ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Gary D is the lone winter-raced runner in Friday’s Woodbine headliner, which should give him an edge in the second-level optional claimer, scheduled for 5 1/2 furlongs.

Gary D started once here last year when he was trained by Steve Asmussen, finishing fourth in the Woodstock Stakes. After running second in the Jan. 8 Pelican Stakes at Tampa, he changed trainers for the fifth time in his career, going from Freddie Hyatt to Mark Casse.

Thanks to the miracle of modern science, the big horse in trainer Todd Beattie’s barn is ready to resume racing for the first time since the fall of 2009.

The millionaire Fabulous Strike, a five-time graded stakes winner and one of the nation’s top sprinters between 2007 and 2009, will launch his comeback Saturday night in a six-furlong $38,000 allowance at Penn National Race Course.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Fatal Bullet wintered at Palm Meadows and accompanied Reade Baker-trained stablemate Biofuel on her journey north.

A 6-year-old gelding who races for the Bear Stable of Danny Dion, whose nickname is Bear, Fatal Bullet was Canada’s champion sprinter and Horse of the Year in 2009 but failed to find the range last year while running second once and third five times in six starts. In his last outing, which came here on Nov. 20, Fatal Bullet was beaten 1 1/4 lengths when third in the Grade 3, six-furlong Kennedy Road.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Mike Smith says that the Kentucky Derby can weigh on a rider’s mind each spring.

“I don’t know when you want it the most – after you’ve won it once or if you’ve never won it,” he said on a recent morning at Santa Anita. “When you’ve won it, you want to win it again. You can imagine all you want, but until you do it . . . It feels like it’s a life changer.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Biofuel was honored here on April 1 as Canada’s Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old filly for 2010. But the chances of Biofuel repeating as a Sovereign Award winner are slim, as the stakes program here for older fillies and mares at Woodbine is very light in two-turn races on the main track.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rosie Napravnik was supposed to make a 10-hour drive from Delaware to Keeneland on Tuesday, but a nasty case of food poisoning delayed the trip by a day.

“It was horrible,” said Napravnik. “Four of us went to our favorite restaurant near Delaware Park [Monday night], and I had what everybody else had, except for the salad dressing. I was the only one who got sick, so I guess that was it.”

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Twenty-four hours later than scheduled, but none the worse for wear, undefeated champion Uncle Mo arrived in New York at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday morning for his engagement in Saturday’s $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Uncle Mo arrived from south Florida on a Tex Sutton flight that had been delayed one day due to weather concerns.

"He shipped in really well and everything went smoothly," trainer Todd Pletcher said. "Im glad we waited the extra day and let the weather clear up. We had an uneventful trip."

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla.- S. S. Stone, who rose from the claiming ranks this winter to capture Sunday’s Grade 3 Skip Away at Gulfstream Park, will be sidelined indefinitely after exiting the race with a small fracture in his left cannon bone, trainer Nick Zito reported on Wednesday.

Patrick Valenzuela will ride Sway Away in the Arkansas Derby, trainer Jeff Bonde said Monday. The horse, who was the runner-up to The Factor in the Grade 2 San Vicente at Santa Anita in February, finished a troubled sixth last out in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel at Oaklawn. (The Factor won the race and on Monday worked six furlongs in 1:11.40 at Santa Anita.)

Churchill Downs announced Tuesday that the track will host postrace concerts following twilight Friday cards at the spring meet for five straight weeks following the May 7 Kentucky Derby before getting into its nighttime programs.

First post for the twilight Fridays will be 2:45 p.m., with the last race going at about 8 and the concerts following shortly thereafter. Those dates are May 13, 20, and 27 and June 3-10.