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.

Sierra Olson, the 14-year-old girl with the autoimmune disorder Evans syndrome who got to spend a day with trainer Terry Knight last month, had her Make-A-Wish dream fulfilled last week when she visited Pete and Evelyn Varella’s Legacy Ranch and got to witness a live equine birth.

Sierra, along with her parents, Darci and Dylan, brother Eli, and sister Annika, was at Legacy Ranch on April 2 and 3 but was disappointed that she did not get to see a birth, so the Varellas invited the family back at midweek, and she got to see one.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jim Cassidy thought about running Evening Jewel in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park this week. Then, he thought better.

“You’ve got Havre de Grace and Switch in there,” Cassidy said. “I said, ‘We might as well try to find a little better spot.’ ”

So instead of being a fringe player in Arkansas, Evening Jewel will be in from California as a solid favorite Thursday at Keeneland in the $300,000 Vinery Madison, a seven-furlong Polytrack race that carries the same Grade 1 rating as the $500,000 Apple Blossom.