Thistledown begins its first meet Saturday under the direction of Caesars Entertainment. All three Ohio Thoroughbred tracks are now owned by gaming entities. Penn Gaming purchased Beulah Park last year and River Downs was purchased by Pinnacle Entertainment earlier this year.

Lee Dillard is the new general manager at Thistledown and he has implemented several changes that show a new direction for the North Randall track.

In past seasons, Thistledown has done very little little marketing or advertising but, according to Dillard, “our top priority is to promote the track.”

AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Tom Wenzel will send out Zagreus in the feature race Saturday at Emerald Downs as he attempts to kick-start what could be a lucrative summer.

Wenzel finished 15th in the trainer standings in 2010 but has more horseflesh to work with this year. Zagreus is one of more than 30 runners currently under his care, a considerable increase from 2010, when he saddled 15 winners from 85 starters and captured a pair of stakes.

Fonner Park will run a pair of stakes Saturday with 3-year-old Nebraska-bred fillies in the $25,000 Fonner Park Special Stakes and older fillies and mares in the $10,000 Runza Stakes. Both races are six furlongs.

A group of six lightly-raced colts and geldings, led by the undefeated Sherriff Cogburn and the rapidly improving Sharp Dude, will battle in Saturday’s $60,000 Golden Circle Stakes at Prairie Meadows. The Golden Circle is a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.

Sherriff Cogburn, who is trained by Don Von Hemel, is 2 for 2 in his career. He won a maiden race at Arlington Park over Polytrack last July by seven lengths, then took the Prairie Juvenile Mile on dirt with consummate ease by 9 1/4 lengths in August.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – For the last two months, Warren’s Flyer has been prepared specifically for the $125,000 Melair Stakes at Hollywood Park on Saturday – and the race may set up ideally for her first stakes win.

Warren’s Flyer, a winner of 2 of 9 starts, runs from off the pace, and will have a genuine target to pursue in the speedy Miles Ruler, the likely favorite who is making her first start over 1 1/16 miles in the race for statebred 3-year-old fillies.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The usually consistent Indian Apple Is ended last year on a downer when she finished far back in the Bessarabian Stakes. She begins this season Saturday in the $150,000 Whimsical Stakes as a newly crowned champion, having been voted the 2010 Sovereign Award for the leading female sprinter in the country.

Indian Apple Is won 3 of 7 starts and $302,826 last year. She captured two stakes, including the Ontario Fashion over six furlongs, which just happens to be the distance of the Grade 3 Whimsical.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It is tough to pick the winner of the $50,000 Brighouse Belles at Hastings Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint for fillies and mares drew 10 horses, and all are making their first start of the year.

It is hard to find a more honest horse than Wind Storm, and it wouldn’t be surprising if she ended up being a slight favorite.

A 7-year-old mare, Wind Storm has won a third of her 26 career starts and discounting her debut, she has never finished worse than third in any sprint.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Ultra Blend has changed in the last few years. She won her first stakes at 3, and proved capable of placing in graded stakes or minor stakes against open company at both 3 and 4.

In the last year, she has become virtually unbeatable, while racing almost exclusively against statebreds.

Ultra Blend has won 3 of her last 4 starts, all in stakes, and is expected to extend that span of success in Saturday’s $125,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes for statebred fillies and mares over 7 1/2 furlongs at Hollywood Park.

Three multiple stakes winners give Saturday’s $50,000 Work the Crowd Stakes at Golden Gate Fields a real touch of class. Antares World, U R All That I Am and Strawberry Tart make the one-mile turf stakes for California-bred fillies and mares a very interesting race.

But the remainder of the cast should not be overlooked either, with the stakes-placed pair of Ruffled Feathers and Point of Reference as well as Ms. G.I. Jane entered.

In March, Kafwain sired the winner of the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks, Daisy Devine, a candidate for the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on May 6.

On April 5, a Kafwain filly was purchased for $70,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Texas sale of 2-year-olds in training. On Monday, a Kafwain filly was purchased for $200,000 at the first session of Ocala Breeders’ Sales’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training.

Kafwain himself is standing at Tommy Town Thoroughbreds in Santa Ynez, Calif., but he is lonelier than farm owner Tom Stull would prefer this spring.