Harbor Fox, the 13-10 favorite in Friday’s race 8, an entry-level, two-turn allowance race for 3-year-old fillies, finished a disappointing fifth for trainer Mike Stidham. But another Stidham 3-year-old filly, Snow Fall, was far from disappointing clearing the maiden ranks in race 6. Left in an off-the-turf maiden race, Snow Fall tracked a fast pace set by Tapia, passed her in midstretch, and went on to a 5 1/2-length victory. She turned in a meet-best time of 1:41.97 for one mile and 70 yards, the most commonly run dirt-route distance this Fair Grounds season.

After spending a couple months on a working vacation in Florida, the big fish is coming back to his small pond in West Virginia.

Deshawn Parker, who led the nation’s jockeys with 377 victories in 2010, will be back at Mountaineer Racetrack when it reopens after a two-month shutdown on Tuesday night.

The pick six pot that built for 11 days at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., was hit on Friday, with 170 winning tickets returning $2,349 each.

The carryover was $203,977 heading into the program, with another $329,545 bet into the wager on Friday.

Mission Impazible, the horse Demarcation edged in the Mineshaft, will return to Fair Grounds from Florida to contest the New Orleans Handicap, trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed in a text message. Mission Impazible, who won the Louisiana Derby last year, was part of a hot early pace in the Mineshaft and ran well to hang on for a close second in his second race after a long layoff.

◗ There’s no featured race on the Sunday program in New Orleans, where the only non-claiming races of the day are a pair of Louisiana-bred dirt sprints for maidens.

Trainer Bob Baffert may have as many as four starters in the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap on March 5, but said on Friday that he is unlikely to finalize his team until Monday .

Baffert is likely to start First Dude, who was second to the Baffert-trained Lookin At Lucky in the Preakness Stakes last year. Baffert began training First Dude earlier this month, after the colt finished a troubled fourth in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 29 for trainer Dale Romans.

On Thursday, First Dude worked five furlongs in 58.20 seconds, pleasing Baffert.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark.– All About Allie’s tactical speed should serve her well on Sunday when she takes on five others in the $50,000 Rainbow Miss at Oaklawn Park. The six-furlong race is for 3-year-old fillies bred in Arkansas.

All About Allie has won stakes from both on and off the pace, and as a result should be able to adapt to whatever scenario might unfold in the small field of fillies on Sunday.

“She doesn’t have to have any kind of certain pace,” said David Whited, who trains All About Allie for Sanders Brothers. “She’ll make her own pace, hopefully.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Frank Stronach, the CEO of MI Developments, and his counterpart at Churchill Downs Inc., Bill Carstanjen, met in Kentucky on Friday but failed to resolve the dates dispute that could put Gulfstream Park, owned by MI Developments, and Churchill-owned Calder Race Course into year-round head-to-head competition beginning in July.

Gulfstream’s vice president of racing, Tim Ritvo, said Friday that Stronach spoke to him after the unscuccessful meeting and told him to move forward with plans to run a year-round racing schedule.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The new, improved Amazombie that runs Sunday at Santa Anita is not the same Amazombie that sold cheap two years ago. Not even close.

The old version of Amazombie was a 2009 castoff. He was an un-raced California-bred maiden recovering from a tibia injury at a Riverside County farm. Amazombie was 75 miles southeast of Santa Anita and a long way from the winner’s circle.

Mike Dimoff, a 20-year veteran of race calling, will be the new announcer at Fort Erie Racetrack this year.

Dimoff, a 43-year-old native of Toronto, will be returning from Alberta, where he was the announcer at Northlands Park through the 2009 meeting.

Fort Erie’s 2011 meeting will begin on May 7.

Trainer Paul McGee has kept at least a handful of horses at Fair Grounds over the winter for more than a half-decade, but this year McGee is wintering his entire string in New Orleans for the first time. And for the first couple months of the Fair Grounds season, that wasn’t working very well.