ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Good things come to those who wait. It’s a cliché that applies to racing fans tuned in to Arlington Park for Friday’s nine-race program, and to the connections of the 4-year-old gelding Successful Dan.

Successful Dan, a perfect 3 for 3 to begin his career, races for the first time since June 13, 2009, when he starts in the featured ninth race here Friday. The mid-afternoon card picks up quality as it goes on, with a second-level allowance preceding the featured nightcap.

AUBURN, Wash. – If all goes according to plan, Quarter Horse racing will be an integral part of the 2011 racing menu at Emerald Downs, track officials confirmed last weekend.

To get a logistical jump on the matter, Emerald will host a 350-yard challenge race for Quarter Horses near the end of the current meeting in late September.

DEL MAR, Calif. – Zenyatta was entered in Saturday’s $300,000 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on Wednesday, the same morning she made her much-anticipated first appearance of the season on the Del Mar Polytrack surface.

ALTOONA, IOWA – Friday’s inaugural running of the Prairie Meadows Juvenile Mile will close out the open stakes program at the meet. The $60,000 stakes for 2 year olds was added to the schedule this year to give emerging talent an opportunity to test their stamina.

Donnie K. Von Hemel has entered a couple of prospects. The colt, Sherriff Cogburn, is coming off a seven-length victory in a maiden race at Arlington Park. The filly, Larue Lovelake, finished fifth in the Prairie Gold Lassie after winning her maiden at Prairie Meadows.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trick of the North showed that he hasn’t lost a step as a 9-year-old when he came from off the pace to upset Spaghetti Mouse by a half-length in Monday’s B.C. Cup Classic at Hastings.

The Classic was one of seven stakes races restricted to B.C.-breds that made up the bulk of the B.C. Cup Day card

It was the first win in the Classic for trainer Barbara Heads. She isn’t sure when or where Trick of the North will start next.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Sid Attard will be holding a pair of aces in Friday’s fourth race, when he runs Jungle Wave and Utterly Cool in the 6 1/2-furlong allowance on turf, that serves as the prep for the Aug. 29 Play the King Stakes.

Jungle Wave was a $62,500 claim in the spring of 2009 by Tucci Stable. He went on to win this race last year, along with the Grade 2 Play the King, which was a tune-up for the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile. In the $1 million Woodbine Mile, he finished a respectable fourth behind Ventura, Ferneley, and Sterwins after leading at the eighth pole.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The North American tour for the 2-year-old filly Final Mesa arrives at Del Mar on Friday for the $150,000 Sorrento Stakes. If the result is anything like her previous races, she will leave town after an impressive victory.

Final Mesa has won three races easily – a maiden race at Keeneland in April, the Polly Drummond Stakes at Delaware Park in May, and the My Dear Stakes at Woodbine by 7 3/4 lengths in June.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Eduardo Caramori is aiming a little high on Saturday at Saratoga in the Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, in which he will send out the longest shot in the race, the unheralded South American import Jardim. But 24 hours before that race, Caramori will saddle another of his boys from Brazil, Lignon’s Hero, whose powerful North American debut at Churchill Downs six weeks ago makes him a formidable factor in Friday’s feature, the $70,000 John’s Call for older long-distance turf runners.

The highly successful combination of trainer Jonathan Sheppard and George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable will ship in a lightly raced filly and a well-accomplished 7-year-old gelding for Friday night’s turf stakes doubleheader at Penn National Race Course.

A well matched field of five older fillies and mares running for a top claiming price of $30,000 will square off in the seventh race at Northlands Park.