INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Pedaltothemedal was well regarded last year at 2, when sore shins cut short her campaign. She started twice, won a maiden race, and was not overhyped.

Fast forward to 2011, and trainer Art Sherman does not hide enthusiasm for Pedaltothemedal, who is likely to start favored Saturday in the Grade 3, seven-furlong Railbird Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park. What about the hype? Bring it.

“I haven’t been this excited about a horse in a long time,” Sherman said. “I think she’s the real McCoy.”

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BALTIMORE – The embarrassment of riches that is trainer Graham Motion’s stable will never be more on display than Saturday at Pimlico. Not only is he running the Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom in the Preakness, but three hours earlier he brings defending Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Shared Account back to the races in the Grade 3, $100,000 Gallorette Handicap.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. – The first Canterbury Park stakes races of the season are on tap Saturday with the $35,000 Lady Slipper Stakes for Minnesota-bred fillies and mares and the $35,000 10,000 Lakes Stakes for Minnesota-bred colts and geldings co-featured on a nine-race card. Both stakes will be run at six furlongs over the main track.

ALTOONA, Iowa – Local trainer Kelly Von Hemel holds a strong hand in both of Saturday evening’s co-featured $60,000 sprint stakes for Iowa-bred 3-year-olds.

Someplace Else looks like a standout in the six-furlong Bob Bryant. She has won two straight, including a front-running, 2 3/4-length maiden win April 9 at Oaklawn Park and a three-length allowance win at Prairie Meadows on May 6.

AUBURN, Wash. -- My Untamed Heart, one of the fastest horses at Emerald Downs through the first 12 days of the meeting, headlines Saturday’s feature race, a first-level optional $15,000 claimer for fillies and mares at six furlongs. Preakness Day festivities begin with the first live race at 2 p.m. Pacific. Animal Kingdom’s bid for the second leg of the Triple Crown is scheduled for a 3:16 post time, between the third and fourth races on Emerald’s nine-race card, and the feature is race 8.

Fugitive Angel returns to the Pennsylvania-bred ranks when she faces six other older fillies and mares in the $75,000 Ambassador of Luck, one of two six-furlong stakes on the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs on Saturday afternoon.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – In the 2010 Hanshin Cup, Country Flavor scored a 21-1 upset over two Mike Stidham-trained horses, Tybalt and Gran Estreno. Country Flavor is back for another try in the Grade 3, $100,000 Hanshin, but his Stidham-trained rival this time, Workin for Hops, may prove more formidable than last year’s foes.

Saturday’s feature at Northlands Park shapes up as a battle between Indoctrination and Dollarwaitnonadime. The six-furlong, first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds attracted six horses and Indoctrination figures to be a slight favorite over Dollarwaitnonadime.

Indoctrination is trained by Jim Meyaard. In the last two years at Northlands, Meyaard has won with 108 of his 279 starters (38 percent).

BALTIMORE, Md. – When Martin Garcia took over as the rider for Lookin At Lucky in last year’s Preakness Stakes, his lack of big-race experience was seen as an issue. Would he wilt under the pressure?

He didn’t, maybe because, for Garcia, pressure is not defined under the terms used for most anyone else.

Is it pressure to ride in the Preakness in front of 95,760 people, or is it pressure to be orphaned by your parents at birth and raised by aunts and uncles in a poor area of Mexico?