ELMONT, N.Y. – There are defining moments in every athlete’s career, and jockey Eddie Castro had several before the age of 21. At 18, he won the 2003 Eclipse Award as North America’s leading apprentice. In June 2005, two months after he turned 20, Castro won nine races on a single card at Calder. At 21, Castro pulled off an upset in the 2006 Breeders’ Cup Mile aboard 24-1 shot Miesque’s Approval.

AUBURN, Wash. – After a few lean years for trainer Margo Lloyd, there’s hope in 2011 for a breakthrough, maybe even a long-awaited stakes victory. Her stable star, You Me and Ema B, a 4-year-old filly, will make her second career start Saturday at Emerald Downs, and if she can build off a scintillating maiden victory last summer, Lloyd might be onto something big.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first program of the spring meet at Churchill Downs has always been cause for celebration, and why not? Spring is in the air, the horses are back in town, and most importantly, the Kentucky Derby is only a week away.

Still, opening day under the old Twin Spires has always been somewhat subdued. Not any more: Churchill will open Saturday with a glitzy night program for the first time in track history, an innovation that will try to give new meaning to breaking swiftly from the gate.

Opening day at Delaware Park will serve as an appetizer for the main course that will soon follow.

After a five-month break, live racing resumes Saturday with a 10-race card – nine for Thoroughbreds and the finale for Arabians – as Delaware launches its 74th season with festivities that include carnival-type activities and food in the picnic grove that overlooks the picturesque paddock. But there will be a one-week wait for the first stakes action and a little bit longer than that for the return of last year’s leading jockey, Rosie Napravnik.

While the New York Racing Association made tremendous gains in ontrack business during the Aqueduct winter/spring meets of 2011, overall business on the track’s races was down double-digits when compared with the same time period in 2010.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – Shadowbdancing returns to Fonner Park to defend his title in the $75,000-guaranteed Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile Bosselman will be run around three turns on Fonner’s five-furlong track and is the highlight of the track’s season.

Shadowbdancing enjoyed a prodcutive season last year for trainer Terrell Gore, winning four of eight starts. In addition to his 4 1/4-length victory in the Bosselman, he won the Cryptoclearance Stakes at Hawthorne, the Grade 2 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows, and the Governors Cup at Remington Park.

Your browser does not support iframes

MIAMI, Fla. – If Mambo Meister is going to successfully defend his title in the $125,000 Miami Mile on Saturday he’s going to have to do it the hard way. He is coming back off a 4 1/2-month layoff against a very solid field in the Grade 3 turf fixture that begins the 2011 Calder stakes schedule.

Your browser does not support iframes

Scoring a victory in a graded race is reward enough for any trainer, but there is a race within the race in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – The Jane Cibelli bandwagon has been clipping right along lately as the stable has sent out 11 winners from their last 17 starters. On Saturday, No Acronyms has a good chance to keep that momentum going when she tops a field of 10 fillies and mares slated to go to the post in a wide-open starter allowance at 1 1/16 miles on the turf.

No Acronyms moved from starter handicap company to the allowance ranks in her last but handled the move nicely as she rallied from last in a field of seven and ran past the leader late to post a length win in the first-level allowance.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The promising Hoi An makes her stakes debut Saturday at Woodbine in the $150,000 Fury, a seven-furlong sprint which is a stepping-stone towards the June 5 Woodbine Oaks.

Hoi An, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Square Eddie, finished second under Alan Garcia when she debuted in a five-furlong maiden special on the grass at Gulfstream. Trainer Julia Carey said she missed the break in that Feb. 23 dash.