The Grade 3, $400,000 Masters, the premier event at Presque Isle Downs, drew a full field of 12 older fillies and mares, plus two also-eligibles on Wednesday. Although last year’s Masters winner, Informed Decision, is entered once again for Saturday’s running, her victory is not a given.

Goldophin Stable and trainer Saeed bin Suroor are sending out the Argentine-bred Peristaltica. Although limited to four lifetime starts, all in her native country, Peristaltica has won three times. First-time blinkers and first-time Lasix could both help her chances in the Masters.

POMONA, Calif. – Golden Gate-based hotshot Sourdough Sam goes on the road Friday to Fairplex Park, where Southern California may discover what the fuss was about last year when Sourdough Sam emerged as the top 2-year-old in Northern California.

“Last year he was a little bit unlucky, he should have been undefeated,” trainer Dean Pederson said.

No complaints. Pederson and owner-breeder John Nicoletti are just happy Sourdough Sam is back for his second start after being sidelined eight months.

His opinion seems hard to believe.

Trainer Adan Farias guided Freaky to the 2009 World Champion Quarter Horse title after the gelding won four consecutive major stakes from June through December. Freaky then started 2010 with a comprehensive win in the Los Alamitos Winter Championship in February.

Now, Farias insists that Freaky has an improved mental state as he nears his first start in more than six months in Friday’s $100,000 Go Man Go Handicap at Los Alamitos.

Free Fighter and Coolcullen Times look like the top challengers to Cloudy’s Knight in what shapes up as a solid field for the Grade 3, $150,000 Kentucky Cup Turf at Kentucky Downs.

Two other Kentucky Cup races, the $50,000 Ladies and $50,000 Dash, also are set for Saturday at Kentucky Downs, the turf-only track that will be opening a four-day meet in Franklin, Ky. A field of 10 older horses was entered Wednesday for the 1 1/2-mile KC Turf.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Eight horses were entered Wednesday in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Arlington-Washington Futurity, but it’s the absence of one particular horse that’s most noteworthy.

Sherriff Cogburn, the leading 2-year-old in the Midwest, would have been a strong favorite in the Futurity, but he was not entered by trainer Don Von Hemel, and from the way Von Hemel talked Wednesday, Sherriff Cogburn isn’t likely to start again during his 2-year-old season.

BOSSIER CITY, La. – While excitement is beginning to build for Super Derby, to be run on closing weekend for the first time Sept. 25, drama of a different sort is also playing out at Louisiana Downs. With just 12 days of racing left, the closest competition in years for leading rider and trainer promises to go down to the wire.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Don’waitforme stamped himself as the favorite for the Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby on Sept. 26 with a convincing win over Cherokee Notion in the Richmond Derby Trial at Hastings last Monday.

The biggest weekend of the Presque Isle season begins Friday evening with the $250,000 Presque Isle Mile. The Mile will be followed Saturday by the Grade 3, $400,000 Presque Isle Masters.

A full field of 12 is entered in the Mile, including Godolphin’s Gayego, who is trained by Saeed bin Suroor. Gayego ships in from the recently concluded Saratoga meet off an even fourth-place finish in the six-furlong A.G. Vanderbilt Handicap. The Mile will be Gayego’s first attempt at more than seven furlongs since he finished second in the Goldophin Mile in March 2009.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Just 14 days left at the Hastings meet and with the Pacific National Exhibition Fair over, the usual schedule of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday racing will be in effect for the next three weekends.

Friday’s feature is a $17,500 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up going 1 1/16 miles. It drew seven horses and goes as race 6 on the seven-race card that begins at 7 p.m. Pacific.

The transfer of Lone Star Park ’s license to Global Gaming will not be considered at the Texas Racing Commission’s meeting on Sept. 14 because the Department of Public Safety’s background investigation is not complete, said Bill Childs, a spokesman for the commission. Global Gaming, a Chickasaw Nation subsidiary that last fall purchased the operating assets of Lone Star from Magna for $47 million, has requested a special commission meeting in October.