakes schedule at the New Mexico track that opens Dec. 6.

Sunland will operate a mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses. The season will run for 77 days, through April 17, 2012.

Remington Park in Oklahoma City was hit Monday night by high winds that did damage to some of the track’s grandstand facilities and barns less than two weeks before the meet is to open. But there were no injuries as a result of the “straight-line winds of 80-plus miles an hour,” and the season will start as scheduled on Aug. 18, said Scott Wells, the president and general manager of Remington.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trip, distance, and weather were three factors that may have compromised Street Game when he finished fifth in last month’s $600,000 Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs.

Friday, those same three factors may play in Street Game’s favor when he seeks to rebound in the Grade 2, $150,000 National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Stakes for 3-year-olds at Saratoga. A field of seven was entered in the Hall of Fame, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles over the inner turf course.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Welloiledmachine, the fifth-place finisher in the Prince of Wales Stakes, will move to the turf in Friday’s Woodbine feature, a 1 1/16-mile allowance for Ontario-sired runners.

Welloiledmachine graduated second time out at 2 in a seven-furlong maiden special on Polytrack. After getting the fall and winter off, he ran sixth in back-to-back allowances early in the spring before finishing second in an allowance on the dirt at Fort Erie.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Dave Dahl is happy to be back at his regular post as the security guard at the Hastings winner’s enclosure. Everyone at Hastings is thrilled, relieved and somewhat amazed to see the 65-year-old Dahl back at work.

It was just over a year ago, July 31, when he was run over by a loose horse, and it had to be one of the most horrifying things that anyone is ever going to see at a racetrack.