NEW ORLEANS – Illinois-bred Dundalk Dust won the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap on Nov. 25 at Churchill Downs in her 2010 finale. A day later, Illinois-bred Giant Oak was placed first via disqualification in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, capping the most successful week in the career of trainer Chris Block. Giant Oak made his 2011 debut with a sharp victory in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream, and Dundalk Dust now is gearing up for her first start of the year. Block is based year-round in Illinois, though he spends some winter-time in Florida, where his family owns a farm.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In 2008, Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin used Aqueduct’s inner track as a path to Grade 1 glory with the 3-year-old filly Little Belle, who won the Busher Stakes here before upsetting the Ashland at Keeneland.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. − Back home, she was nicknamed the Chilean Zenyatta. Trainer Patrick Biancone prefers to call her “the filly from Chile.” Her real name is Belle Watling, and on Sunday she will make her much anticipated U.S. debut going 1 3/8 miles in Gulfstream Park’s Grade 3, $100,000 The Very One.

The Woodbine Entertainment Group and the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association of Ontario have signed an agreement which will ensure 167 dates of live Thoroughbred racing at Woodbine every year for the next five years.

The current agreement was due to expire on March 31.

“In an environment of short-term contracts and reduced race days, the HBPA is pleased to get this agreement signed with Woodbine,” said Sue Leslie, president of the HBPA, in a press release on Friday.

Mark Frostad toyed with the idea of putting an Ontario-bred colt named Giant’s Tomb on the Kentucky Derby trail last spring before opting for a different approach.

“We went the Queen’s Plate route instead,” said Frostad.

Gulfstream Park has a pick five carryover of $172,000 today with a post time of 3:25 p.m. Eastern for the first leg, race 6. Full coverage on DRF.com:

* Steven Crist will post his analysis and tickets for the pick five and liveblog the sequence. Read now »

* DRF's Mike Welsch live from Gulfstream on the Inside Post. View early scratches »

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jockey Joel Rosario recorded the 1,000th win of his career in the United States and Canada at Santa Anita on Thursday when Coo Cachoo led throughout an optional claimer in the seventh race.

“The 1,000th win sounds good,” he said in the winner’s circle. “I want to thank the owners and trainers who supported me.”

OLDSMAR, Fla. - In one of the more bizarre episodes in the history of Tampa Bay Downs, a 4-year-old Point Given gelding named Shipping News, a starter in a 1 3/8-mile maiden turf race Thursday, wound up splashing about in the infield lake following a series of events that began with the horse being pulled up after seven furlongs of the marathon race.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – When last seen at Oaklawn Park, Taptam was being overtaken in the late stages of a stakes. But her second-place finish was hardly a disgrace. Taptam was run down in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom by Zenyatta, the mare who by year’s end would be crowned Horse of the Year.

Cali Baby’s biggest opposition when she attempts to win her fifth straight stakes Saturday in the $100,000 Sydney Valentini Handicap at Sunland Park might be the weight she will be spotting her rivals.

Cali Baby is highweighted at 125 pounds for the one-mile race for New Mexico-bred fillies and mares, giving her nine opponents between five and 11 pounds each.