AUBURN, Wash. – Carr Creek, a hard-luck loser in his 2011 debut, and Rainier Ice, who won his final 2010 start impressively, headline the feature race Friday at Emerald Downs. Racing begins at 6 p.m. Pacific, and the main event, a $25,000 claimer for 3-year-olds who’ve never won twice, is the seventh of eight races.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jenny’s So Great and Moonlit Beauty, both of whom became stakes winners on Woodbine’s turf course last season, should be making their seasonal bows in Friday’s headliner.

The third-level allowance/optional $75,000 claiming race offers a purse of $79,700 and is scheduled to be the first turf race of the meeting, at 6 1/2 furlongs.

And, while there is a strong likelihood that the race will be taken off the grass, both Jenny’s So Great and Moonlit Beauty also have been effective on the local Polytrack.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Shotgun Gulch, who became a Grade 1 winner in April, returned to her Lone Star Park base on Wednesday after a freshening and has a longterm goal of making the Grade 2, $400,000 Masters at Presque Isle Downs, said her trainer, C.R. Trout.

The 6 1/2-furlong race for fillies and mares in Erie, Pa., is not until Sept. 10, so before then Shotgun Gulch could see action at Arlington Park. Trout said an option is the Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago Handicap at seven furlongs on July 3.

AUBURN, Wash. – Joe Steiner quit riding in 2006, a year after suffering a herniated disk and nerve damage in his left shoulder in a spill at Santa Anita. He returned to the saddle last month, renewed in health and spirit following six years in the slow lane. On Sunday, his comeback will bring him home to Emerald Downs, where he is scheduled to ride He’s All Heart in the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap.

BALTIMORE – Patti Cooksey and Andrea Seefeldt own a special place in Pimlico history as the only two women to ride in the Preakness. Last year, they had roles in another part of track lore when they rode in the inaugural Lady Legends for the Cure on Preakness eve.

Cooksey, Seefeldt, and five of the other six retired female jockeys who rode in the highly successful Lady Legends event will be back Friday. The $31,000, six-furlong allowance offers parimutuel wagering as the seventh of 13 races. It will also serve to raise funds and awareness for breast cancer research.

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BALTIMORE – The day before the biggest race of the year in Maryland doesn’t draw nearly as large an ontrack crowd as the 100,000-plus they get in Kentucky. Still, there are apt comparisons of Preakness eve to Derby eve: Both feature a big race for 3-year-old fillies amid the palpable excitement of an impending Triple Crown event.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Steve Attard is off to a solid start at the meeting, having won with five of 26 starters heading into Wednesday night’s program.

On Monday, the 48-year-old Attard will be hoping to celebrate the Victoria Day holiday in grand style when he sends out Kerry Convent for the $125,000 Lady Angela Stakes.

Kerry Convent, owned and bred by Paul O’Brien, started twice in restricted maiden sprints as a 2-year-old, finishing a close third at seven furlongs and then a more remote third at six furlongs.

Due to the northern location of Northlands Park, it is difficult for local trainers to have horses who have not raced in the winter to be ready to go six-furlongs or farther in early May. Thus, patrons have been fed a steady diet of mostly 3 1/2-furlong races for the first two weeks of the meet that began May 6. More traditional racing begins this Friday with all eight races being carded at six-furlongs and racing secretary Jason Teague has put together an excellent feature that goes as race 7.

After running third in his career debut at Arlington last September, Animal Kingdom has won three of four subsequent starts, with the only loss coming by a head in a March 3 turf allowance at Gulfstream.

The front-running winner of that allowance was a Fusaichi Pegasus colt named Powhatan County, whose only subsequent start resulted in a fifth-place finish in the April 8 Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland. A hind-end ailment has sidelined Powhatan County for a while, said George Weaver, who trains him for Richlyn Farms.

Eddie Gaudet will be trying to complete his own Black-Eyed Susan/Preakness double – 40 years apart.

Gaudet, a mainstay of the Maryland circuit for decades after moving here from his native New England, won the 1971 Black-Eyed Susan with At Arms Length and will have his first Preakness starter Saturday with longshot Concealed Identity. His wife, Linda, co-owns Concealed Identity with Morris Bailey, a longtime Gaudet client.

PREAKNESS STAKES 2011: Contender profiles, news updates, video, and odds