The girls have taken over the playground as five Massachusetts-bred fillies gang up on one colt in the $50,000 African Prince Stakes at Suffolk Downs.

El Confidential will be making his two-turn debut in the $40,000 Ruidoso Derby, but he could go favored in the 1 1/16-mile race off his sharp form.

El Confidential has run first or second in his four starts. He’s also stakes-placed, and owns the field’s best last-race Beyer Figure. The test now is two turns, said Chris Hartman, who trains El Confidential.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out, if he can get the distance,” he said. “I don’t think he’ll have a problem with it, but we just haven’t had the opportunity to stretch him out.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Thomas Tomillo, a veteran Chicago trainer, died Wednesday night at Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Tomillo, 66, was suffering from pancreatic cancer, according to jockey agent Kenny Danna, a longtime Tomillo associate.

Gulfstream Park has always geared its meeting toward 3-year-olds, and that program will only get richer and better next winter in light of the 2011 stakes schedule, which the track released late Thursday afternoon. The 79-day meet begins Jan. 5.
The stakes schedule will be the richest in track history for 3-year-olds and once again will be highlighted by the $1 million Florida Derby, which will be run Sunday, April 3, one day shy of five weeks in advance of the Kentucky Derby. The Grade 1 Florida Derby, which has produced 21 Kentucky Derby winners, was worth $750,000 last year.

Meadow Magic, winner of the July 31 Dowling Stakes at Pinnacle Race Course, will have to shoulder high weight of 122 pounds when he faces eight rivals, including two James Jackson-trained stablemates, in the $50,000 Mackinac Handicap at Pinnacle Race Course. The Mackinac, at 1 1/16 miles, is for Michigan-bred 3-year-old colts and geldings and will go as the eighth race.

Leading rider Tommy Molina gets the mount on Meadow Magic, who was third in his last start, an Aug. 17 allowance race at Presque Isle Downs. Meadow Magic has 2 wins and 2 thirds from 4 starts this year.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Forget the notion that big races always draw small, select fields. With 11 seasoned runners in the field, Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000 Forego at Saratoga has quality and quantity.

The group of sprinters ready for the seven-furlong supporting feature to the Woodward Stakes starts with Bribon and Vineyard Haven closest to the rail and Checklist and You and I Forever furthest out. In between are Girolamo, Big Drama, Here Comes Ben, Charitable Man, Omniscient, Starforaday, and Warrior’s Reward.

Saturday’s $75,000 Governor’s Buckeye Cup Stakes at Thistledown looks like a walk in the park for Catlaunch, who will face six Ohio-bred rivals going 1 1/4 miles.

Catlaunch, a 9-year-old multiple stakes winner, will be competing in the Buckeye Cup for the fourth straight year. He won in 2007 and then dropped two close photo decisions to Smarmy, who is running in the race again this year.

Catlaunch, who has won 32 of 79 starts and $793,544, is a two-time stakes winner from seven starts this season. He should have little problem dictating the pace from start to finish.

AUBURN, Wash. – Seattle Game goes for her third straight win when she headlines Saturday’s featured eighth race at Emerald Downs, a $10,000 claimer for fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Nine horses are entered, and it’s a consistent group − the field has combined for 11 wins, nine seconds, and 13 thirds in 49 starts at the meeting, and four are coming off a victory.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Wickedly Perfect’s accomplishments this summer, going unbeaten in two starts and winning her stakes debut, have been a bonus to trainer Doug O’Neill.

Earlier this year, O’Neill thought Wickedly Perfect would need longer races in the fall to show her best form. Instead, Wickedly Perfect won her debut over five furlongs at Hollywood Park in June and her stakes debut in the Grade 3 Sorrento Stakes over 6 1/2 furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 6, victories that will make her the favorite for Saturday’s $250,000 Darley Debutante at Del Mar.

Jockey Christian Santiago Reyes will appeal a 10-day suspension for causing interference in a race that led to another rider being unseated at Del Mar on Aug. 29, Reyes’s attorney, Bing Bush, said on Thursday.

The appeal means that Reyes, the champion apprentice jockey of 2009, has 28 days of suspensions accrued since mid-May that are in various stages of appeal.