LEXINGTON, Ky. – Sports fans in the Bluegrass are still grieving the defeat of their beloved Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA basketball semifinals, so the timing couldn’t be better. Here comes Keeneland, where a spring afternoon of racing provides the perfect salve for pretty much any wound.

Indeed, going hoops to hooves should turn this town around in a hurry.

“You can always just sense the excitement building for Keeneland,” racing secretary Ben Huffman said. “There aren’t many better places to come spend a day and forget about the real world.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Grade 1 winners Fluke, Sidney’s Candy, and The Usual Q.T. will not start in Saturday’s $150,000 Arcadia Stakes at Santa Anita, and still trainer Mark Glatt does not feel the race has become much easier.

The Grade 2 Arcadia Stakes, run over a mile on turf, has drawn a field of seven, led by Caracortado, winner of the Sunshine Millions Turf in January, and Jeranimo, who won the Grade 2 San Gabriel Stakes in December. Glatt will start Leroy’s Dynameaux, winner of the Grade 3 Will Rogers Stakes at Hollywood Park last June for Ellenay Racing.

Jean Cruguet, who rode Seattle Slew to win the Triple Crown in 1977, is planning to make a one-race comeback late in the Keeneland meet. Cruguet, 72, said he will ride a 3-year-old filly named Ratoath Special in a starter-allowance sprint on April 27.

“I’ve been in Ocala all winter and I’m pretty fit,” said Cruguet. “I think the filly will win. I wouldn’t ride her if I didn’t think so.”

D. Wayne Lukas owns a slew of training records at Keeneland, including all-time wins (275), all-time stakes wins (50), most meet titles won or shared (16), and most wins at a meet (22, fall 1989).

OPELOUSAS, La. – Reyina, recently crowned co-champion Louisiana-bred 2-year-old filly of 2010 by the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, heads the field for the $50,000 Hallowed Dreams Stakes at Evangeline Downs Friday night. She will square off against eight rivals at six furlongs.

Voting by the LTBA produced a tie between Reyina and Tensas Punch for last year’s top accredited Louisiana-bred juvenile filly. It is the first time there has been a tie in the voting since 1975 when Sure Landing and Sassy Bee shared honors as the older accredited Louisiana-bred.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The draw for the Santa Anita Derby had just taken place Wednesday morning when trainer Bob Baffert came barreling into the Santa Anita racing office and found out that, only seconds earlier, Jaycito had drawn the far outside post in the field of 11.

“Seriously? Really?” Baffert said, briefly disappointed. Then, in typical Baffert fashion, he joked, “You guys need to re-draw,” then added, “He likes the outside rail, anyway,” referring to Jaycito’s flirtation with the outer rail in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

ARCADIA, Calif. – It has taken a few months for trainer Simon Callaghan’s stable to gather momentum this year, and the results of the last three weeks suggest the stable deserves to be followed this spring.

Callaghan had five starters in January and February but has had eight in the last three weeks, including three winners and two second-place finishers.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The colt who won the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall sure didn’t look like the one finishing fourth in a $27,000 turf allowance at Tampa Bay Downs last month. So when the opening-day feature, the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes, is run Friday over the Keeneland turf course, horseplayers will have to decide which Pluck will emerge from the starting gate.

Barry Irwin, whose Team Valor International group owns Pluck, said he is as interested as anyone to see which one shows up Friday.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Champ Pegasus, who finished 12th in the $5 million Sheema Classic at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai on March 26, will be given a six- to eight-week break because of an ankle injury, trainer Richard Mandella said on Wednesday.

Champ Pegasus underwent an extensive nuclear scan test when he returned to the United States, which showed the injury. “He has an ankle that’s jarred up, but it’s nothing serious,” Mandella said. “We’ll give him a couple of months off.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – John T. Ward Jr. grew up just outside the back stable gate at Keeneland and became a local legend by training horses to win a number of major races, most notably the 2001 Kentucky Derby with Monarchos.

And yet his photograph is missing from the walls of the Keeneland track kitchen.

“Haven’t won a Grade 1 here, and that’s what they say you need to do to get your picture up there,” said an amused Ward.