ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Angel Penna Jr. believes that when Cool Blue Red Hot puts it all together he can be a significant player in the 3-year-old division. While Penna thinks his horse’s time may be later in the summer, he hopes to get a better line on him in Saturday’s Grade 2, $150,000 Dwyer Stakes for 3-year-olds at Belmont Park.

The Dwyer, run at 1 1/16 miles on the main track, drew a field of seven, none of whom were on the Triple Crown trail. Adios Charlie, who won the Grade 2 Jerome at Aqueduct in April, is the only stakes winner in the field.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Make Music for Me finished seventh in the Grade 2 Godolphin Mile in Dubai on March 26, and then earned a well-deserved three-week break at a central California farm in early spring.

Saturday, Make Music for Me starts in an optional claimer over a mile on turf at Hollywood Park, a race that could lead to another start out of town in the near future. Trainer Alexis Barba said on Thursday that Make Music for Me will be considered for the Arlington Million in Chicago on Aug. 13 if he runs well on Saturday.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Hal Handel, who will leave his position as the chief operating officer for the New York Racing Association in September, said Thursday that he believes his days of managing a racetrack are over.

On Wednesday, Handel in a press release announced that he would be resigning his position as COO for NYRA at the end of the Saratoga meet, which coincides with the expiration of a four-year contract he signed in 2007. Handel said it was a decision he reached in early May, but elected not to announce until now for various reasons.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – There are no six-figure auction horses in the 10th race at Arlington on Saturday, the first 2-year-old allowance race of the meet, just a couple of precocious horses who look like they can run a little.

Hogy, an Offlee Wild gelding trained by Joel Berndt, won his debut by 7 3/4 lengths in a maiden special weight June 11. Eight days later, Pryce’s Posse, a son of Posse, showed blazing speed to clear seven rivals from an outside post, leading all the way en route to a four-length score in another Arlington maiden special.

A rite of summer gets under way Saturday in western Kentucky when Ellis Park, fondly known as “The Pea Patch,” opens its doors for a 31-day meet.

The first three programs (Saturday, Sunday, Monday) of the Ellis meet will clash directly with its bigger Kentucky brother, Churchill Downs, reprising a similar overlap that occurred in 2007 and 2008. Management at both tracks say business during the Fourth of July weekend is too good to give up, and with the approval of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, something of a Darwinian situation exists ever so briefly on this circuit.

OCEANPORT, N.J. – This time, the United Nations Stakes truly lives up to its name.

The premier turf event of the Monmouth Park season drew an intriguing international lineup Saturday. The Grade 1, $750,000 stakes at 1 3/8 miles attracted a field of 10 that includes runners bred in Ireland, France, and Chile. There’s even a New Jersey-bred in the lineup, General Perfect, to boot.

BREEDERS' CUP CHALLENGE: Race schedule and past winners »

The filly Executive Miss Dash set the fastest qualifying time for Saturday night’s Grade 2, $297,077 Firecracker Futurity for Quarter Horses at Delta Downs. The race is the richest of four open-company stakes on the program. Also making up the card is the $133,045 Firecracker Derby, which is led by fastest qualifier Feature Mr Alliance.

Executive Miss Dash is the lone filly in the 350-yard futurity. She won her June 18 trial in 17.57 seconds, and in the process picked up her fourth win from five career starts. Santos Carrizales has the mount for trainer Eusevio Huitron.
 

Wasted Tears will be ridden by Julien Leparoux in the Grade 3, $150,000 Modesty at Arlington Park on July 9, said her trainer, Bart Evans. Leparoux was aboard the mare for the first time May 30, when she won the Grade 3, $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff at Lone Star.

Wasted Tears breezed for the Modesty on Thursday at Lone Star, going five furlongs in hand in 1:01.60. She was even throughout the move, which came on a fast track at about 6:15 a.m. Jockey Patrick Boxie was aboard Wasted Tears, who was to leave for Chicago on Friday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Both horses that Tom Amoss sent out to win the Bashford Manor Stakes have returned to Churchill Downs the following spring to run in the Kentucky Derby. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

Well, kind of.

Lone Star Sky, the 2002 Bashford Manor winner for Amoss, finished ahead of just one opponent when 15th in the 2003 Derby, while Backtalk finished last of 20 in the 2010 Derby some 10 months after capturing the premier spring race at Churchill for 2-year-olds.

MIAMI – The Calder 2-year-old program, which has produced reigning Eclipse Award winners Awesome Feather, Big Drama, and Blind Luck, kicks into high gear on Saturday with the first two stakes races of the season, the $100,000 Frank Gomez Memorial and its filly counterpart, the $100,000 J J’sdream.

The Frank Gomez and J J’sdream will both be decided at 5 1/2 furlongs and serve as preps for the upcoming Florida Stallion Series, which begins on Aug. 6.