After picking up small pieces of purses in four stakes races over the past 16 months, Volare Cantare takes a class drop into allowance company in search of her first first-place finish since January 2010 in Monday’s featured sixth race at Penn National Race Course.

A well-traveled 4-year-old filly who has raced at six different tracks and on dirt, synthetic, and turf in her nine-race career, Volare Cantare is among eight fillies and mares in a second-level optional $25,000 claimer at one mile on the main track.

War Pilot won his 3-year-old debut in an allowance race over six furlongs on turf in Friday’s seventh race at Hollywood Park, giving trainer Mike Pender confidence that he has a candidate for the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes at Del Mar on July 20.

Ridden by Martin Pedroza, War Pilot ($12.20) stalked a pace shared by three runners, moved closer with an inside move in early stretch and won by 1 1/2 lengths over 3-5 favorite Vaundell in 1:08.96. Pender credited Pedroza’s move to keep War Pilot on the inside on the turn as a key to the win.

Sakakawea, the prohibitive 2-5 favorite, prevailed in a suspense-filled renewal of the $70,000 Mamie Eisenhower, a six-furlong Iowa-bred stakes for fillies and mares, at Prairie Meadows on Friday night.

As is customary for Sakakawea, she broke sharply and controlled the pace against five rivals. However, as she tired in the final sixteenth, the 5-year-old daughter of Rossini drifted out under jockey Alex Birzer's stiff left-handed pressure and may have intimidated eventual third-place finisher Go Milan Go.

Crown of Thorns, the winner of the Grade 2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park on May 7, will make his next start in the $500,000 Metropolitan Handicap, a Grade 1 race over a mile, at Belmont Park on May 30.

“That’s a serious consideration,” trainer Richard Mandella said on Friday. “I just started him back to the track and he looks fine.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – On Monday morning, two days after the Kentucky Derby, John Velazquez walked into the kitchen of his Long Island home, grabbed a cup of coffee, and sat down next to his wife Leona. He thought he had just accomplished something very important in his career, but just to make sure he sent a text message to his friend, trainer Graham Motion.

“I think I won the Derby for you,” Velazquez’s message read.

Motion, still in Louisville at the time, replied, “Yes, I think it really happened.”

The Texas Racing Commission on Friday approved the transfer of 100 percent ownership in Lone Star Park from MI Developments to Global Gaming. The deal is scheduled to close on Monday.

The action taken by the commission on Friday clears the way for Global Gaming to operate a second racetrack in the region. Global, a Chickasaw Nation subsidiary, owns Remington Park in Oklahoma City.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Practicality returns Sunday at Hollywood Park for a handful of good 3-year-old sprinters who either survived the Kentucky Derby trail, or dodged it altogether.

A favorable pace scenario stamps Bench Points as most likely winner of the Grade 3 Lazaro Barrera, a seven-furlong stakes that is his first start since finishing seventh in the Santa Anita Derby.

“He basically told us he’s not a mile and one-eighth horse,” trainer Tim Yakteen said. “Right now, we’re going to concentrate on going one turn. This is the logical spot.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – So far, the outfits Arlington Park is counting on to make its 2011 race meet go have been delivering, at least in terms of their quantity of starters.

John Haran, an owner-breeder turned trainer this meet, had sent out 10 runners through Wednesday’s action, the same number as trainers Manny Perez and Roger Brueggemann, both of whom were given larger Arlington stall allotments this year than ever before. Mike Maker, another Arlington newcomer, had logged six starters.

Don Pettinger is moving down a new career path. But it’s not that far removed from the more than 30-year riding career he retired from last year. Pettinger, in the last two weeks, has begun working as a jockey agent at Lone Star Park.

“So, I’m back to being a bug boy, I guess,” he said Friday.

Pettinger, 49, represents Rita Helton and apprentice Ronald Richard, who broke his jaw in a spill May 7 but is expected to be back riding by next month. Pettinger rode his final race at Lone Star Park last May, in large part because of a nagging knee injury.

There is little doubt that there will be a full field in the Pimlico starting gate for next Saturday’s $1 million Preakness Stakes. Eight days out from the race, there are at least 16 horses under consideration for the Preakness, which is limited to 14 starters.