LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jim Cassidy thought about running Evening Jewel in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park this week. Then, he thought better.

“You’ve got Havre de Grace and Switch in there,” Cassidy said. “I said, ‘We might as well try to find a little better spot.’ ”

So instead of being a fringe player in Arkansas, Evening Jewel will be in from California as a solid favorite Thursday at Keeneland in the $300,000 Vinery Madison, a seven-furlong Polytrack race that carries the same Grade 1 rating as the $500,000 Apple Blossom.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Until 5:15 p.m. last Saturday, jockey Victor Espinoza was without a confirmed mount for the Kentucky Derby.

“I didn’t have one,” he said. “I was just hoping.”

Midnight Interlude changed that with his upset win in the $1 million Santa Anita Derby. Making his stakes debut, Midnight Interlude earned a place in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 7 with a head victory over Comma to the Top.

“I was lucky for sure,” Espinoza said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Preamble missed out on most of his 3-year-old season because of chronic soreness. So far this year, he has made up for that absence with wins in two starts at Santa Anita.

Trained by Richard Mandella for Spendthrift Farm, Preamble will attempt to win his third consecutive race in a $59,000 allowance race over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Thursday, a race that drew five runners.

“He looks like he’s improving as we go,” Mandella said. “He’s always shown his promise and he’s kind of making up all those promises.”

A second career as a barrel racer may never happen for Fall for It, the former $6,250 claimer who won the third stakes of her career in the $182,700 La Primera Del Ano Derby at Los Alamitos last Saturday.

Owner Brian Hyde of Blackfoot, Idaho, is a barrel racing enthusiast who has taken some Quarter Horses off the track and converted them to that rodeo sport. The thought was in the back of his mind last summer when Fall for It was claimed from a cheap maiden race. Now the only thing in Fall for It’s future is more stakes.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Watch your back for Miss Match.

That’s a word of caution for the four fillies and mares she will take on Friday in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park. Miss Match snuck up on the Santa Margarita field last month at Santa Anita, winning the Grade 1 at 45-1.

“There was a lot of speed up in front of her, and that helped,” said Neil Drysdale, who trains Miss Match.

Saturday was a pretty satisfying day for trainer Duane Offield when Lilacs and Lace scored a $99.40 upset in the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland.

She was the second filly with Northern California roots to win the race. Rings a Chime won the race in 2000 before running second in the Kentucky Oaks.

MIAMI – The Summit of Speed, Juvenile Showcase, Festival of the Sun, and Florida Million event days will again highlight the Calder and Tropical at Calder stakes schedules for the 2011 season, which begins April 25 and concludes one month earlier than usual this year on Dec. 2.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Arkansas Derby favorite The Factor was one of seven horses from Southern California who arrived in Hot Springs, Ark., on a Tex Sutton charter flight around 9:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, most expected for stakes engagements this weekend at Oaklawn Park.

The Arkansas Derby closes out the meet on Saturday. The Factor is returning to Oaklawn after winning last month’s Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes by more than six lengths. Martin Garcia has the mount for trainer Bob Baffert.

Finger Lakes Casino and Racetrack in Farmington, N.Y., has received full accreditation from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association’s Safety and Integrity Alliance, the association announced Tuesday.

Like the 19 other racetracks that have received accreditation since the voluntary program was launched several years ago, Finger Lakes was required to comply with a list of standards developed by the alliance in a host of areas related to safety practices. The track was inspected by alliance personnel at the conclusion of its 2010 meet, according to the alliance.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey David Cohen will be out of action three to four weeks due to a stress fracture in his right leg, agent Bill Castle said.

Cohen, the second-leading rider during Aqueduct’s inner-track meet and third at the current main track stand, had two ontrack incidents in the past month involving his right leg. On March 10, he was kicked in the calf after his mount, Talented Princess, unseated him coming out of the starting gate at Aqueduct. Cohen missed more than a week of action at that time.