Riders Luis Ranilla and apprentice Ashley Dill have opened up daylight in the standings on Jordan Olesiak, who had to serve a three-day suspension last weekend from a riding infraction at Canterbury Park. Ranilla leads the way with 33 wins after posting riding triples on both Sunday and Monday last weekend. Dill, who gained a short lead with a riding triple on Friday, has 30 wins, and Olesiak is third with 24.

Dudley Graham leads the way in the trainer standings with 14 wins, while Gene DeRoin and Steve Hall are tied for second with 8 wins each.

The richest race in Texas will be held during Lone Star Park's upcoming fall meet for Quarter Horses. The Grade 1, $1 million Texas Classic Futurity is set for Nov. 13 as part of a 14-race stakes schedule worth more than $2.5 million. Lone Star will open its 26-night meet Sept. 17. The season runs to Nov. 13.

The Texas Classic Futurity, at 400 yards, will share a program with the Grade 1, $400,000-estimated Texas Classic Derby. Other top events include the Grade 1, $500,000 Dash for Cash Futurity and the Grade 2, $200,000 Dash for Cash Derby, both on Oct. 9.

Wasted Tears is settled in back at her Retama Park base after winning last month's Grade 2 John C. Mabee at Del Mar, and will soon begin serious preparations for her next objective, the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady at Keeneland. Wasted Tears, who has won her last seven starts, was given a little bit of a freshening after the Mabee.

Notsosweet looks pretty tasty as the lone speed in Friday’s feature at Northlands Park.

Trained by Craig Smith, Notsosweet could be tough to run down in the six-furlong dash for 3-year-olds and up running for a $17,500 claiming price.
Pick to Click looks like the main threat in the 10-horse field that goes as race 8.

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.