LEXINGTON, Ky. – Santiva was listed as the 3-1 favorite after being assigned post 3 in a field of 12 3-year-olds entered to run Saturday in one of the last remaining Kentucky Derby prep races, the 87th running of the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Swift Warrior, a handy winner of the Rushaway Stakes at Turfway Park in his last start, is out of the Blue Grass Stakes after being diagnosed with a condylar fracture of the right foreleg following a Wednesday morning workout at Keeneland.

Swift Warrior was making his first start after a private purchase when he dominated the March 26 Rushaway. The First Samurai colt is trained by John Terranova for James Covello and James Dolan. Garrett Gomez had been scheduled to ride Swift Warrior in the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass, which will be run Saturday at Keeneland.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

That’s essentially trainer Nick Zito’s theory when it comes to putting the final touches on Dialed In’s quest to win the 2011 Kentucky Derby on May 7.

Dialed In breezed an easy half-mile in 49.90 seconds early Tuesday morning at Palm Meadows under regular exercise rider Maxine Correa in what was essentially a leg-stretcher for the winner of the Grade 1 Florida Derby and arguably the current favorite for this year’s Kentucky Derby.

Mike Battaglia, the morning-line maker for Churchill Downs, would make The Factor the 7-2 favorite for the Kentucky Derby if the May 7 race were run today, according to a release from Churchill. Dialed In and Uncle Mo are co-second choices on Battaglia's early line at 4-1.

Pluck, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last fall, is being turned out for 60 days after being diagnosed with bruising of both of his hind cannon bones.

Barry Irwin, president of Team Valor International, which owns Pluck, said in a Tuesday press release that the colt underwent a thorough lameness examination earlier in the day at the Rood and Riddle equine clinic in Lexington, Ky.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– For all Smiling Tiger accomplished last year at 3 – knocking off older horses in the both the Bing Crosby and Ancient Title and running third in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint – there are reasons to believe he will be even better this season.

“He’s a bigger, stronger horse as a 4-year-old,” said Jeff Bonde, who trains Smiling Tiger. “He went from teenager to man.”

AUBURN, Wash. – Emerald Downs, the Pacific Northwest’s flagship track, springs back to life Friday evening, launching an 82-day meeting that will span six months and reach its apex with the 76th running of the Grade 3 Longacres Mile on Aug. 21.

Emerald will conduct racing three days a week – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – for the first 12 weeks of the meeting, add Thursday cards in July and August, and then down-shift to three days a week in September. The season ends Sept. 25.

When Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, kicked off its Thoroughbred meet last April, it was expected to be the last under the direction of MI Developments before Global Gaming Solutions, a subsidiary of the Chickasaw Nation tribe of Oklahoma, took over managing the track.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Eight older runners who have won a combined 64 races and $3.3 million square off in Thursday’s $60,000 Irish Tower out of Aqueduct’s main-track chute at one mile.

The lineup includes the favorite and second choice from this year’s General George Handicap, the last two winners of the Queens County, a Grade 1 winner who rates only as the third choice on the morning line, and features the return of Arson Squad, a nine-time winner who has earned nearly $1.2 million, who missed the J. B. Campbell and the Stymie in February because of a foot infection.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 137th Kentucky Derby already has one feel-good story in Mucho Macho Man, whose trainer, Kathy Ritvo, has overcome major illness to become a natural root-for. And now the Derby could get a similar heart-tugger if King Congie runs well enough Saturday in the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland.

King Congie (pronounced CON-jee), owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, is named for the late Congie DeVito, who died in February at age 35 after suffering throughout his life with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone disease.