INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Month by month through the spring, Bizzy Caroline’s stature rose in trainer Kenneth McPeek’s Kentucky stable. A filly who began the year as a maiden is now worthy of a cross-country trip for her first Grade 1 race in Saturday’s $250,000 American Oaks at Hollywood Park.

With three other horses in the lineup, including defending champion Life At Ten, it’s incorrect to label the Delaware Handicap a match race. Realistically, however, Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 stakes that serves as the crown jewel of Delaware Park’s season boils down to the latest chapter in a long-running rivalry between the sport’s two leading older females, the 4-year-old fillies Havre de Grace and Blind Luck.

Frank Mirahmadi will be the new announcer at Oaklawn Park when the Hot Springs, Ark., track begins its 2012 season on Jan. 13, according to a statement isuued by Oaklawn on Thursday. Terry Wallace, the Oaklawn announcer for the past 37 years, retired as the track’s race-caller last month.

Mirahmadi, 43, currently is the announcer for the Northern California fair circuit. He began his announcing career at Hollywood Park in 1992 and is well know for his impressions of other of other announcers and celebrities.

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A victory in any race with a $600,000 purse would be special. A victory in Saturday’s $600,000 Virginia Derby would likely rank as the highlight of trainer Phil Serpe’s 27-year training career.

A horse trained by Ken McPeek was euthanized Thursday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. after it got loose from its handlers, ran free onto a major road, and sustained a significant injury.

The horse, Daylasoul, was a 3-year-old filly owned and bred by Michael Harrison who had run four times, most recently finishing second in a $40,000 claiming race at Churchill Downs on July 1. She was scheduled to run at Saratoga on Aug. 1, according to McPeek.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbine’ s runaway leading rider, Luis Contreras, doesn’t dole out the superlatives liberally, so when he speaks highly of Clement Rock, one should take notice. Clement Rock will try to remain unbeaten on the grass in Saturday’s $150,000 Toronto Cup Stakes and should be favored in the nine-furlong test for 3-year-olds.

Clement Rock never challenged over a sloppy track when he debuted at Fair Grounds in March. He was subsequently turned over to trainer Mark Casse, who sent him out to earn his diploma from off the pace on the lawn here June 10.

The owner of Yavapai Downs in Prescott, Ariz., has filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, according to court filings, six weeks after the track canceled its summer meet.

The Yavapai County Farm and Agriculture Association, which owns the racetrack and operates a fair at the property, listed at least $10 million in liabilities in its bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona. The association is being represented in the filing by Randy Nussbaum, the filing said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Nearing the end of her career, Ultra Blend is peaking this year, with 3 wins in 4 starts.

She won two stakes for California-breds earlier this year and was promoted from second to first in the Grade 2 Milady Handicap at Hollywood Park on May 21 after being hampered in the stretch.

Ultra Blend can win her first graded stakes outright in Saturday’s $200,000 A Gleam Handicap at Hollywood Park, a race with major ramifications for the fall. The winner receives a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs in November.

Suffolk Downs cards the first stakes this year for Massachusetts-breds on Saturday with the $50,000 Rise Jim, and typical of the statebred program, the competitors run the gamut in age from as young as 3 to the11-year-old returning champion Mr. Meso.

A winner of 24 of 64 starts for a handful of different connections, Mr. Meso is out to improve on a fifth-place effort in his 2011 debut. He was 3 for 3 last year, including two statebred stakes.

Four graded stakes winners, led by recent Brooklyn Handicap hero Birdrun, will challenge defending champion A.U. Miner in Saturday’s $200,000 Greenwood Cup at Parx Racing.

The 10 older horses in the 1 1/2-mile Greenwood Cup will be looking to secure an automatic berth in this fall’s Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs. The Greenwood Cup, along with Turf Monster later this season, are the two Parx races on the calendar that are part of the Breeders’ Cup’s Win and You’re In program.