A circuit court judge has upheld the Arkansas Racing Commission's decision to disqualify It's a Bird from his 2009 win in the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap after he tested positive for the anti-inflammatory naproxen.

Judge Alice Gray of the Pulaski County Circuit Court in Little Rock, Ark., ruled in the case late Thursday afternoon, according to Byron Freeland, an attorney representing the commission.

The decision can be appealed. An attorney representing the connections of It's a Bird did not immediately return a call on Thursday.

Top Touch, who ran away from the Ann Arbor Stakes field on Aug. 7, will wear the favorite’s mantle in the $50,000 Michigan Oaks at Pinnacle Race Course. The 37th running of the 1 1/16-mile Oaks drew a field of eight statebred 3-year-old fillies and is carded as the eighth race, with a post of 4:46 p.m. Eastern.
First post has been moved up to 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays for the remainder of the meeting, with the first race 2 p.m. on Sundays.

What About Ruby is one five Indiana-bred 2-year-old fillies coming into the $70,000 City of Anderson on Saturday at Hoosier Park off a maiden victory.

Trained by Merrill Scherer, What About Ruby was the most impressive of the five, winning a five-furlong statebred maiden event Aug. 13 by 8 3/4 lengths. The win was termed handily in the chart of the race, meaning she was under little to no urging through the stretch. What About Ruby has been working well at Churchill Downs, with a bullet 35.80-second move Monday. Leandro Goncalves retains the mount.

Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M., has an enviable problem heading into its 53-date mixed meet for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses that opens on Saturday: Too much horsepower.

“I wish we didn’t have as many people on hold for stalls as we do,” said Mike Shamburg, director of racing and racing secretary for Zia. “We had requests for over 3,500 stalls, and we can only allot 1,440. There’s plenty of horseflesh, which is nice.”

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Wayne Catalano has trained the winner of the Arlington-Washington Lassie two of the last three years, with She Be Wild going on to a 2-year-old filly championship in 2009. And with the uncoupled entry of Jordy Y and Honey Chile set to go in Saturday’s edition of the race, the Catalano barn has a strong chance to win it again.

Jordy Y and Honey Chile were among 13 horses entered in the Lassie, one of two Grade 3, $100,000, one-turn-mile Polytrack races for 2-year-olds at Arlington on Saturday. The Lassie goes as race 8, the Futurity as race 6.

In the absence of its premier fall stakes, the Frank De Francis Memorial Dash, Laurel Park will rely on its lush turf course and Jim McKay Maryland Million Day to create some excitement during a 57-day day meet that begins Saturday and continues through Dec. 18.

The De Francis Dash, downgraded from Grade 1 to Grade 2 status, has been put on hiatus for the second time in the last three years to divert its $300,000 purse into overnight races.

ELMONT, N.Y. − Fate rarely plays a role in serious handicapping. It may be hard to ignore fate when it comes to assessing the chances of Aces Mark in Saturday’s eighth race at Belmont Park.

Every race in America should look something like this: an overflow of entries with as many as 14 stakes-caliber starters, no clear-cut favorite, a bettor’s delight. The $50,000 Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs will start the 2010 Kentucky Cup series the right way, with maybe a half-dozen fillies and mares or more sporting the credentials to make her a deserving winner.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With the Breeders’ Cup World Championships returning to dirt for the first time in three years – albeit at Churchill Downs – the significance of the Belmont fall meet is once again heightened.

Even with the elimination of six stakes and the purse reduction of 10 others at the meet, Belmont, which opens its 37-day fall season Saturday, will offer the majority of the most important dirt races in the country on the road to the Breeders’ Cup, to be held Nov. 5-6 in Louisville.

DEL MAR, Calif. – There was great anxiety before the Del Mar meeting started seven weeks ago, owing to the overall economy and the declining horse population in the California. Yet Del Mar’s business was better than anyone could have expected during the 37-day meeting that ended Wednesday, with daily average attendance increasing, and daily average handle down, but with that decline nearly mirroring the fewer number of races run this summer.