MIAMI – The $100,000 Tropical Park Turf and My Charmer handicaps were axed from the Calder stakes schedule a year ago for fiscal reasons. The two Grade 3 events survived the cut in 2010, however, and will return as strong as ever on Saturday with full, wide-open fields.

One trainer happy to have both turf races back on the docket is Patrick Biancone, who will send out three starters on Saturday, including Never On Sunday, the likely favorite and 120 pound co-highweight in the 1 1/8-mile Tropical Turf.

PHOENIX – When Twin Sparks won the Caballos del Sol at Turf Paradise a little more than a year ago, it was a tour de force, his coming-out party, if you will. All the gelding did was win by 11 1/4 lengths and set a world record for six furlongs (1:06.49).

However when Twin Sparks tries to defend his title in the $25,000 renewal Saturday, he’ll be trying to recapture that spark as he returns after a lengthy layoff that followed two poor races here last winter. The 7-year-old gelding heads a field of 10 going six furlongs.

Music Please has shown a knack for winning tight photos in her first two career starts, but will probably have to run faster than she has so far when she steps up to stakes company for Saturday’s $50,000 Squan Song at Laurel Park.

The seven-furlong Squan Song, restricted to Maryland-bred fillies and mares, drew a field of six.

ALBANY, Calif. – Trainer Daniel Franko is all too aware of the presence of Cathy’s Crunches – the winner of Golden Gate Fields’ first two 2-year-old stakes of the fall meet – in Saturday’s $75,000 Corte Madera Stakes.

A daughter of West Acre trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Cathy’s Crunches dominated fillies in the Golden Gate Debutante and came back to defeat males in the Golden Nugget. She drew the rail in the Corte Madera , a one-mile race for 2-year-old fillies.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Luis Contreras checked into Woodbine Racetrack at the beginning of 2009 as the stable jockey for trainer Steve Asmussen, and his immigration status allowed him to ride only for American owners.

But since getting the necessary paperwork completed in September, Contreras and his agent Tony Esposito have had free reign to ride for all, and the results have been spectacular.

After scoring with Classy Zip ($6.90) and Marcellino ($9.70) on Wednesday evening, Contreras had ridden 118 winners here and another six at Fort Erie this season.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – First-out stakes winner Inglorious will travel 1 1/16 miles Saturday at Woodbine Racetrack in the $150,000 Ontario Lassie Stakes for Ontario-foaled 2-year-old fillies.

Inglorious, a $90,000 yearling purchase by Donver Stable, made her only start against Ontario-breds in the six-furlong Fanfreluche on Oct. 24.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Sand Cove probably clinched the Sovereign Award for this year’s Canadian champion older male on the main track with a dominating win in the $127,800 Sir Barton Stakes on Wednesday night at Woodbine Racetrack.

Sand Cove ($4.10) dueled with 52-1 shot Quinzee through slow fractions of 25.69, 50.02, and 1:13.51 in the 1 1/16-mile route for Ontario-sired runners.

Trainer Steve Margolis is having his best year ever in terms of wins and stable earnings, and the meet he had last season at Fair Grounds is behind some of that success. Margolis won with 29 percent of his starters and is now back in New Orleans with a deep stable of horses that includes Stay Put, who in his last start split the field in the Belmont Stakes; Join in the Dance, who was seventh in the 2009 Kentucky Derby; Cash Refund, who has never been beaten at Fair Grounds; and Bouquet Booth, who last month captured the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Downs Princess.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Amid the drama after the Breeders’ Cup Marathon at Churchill Downs on Nov. 5, when jockeys Calvin Borel and Javier Castellano seemingly made every sports highlight show with their postrace scuffle, trainer Kristin Mulhall walked off the track relieved that Romp was not injured.

When the chain reaction of bumping occurred on the final turn, which led to the altercation, Romp had the worst of it. He clipped heels with a rival and nearly fell. Romp finished 10th in a field of 12, 32 lengths behind Eldaafer.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Already a Grade 2 winner who is about to turn 6 years old, Tar Heel Mom would seem the ideal candidate to be heading to the breeding shed in a couple of months. But if she’s able to return to the form she displayed before an injury sidelined her last spring, Tar Heel Mom may have another year of racing ahead of her.