Mike Stidham-trained horses are possible runners in major upcoming graded stakes races, including Willcox Inn, who finished second last Saturday in the Grindstone Stakes, his first race since a third-place finish last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Willcox Inn closed well through the stretch, unable to catch Great Mills, who coasted through soft splits on an uncontested lead.
“Considering everything, short of him winning, I was very pleased,” Stidham said. “I knew going in the seven and a half [furlongs] was far shorter than his best distance.”

Gran Estreno, an 8-year-old horse who won multiple graded stakes after being claimed for $20,000 in May 2009, broke both sesamoids in his right front ankle joint at the end of a half-mile workout Monday morning at Fair Grounds. The horse has been shipped to the Rood and Riddle equine veterinary clinic near Lexington, Ky., and Dr. Larry Bramlage was scheduled to operate on the injured leg Friday. Gran Estreno can’t possibly race again, but if the surgery is successful he will be sound enough for mild farm life.

A couple weeks ago the Fair Grounds racing office was anticipating a large field, maybe 10 or 11 horses, for the $1 million Louisiana Derby on March 26, but recent defections from the race have pushed the projected number of starters down to barely half that number.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Last month, a 3-year-old filly based in Maryland shipped to Aqueduct to win the Dearly Precious Stakes. On Saturday, another Maryland-based filly is shipping up to New York with designs to take the Grade 3, $100,000 Cicada Stakes.

Dream, a daughter of Malibu Moon who has won her first two starts by open lengths, will make her stakes debut against six fillies in the Cicada, including Coax Liberty, the Dearly Precious winner.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Harmonious, the winner of two Grade 1 turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies last year, will miss Saturday’s $150,000 Santa Ana Stakes at Santa Anita after trainer John Shirreffs said on Wednesday that he was unhappy with her recent training.

“I’m not going to run,” Shirreffs said from his base at Hollywood Park. “I wasn’t pleased with the way she worked last time. She didn’t look like herself.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.--The opening two legs of Gulfstream Park’s traditional winter sprint handicap series for fillies and mares, the six-furlong Sugar Swirl and 6 1/2-furlong Hurricane Bertie, have featured pretty much the same cast, led by the multiple graded stakes winner Hilda’s Passion. But Saturday’s finale, the seven-furlong, Grade 2 Inside Information, will feature an interesting new look with Hilda’s Passion facing much stronger opposition that includes Beautician and Amen Hallelujah.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The tempo of Oaklawn’s series for 3-year-olds will quicken Saturday, when speedsters The Factor and Sway Away invade from Southern California for the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel.

But awaiting them is J P’s Gusto, a former California resident who is proven at the pace of racing out west. He defeated Sway Away by a half-length in the Grade 2 Best Pal last summer, then, one start later, was a front-running winner of the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Given a little more than a month between starts, Regally Ready has proven to be a tough gelding, winning four of his last seven starts since July.

Since he made the transition to turf last fall, Regally Ready is even more effective, winning two of three races. Those statistics will make Regally Ready the favorite to win his first stakes in Friday’s $75,000 Joe Hernandez Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher holds the upper hand in Friday’s stakes-quality allowance feature at Gulfstream Park with his Bridgetown and filly counterpart Rose Catherine the two to beat in the five-furlong turf dash. The $66,400 headliner lured a strong field of 10 that also includes a pair from the barn of trainer Linda Rice and the four-time Grade 2 winner D’Funnybone, who was entered for dirt only.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn Park has added two stakes races to its racing program as part of a third round of purse increases announced by the track Wednesday. It also has bumped up the purse of the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on April 14 from $150,000 to $200,000.