LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Familiar names were atop the leader boards when Churchill Downs ended a very eventful spring meet Monday, with Steve Asmussen earning his 10th training title and Julien Leparoux leading all jockeys for the eighth time.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Acclamation will stay on turf and not start in Saturday’s $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup, trainer Don Warren said Tuesday, leaving the top race for older horses at the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting without a confirmed pacesetter.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Credit Don Dizney and Bob Baffert for giving First Dude a career makeover this year.

A colt who had finished second or third by racing on or near the lead in six consecutive major stakes for 3-year-olds in the spring and summer of 2010 has become a two-race winner this year in races for older horses as a threat from off the pace.

The new style may give First Dude a more significant role in the nation’s older male division.

Pale Blazer is one quick 3-year-old. He set some stunning fractions in an allowance at Louisiana Downs last weekend en route to improving his turf record to 4 for 4, and could see stakes action later this month in a major race at Penn National.

Pale Blazer was a 1 1/2-length winner of a third-level optional $35,000 claiming race at about five furlongs on turf Sunday. He was pressed through an opening quarter in 20.75 seconds, continued to lead through a half-mile in 42.60, then finished the task on firm turf in 55.55. He earned a career-best 88 Beyer Speed Figure.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Thursday’s $60,000 Rob N Gin overnight stakes should serve as a useful prep for upcoming Saratoga stakes, but looking at the eclectic group of nine older males entered in the 1 1/16-mile race scheduled for the Widener turf, the question is, which ones?

Those with an eye toward the Fourstardave (July 31) and/or the Bernard Baruch (Aug. 26) might include any among Beau Choix, Boots Ahead, Cherokee Artist, Monument Hill, and Voodoo Swinge.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Woodbourne, the third-place finisher in last year’s Grade 1 Woodbine Mile, merits top billing in Thursday’s second race, a third-level optional claimer that is scheduled for nine furlongs on the grass.

Woodbourne has proven to be a very profitable claim for The Very Dry Stable and trainer Bob Tiller, who scooped him up for $50,000 last July. And they haven’t even had their picture taken with him yet.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Shug McGaughey’s excellent Belmont Park spring/summer meeting continued Monday when he won two more races, improving his record to 10 wins from 33 starters.

McGaughey hopes the momentum carries over to Saturday’s Grade 1 Man o’ War Stakes when he sends out the intriguing Boisterous against Gio Ponti, winner of the last two runnings of the Man o’ War, and Mission Approved, upset winner of last month’s Manhattan.

“It’s a pretty ambitious spot,’’ McGaughey said.

PLEASANTON, Calif. – There was only one place to be at the Alameda County Fair last week – on the lead.

All three stakes were won in wire-to-wire style. Seven of nine races were won by front-runners, and in the other two, one runner was second by a head at the first call and the other third. Both had the lead at the second call.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Inglorious, winner of the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate, will not be continuing on the Canadian Triple Crown trail at Fort Erie.

The $500,000 Prince of Wales, the 1 3/16-mile dirt race for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, will be run July 17, but Inglorious was not even nominated.

“She’s going straight to the Alabama,” said Josie Carroll, who trains Inglorious for the Donver Stable of Donna and Verne Dubinsky.

Jockey Frank Alvarado followed trainer Jeff Bonde’s instructions perfectly as he guided Slew the Man ($10) to an easy victory in Monday’s $55,550 Alamedan Handicap at the Alameda County Fair in Pleasanton, Calif.

Slew the Man broke quickly claimed the lead in the 1 1/16-mile race on the speed-favoring track. Slew the Man had a clear lead through a 23.98-second opening quarter and slowed things down even more with a 24.36-second second quarter. He picked things up around the turn to build a 3 1/2-length lead into the lane, winning by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:42.53.