Bernell Rhone is optimistic about winning the $50,000 John Bullit at Canterbury Park on Sunday. Rhone brings three horses with different strengths to the 1 1/16-mile stakes race on the turf.

“I’m stacking them up this race,” Rhone said. “I like my chances.”

Rhone saddles Heza Wild Guy, who likes to run on the front end, and Chiphunter and Gesundheit, who come from off the pace.

Heza Wild Guy has won 5 of his last 11 starts. His most recent win came against Indiana-bred company in the A.J. Foyt at Indiana Downs on July 14.

Trainer Robertino Diodoro will try to pad his lead in the trainer’s standings with To the Penny, who figures to be one of the favorites in the seventh race at Northlands Park on Sunday. The $10,000 claiming race for 3-year-olds and up going six furlongs drew seven horses and will serve as the feature for the eight-race card that begins at 1 p.m.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – It is tough to separate a solid field of 3-year-old fillies running in a $50,000 optional claimer at Hastings that will serve as Sunday’s feature. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew eight horses and goes as race 6.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Bridgetown made a successful return from a 250-day layoff, rallying wide on the far turn under Julien Leparoux before overpowering pacesetting Red Rally in upper stretch en route to a one-length victory in Thursday’s $70,000 Latham Stakes at Saratoga.

Flamin’ Hot rallied wide under Alan Garcia to get second by 1 1/4 lengths over Red Rally. It was Flamin’ Hot’s first loss in five turf starts.

Skys Red Roxy, who pressed the lead and finished second in last month’s Regret Stakes, looks for her first stakes win in the $20,000 Ann Arbor Stakes at Pinnacle Race Course. The one-mile race is for 3-year-old Michigan-bred fillies, who will all carry 121 pounds.

Skys Red Roxy, with a morning line of 5-1, gets a new jockey in Federico Mata for the Ann Arbor. Prior to the Regret, she won her maiden in Indiana and then backed that up with a 66 Beyer Speed Figure, the best of any Ann Arbor entrant, in winning an allowance race locally.

No Garlic will attempt to keep his record unblemished as he goes after his second stakes win while facing eight maiden 2-year-old Ohio-bred rivals in the 19th running of the $50,000, six-furlong Cleveland Kindergarten Stakes at Thistledown.

No Garlic is undefeated in two starts. In his most recent outing on July 10, he led every step of the way en route to a 3 1/2-length win in the 5 1/2-furlong Hoover Stakes at River Downs. He won his maiden race at first asking at River Downs on June 28 going five furlongs.

Trainer Bob Schultz has long felt that Dixieland Bull would get two turns, but he knows the proof is in the doing. So on Saturday, he will be as anxious as her backers to see what Dixieland Bull does when she stretches out to 7 1/2 furlongs on turf for an allowance for 2-year-old fillies at Louisiana Downs.

The race goes as the third, and Schultz said it could serve as Dixieland Bull’s stepping-stone to the $50,000 Donnie Wilhite Memorial at Louisiana Downs on Aug. 28.

Slides Choice will be trying turf for the first time when she faces a full field of 12 in the $50,000 Vivacious at River Downs on Saturday.
The 2009 Ohio horse of the year and 3-year-old champion filly, Slides Choice is the 121-pound highweight in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for Ohio-bred fillies and mares, giving one to 17 pounds to her rivals.

Sweet Dixie Van has made short work of her rivals this meet at Arapahoe Park by winning both of her career starts by a combined margin of 12 1/2 lengths. But on Saturday, the stakes will be higher in the $20,000 Silver Cup Futurity.

“She’s got to run against the boys this time,” said Tyrone Gleason, who trains Sweet Dixie Van. The Silver Cup, a 5 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds bred in Colorado, drew a field of 10, and Sweet Dixie Van is the lone filly in the field. But she looks like she can hold her own on paper and physically.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Desert Party, the multiple graded-stakes-winning colt owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Godolphin Stable, has been retired from racing after developing a soft tissue injury, trainer Saeed bin Suroor said Thursday.

 “He can’t make it back this year,” bin Suroor said. “He will retire. He will go to Darley, Jonabell Farm. We look forward to seeing him do well in his stud career.”