PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland Meadows will present its biggest race in nearly one-quarter of a century, the $80,000 Portland Meadows Oaks, on a special Saturday card.

The $80,000 purse makes the Oaks the richest race run at Portland Meadows since 1987, when Bill Shoemaker guided Present Value to victory in the $100,000 Coors Mile.

Eight 3-year-old fillies will compete in the one-mile race that is the first step in the Black-Eyed Susan $2.2 million bonus being offered at MI Development-owned racetracks.

PHOENIX – Saturday’s $25,000 Glendale Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the grass at Turf Paradise comes chockfull of questions: Was Let’s Dream Again’s recent romp a sign she’s peaking? Can last year’s runner-up in this race and proven turf mare Table Mesa get back to her best? Can Snuggs and Kisses take the form that led her to an easy upset on dirt in the Kachina Handicap earlier this month to the turf, a surface on which she’s yet to hit the board in three prior tries?

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – An unidentified horse from the barn of trainer Jonathan Sheppard showing symptoms of possible neurological disease has prompted Gulfstream Park officials to quarantine one barn at the track and four others at its training facility at Palm Meadows on Thursday. Three of the barns at Palm Meadows contain horses trained by Todd Pletcher, including Kentucky Derby favorite Uncle Mo.

Another highly regarded 3-year-old nominated to but skipping the Holy Bull is Santiva, winner of the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Cup at Churchill Downs in his juvenile finale. Santiva is stabled at Palm Meadows this winter, where he’s just beginning to gear up for his 3-year-old season.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -  The Oaklawn Park board of stewards has reinstated Florida-based trainer Marty Wolfson to good standing after suspending him last Sunday for failure to pay a $500 fine dating back to It’s a Bird’s disqualification from the 2009 Oaklawn Handicap. Payment of the fine was received from Wolfson on Wednesday, said Stan Bowker, the state steward at Oaklawn.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Rick Violette, who has an abundance of 3-year-old talent in his barn here this winter, had been considering both Leave of Absence and Rescind the Trade for Sunday’s Grade 3 Holy Bull. The decision became a moot point on Wednesday morning after Violette put Rescind the Trade on a van bound for snowy New York.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Winslow Homer, winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream in 2010, had his first published work since last summer on Wednesday morning at Oaklawn. He breezed three furlongs in a bullet 36 seconds under jockey Jenna Joubert, while clockers caught him galloping out a half-mile in 48.60.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The Usual Q.T., winner of the Grade 1 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar in July, will end a streak of five appearances in Grade 1 and Grade 2 races when he starts in Saturday’s $300,000 Sunshine Millions Turf for California-breds and Florida-breds at Santa Anita on Saturday.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It has been more than two years since Royal Taat has seen the winner’s circle. With a little break from the weatherman, the once-stakes-caliber mare might finally have her picture taken again after Friday’s $55,000 main event at Gulfstream Park, which is scheduled for five furlongs on the grass.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Jockey Andrew Lakeman nearly died as a result of injuries he suffered in a spill at Belmont Park in May 2007. There were times he wished he had.

Instead, Lakeman was paralyzed from the chest down, confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. Not the ideal place for an athlete accustomed to running six or seven miles a day, getting on a handful or two of horses each morning, and trying to make a career as a jockey in New York, arguably the toughest racing circuit in the country.