Brentwood Bullet could start as a slight favorite in the sixth race Thursday at Louisiana Downs. The $40,000 optional claiming race at about a mile on turf will be his first start since March 19, when he ran a close fourth to Baltimore Bob at a similar level at Fair Grounds.

Following that race, Baltimore Bob won the $50,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge at Lone Star. Brentwood Bullet, meanwhile, has been working sharply and on Thursday will be seeking his third win over the Louisiana Downs turf course. Richard Eramia has the mount for trainer Morris Nicks.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Although Thursday’s Three Coins Up overnight stakes is scheduled for 1 1/4 miles on the inner turf at Belmont Park, horseplayers will first have to handicap the weather, as a high probability of rain persisting into midweek could force the $60,000 race to the main track with a distance change to 1 1/8 miles.

Westrock Stables is expanding its reach. The Arkansas-based partnership – which races Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Hamazing Destiny and stakes-winning fillies Tidal Pool and Decelerator – has sent some 2-year-olds to Southern California and New York and recently won with its first-ever starters at Lone Star Park and Louisiana Downs.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Sam-Son Farm will be front and center at this year’s Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame gala with the late Tammy Samuel-Balaz, trainer Mark Frostad, and Dancethruthedawn among the inductees.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall Fame, a dual-breed facility, is located at Woodbine and inductees in five Thoroughbred and five Standardbred categories were announced on Tuesday afternoon at an on-site press conference.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Even by jockey Rajiv Maragh’s own admission, Mucho Macho Man had no real excuse when finishing third, three lengths behind Animal Kingdom, in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago.

Getting an unimpeded trip, Mucho Macho Man simply could not match strides with Animal Kingdom in the stretch as Animal Kingdom came to him and went by him in the final three-sixteenths of a mile. Mucho Macho Man did close well on Nehro to lose second by only a neck.

Around the Golden Gate Fields backstretch, the feeling was unanimous: Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer’s selection to go into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame this summer was well deserved.

Hollendorfer, 64, has won 5,941 races. Among his career highlights are three Kentucky Oaks victories, with Lite Light, Pike Place Dancer, and Blind Luck, who won the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old filly of 2010. Hollendorfer won his first Breeders’ Cup race last year, when Dakota Phone took the Dirt Mile.

MIAMI – The Summit of Speed is still nearly two months away, but trainers Leo Azpurua Jr. and Steve DiMauro were already thinking well ahead after sending out their top 3-year-old sprinters to victories last Saturday at Calder. Manicero, trained by Azpurua for his father, Leo Azpurua Sr., won the In Summation Stakes, while the DiMauro-trained Beso Grande took the French Village Stakes.

Nehro, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, will not run in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday at Pimlico, owner Ahmed Zayat said early Tuesday morning.

"It's a very hard decision, but I want to err on the side of caution," Zayat said. "He couldn't look any better. His work on Monday was absolutely awesome. I'm just concerned about him having four hard races in eight weeks, even if, outwardly, he doesn't appear to be showing it.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Progeny of the stallion Distorted Humor have won stakes each of the last three racing days at Belmont Park. That streak could very well continue Wednesday at Belmont Park when Savvy Supreme makes her stakes debut in the $60,000 Classy Mirage going six furlongs at Belmont.

The board of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association tabled a vote on a proposal from the lease-holder of Monmouth Park that would guarantee 71 live racing days per year and average daily purse distribution of $400,000 a day for the next five years, citing the need to communicate with its general membership first, according to the association's president.