Animal Kingdom, Nehro, Mucho Macho Man, Shackleford, Master of Hounds, Santiva, and Brilliant Speed were the first seven across the wire in the Kentucky Derby on May 7, and if all come back, as now scheduled, on June 11 in the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, it will mark the first time ever that the first seven finishers in the Derby also competed in the Belmont Stakes.

The absence of Freaky has not dented Adan Farias’s older horse division.

Last Sunday, Farias watched four of his horses qualify for the $240,200 Vessels Maturity on June 19 in time trials – Mark It Famous, Chivalry SR, Snitcher, and Whole Lot of Karma. Freaky won the 2009 Vessels Maturity, the year he was named World Champion, but was transferred to a trainer in Oklahoma earlier this spring.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Terlani will try and make it three straight wins when she runs in a $17,500 claiming race for fillies and mares at Hastings Friday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted seven fillies and mares and will go as race 7 on the eight-race card.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Spring skipped out this year. After record rains pounded Keeneland in April and Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week in early May, it seemed that summer was here in no time in all its sultry splendor.

High temperatures have been in the 90s all week, and when an 11-race twilight card is run here Friday, it will be with a heat index hovering around 100 degrees. That’s generally bad news for the horses but good news for the beer vendors, whose prime clientele includes twentysomethings who are making a strict habit of Friday happy hours at Churchill.

A couple of hot trainers, Jim Meyaard and Rod Cone, appear to have the major players in Friday’s feature at Northlands Park.

Meyaard, 6 for 12 at the meet, has entered Give Me Five in the first level-allowance race for 3-year-old fillies. She will need to be at her very best to beat the Cone-trained Maegans Princess in the six-furlong sprint, which drew seven horses.

Ramon Dominguez, last year’s Eclipse Award-winning jockey, will ride Mucho Macho Man in the June 11 Belmont Stakes, his agent, Steve Rushing, informed on Wednesday.

Rajiv Maragh rode Mucho Macho Man in his last four starts - a victory in the Risen Star Stakes, a third-place finish in the Louisiana Derby, a third-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, and a sixth-place finish in the Preakness.

Shackleford, the Preakness Stakes winner, will work on Saturday at Belmont Park for the June 11 Belmont Stakes, and “if he works good, he’ll be there for sure,” trainer Dale Romans said Wedneseday morning.

BELMONT STAKES: Replays, contenders, and news updates

Shackleford galloped 1 1/2 miles at Belmont Park on Wednesday morning. It was his second day on the track there since arriving from Churchill Downs, where Shackleford returned following the May 21 Preakness.

Brilliant Speed, who finished a deceptively close seventh in the Kentucky Derby, remained on course for a start in the June 11 Belmont Stakes with a five-furlong work in 1:03.11 on a humid Wednesday morning at Belmont Park.

BELMONT STAKES: Replays, contenders, and news updates

“He went good,” his trainer, Tom Albertrani, said by telephone. “He broke off a little slow, but he finished up well. We weren’t looking for much.”

Keep On Smokin returned to training last week at Louisiana Downs after three months of intensive veterinary care to recover from second- and third-degree burns that he sustained in a barn fire that claimed the lives of 25 of the 32 horses stabled at a training center in the east Texas town of Canton.

"It's just been devastating, mentally, physically, an
d financially," said Charlie Hukill, the training center's owner and a longtime prominent owner and trainer at Louisiana Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Woodbine swings into its full five-day-a-week schedule with the first Thursday card of the season set to begin at 2 p.m.

The eight-race program has attracted 66 entrants and includes two Ontario-sired allowance races and two straight maiden races, all for 3-year-olds and upward.

A restricted allowance for nonwinners of three will go as the fourth race, and seven geldings will compete for a $62,300 purse at 6 1/2 furlongs.