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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It’s that time of year again. Time to break out the stopwatches and binoculars and track the prospective starters during the all-important final two weeks leading up to another Kentucky Derby.

STICKNEY, Ill. – There was some of the old – Cruise winning the Governor’s Lady, Mighty Rule edging River Bear in the Robert Molaro – but plenty of new in Hawthorne’s six Illinois-bred stakes races Saturday. The winners of two 3-year-old stakes, Luck With a Kiss and Our Lady Red, were sharp in their respective spots. And the older horse Denham’s victory in the Milwaukee Avenue pointed out a horse that could be a prime mover among the older Illinois-bred route set for this season and beyond.

If April showers bring May flowers, then the garland of roses put over the withers of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner will be overflowing.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Surely a baseball manager wishes he could save a few of his team’s runs from a 14-1 blowout for the next night, when they come up short in a 3-2 loss. The same sort of principle might logically apply for a horse trainer such as Mike Maker, who came within a couple inches of sweeping the two major 3-year-old races at Keeneland this spring – and yet still finds himself without a confirmed Kentucky Derby starter.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Owner-trainer Paul Buttigieg will be represented in both splits of a six-furlong Ontario-sired allowance Wednesday at Woodbine, when he runs Red Shot in the fifth and Ten Lakes in the finale.

Post time for the first of eight races on the first Wednesday evening program of the meet is 6:45 p.m.

Red Shot has started only once, in an Ontario-sired maiden special in June of last year. He grabbed the lead in that five-furlong dash, and barely held on to win by a neck. His time of 57.74 seconds was good for a respectable Beyer Speed Figure of 73.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Francis “Tres” Abbott grew up in Philadelphia before traveling to England to attend college, where his fascination with horse racing led to jobs with Aidan O’Brien and Sir Michael Stoute. Now 28 and freshly on his own as a trainer back home in the states, Abbott is quietly assembling a public stable with the intent of putting all that valuable education to good use.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Wildcat Marie, a $40,000 claim last summer, boosted her stock considerably by winning last Saturday’s $155,500 Whimsical, defeating Hooh Why and Indian Apple Is.

“She beat a Grade 1-winning mare, and a Sovereign champion,” said Marty Drexler, who has 14 stalls here and another eight horses at Fort Erie with assistant trainer Maree Richards. “It’s all good.”

Hooh Why was the Grade 1 winner, having captured Keene­land’s Ashland two years ago. Indian Apple Is was the Sovereign Award champion, having been voted Canada’s top female sprinter last year.

River Downs management has postponed the scheduled Friday opening of the track’s 2011 meet because of continued heavy rain in the Cincinnati area and the high level of the Ohio River. No new opening date had been determined as of midday Monday.

The track’s backstretch area was closed as of Friday, April 22, and the main track continued to be covered with water Monday, with rain expected to continue until Thursday. The track’s simulcast facility was to be closed through Tuesday, with a Wednesday opening planned.

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Trainer Mike Zwiesler, who has trained exclusively for the late Bayard Sharp and members of the Farish family for the past 13 years, said that his stable will cease operations at the end of April.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With trainer Bob Baffert looking on, The Factor galloped Monday morning for the first time since his arrival at Churchill Downs on April 19 and for the first time since having minor throat surgery performed here last week.