ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Keeneland-based trainer Joseph Griffitt came up the old-fashioned way. Wait, check that. Griffitt’s ascension to the position of head trainer has been highly unusual.

Griffitt began his training career in late December. It took him more than four months to send out a winner, but his maiden victory finally came when Honored View won Friday’s first race at Arlington by almost five lengths. Career win number 2 came only an hour later, when High, a second horse Griffitt had shipped here from Keeneland, won Arlington’s third race.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Alternation, the determined head winner of Saturday’s Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes, was expected to arrive in Chicago on Wednesday morning, and his connections will wait for at least a week before they decide whether to ship the horse back to New York for the $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 11.

“It’s something certainly to consider, I think we’ll probably watch the Preakness with great interest then probably sometime in the middle of next week try to come up with the plan,” trainer Donnie Von Hemel said Monday morning by phone from Chicago.

Led by Animal Kingdom, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, an intriguing mix of Derby participants and Triple Crown newcomers is set to be entered Wednesday in Saturday’s 136th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, but the final composition of the field was still in flux Monday, owing to the difficulty owner Ahmed Zayat was having deciding on whether to run Nehro, the Derby runner-up.

Getaway Guy has been a different horse since trainer Greg Foley put blinkers on him in February at Fair Grounds. Foley hopes that proves to be the case when the gelding is part of a full field of 12 3-year-olds in the $100,000 Tom Ridge at Presque Isle Downs on Wednesday evening.

“Putting the blinkers on him has really turned him around,” Foley said.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Inglorious got back into the groove Sunday at Woodbine, capturing the $180,000 La Lorgnette by 1 1/2 lengths and confirming her status as the favorite for the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks.

Undefeated in her two starts here last year for trainer Josie Carroll and the Donver Stable of Donna and Vern Dubinsky, Inglorious had leading rider Luis Contreras in the irons for the first time in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Northern Bear should be on the prowl for the lion’s share of the $58,600 purse in Wednesday night’s Woodbine feature. The 6 1/2-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired stock drew a field of 16, which includes two also-eligibles. Carded as race 7, it will conclude the pick four, which has a guaranteed pool of $75,000.

Northern Bear finished second as part of a win photo in both of his starts in April 2010. Following a layoff of nearly a year on April 10, he came from a stalking position to capture a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special for Ontario-sired runners.

Midnight Interlude, who finished 16th in the Kentucky Derby after capturing the Santa Anita Derby, tuned up for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with a three-furlong drill in 35.60 seconds on Monday morning at Churchill Downs.

“He went very nice, with a lot of energy,” said his trainer, Bob Baffert, who was at Churchill Downs for the work. “It was probably his best work over the track since we got here.”

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David Seftel, the Golden Gate Fields track physician, is trying to expedite Michael Martinez’s request for permanent residency so the paralyzed jockey can be admitted into a special stem-cell treatment program in Switzerland. Seftel said over the weekend that Martinez has only about two weeks to be admitted into the program for the treatment to be most effective.

Wyomia, the runner-up in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland last month, is among the seven 3-year-old fillies entered to run Friday in the Grade 2, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes, the anchor of the Preakness eve card at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

Julien Leparoux is named to ride Wyomia in the 1 1/8-mile Black-Eyed Susan, which is to the Preakness what the Kentucky Oaks is to the Kentucky Derby. Trained by Curtis Garrison, Wyomia was beaten a length by Lilacs and Lace in the April 9 Ashland. The daughter of Vindication was assigned post 4.

INGLEWOOD. Calif. - It was not going to take much for the 2-year-old filly Eblouissante to reach favorite’s status in trainer John Shirreffs’s barn. Eblouissante is a half-sister to Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year.

By Bernardini and owned by breeder Eric Kronfeld, Eblouissante arrived last Wednesday and began light training on Thursday.

“Everybody’s excited,” Shirreffs said last week.

Zenyatta did not start until November of her 3-year-old season. Considering Eblouissante just arrived, she may not run until 3, either.