AUBURN, Wash. - Racing at Emerald Downs resumes Thursday evening with a seven-race card beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific, though horsemen and horseplayers already are looking ahead to Sunday, when the one-mile Budweiser Handicap will help bring the local handicap division into sharper focus.

Star Guitar has been voted Louisiana-bred horse of the year for 2009 by the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association after sweeping the four richest races for his division last year. The board of directors votes on the award from the list of the organization's divisional champions, said LTBA official Roger Heitzmann.

Star Guitar, who is also the champion older horse for the LTBA, is expected to make his next start in the $100,000 Louisiana Showcase Classic at Evangeline on July 3.

Bella Diamante, the Lone Star-based runner who was 14th in the Kentucky Oaks in her last start April 30, has since had a bone chip removed from an ankle. She is targeted to make her return during the fall meet at Remington Park, according to her trainer, Allen Milligan.

Milligan said the $200,000 Remington Park Oaks on Oct. 10 is a goal for Bella Diamante.

Bella Diamante has run second in three stakes, including the Grade 3, $500,000 Delta Princess last winter at Delta Downs. Her last win came in a second-level allowance sprint at Oaklawn in April.

Category Seven has not met a turf course in Louisiana or Texas that she can not handle. A winner at Evangeline Downs, Fair Grounds, Lone Star Park, and Louisiana Downs, Category Seven picked off her second straight allowance win in the region on Sunday and now has three upcoming stakes goals. First up is the $50,000 Top Corsage at her Louisiana Downs base July 3.

"She's a good mare," said Ken Hargrave, who trains Category Seven for James Perron. "We put her on the grass and she just kept winning. We've been awfully lucky to win nine [turf] races with her."

Frank Bernis figured that after more than 22 years as the right-hand man to Tom Amoss, it was time to try something new. Bernis has become the agent for jockey Jamie Theriot, who will ride at Ellis Park and Arlington Park after the Churchill meet ends July 4.

"I've thought about this for quite a while," said Bernis, 41.

Amoss said Bernis was an unsung hero in his stable, which has won more than 2,300 races since 1987.

"Frank's been with me since Day One," said Amoss. "He's been more like my partner than my assistant. He will be greatly, greatly missed."

Patrick-Lawley Wakelin, racing manager for Robert Evans, has been here checking up on the owner's local stock trained by Mark Frostad.

Lawley-Wakelin also took the opportunity to express his delight with the Ontario Racing Commission's decision to reinstate Marsh Side as the winner of Woodbine's 2009 Northern Dancer.

The ORC had heard the appeals by Evans and jockey Javier Castellano on May 26 and released its findings last Friday.

"It was never about the money," said Lawley-Wakelin. "It was about winning another Grade 1, and the importance for his value at stud."

There was rain in the forecast and trainer Terry Jordan appeared to have made a shrewd move when he entered Hollywood Hit "main track only" for last Saturday's six-furlong turf prep for the July 4 Highlander Stakes.

The rains did come, in quantity, in areas all around the racetrack but not at Woodbine

So the turf remained firm, and Hollywood Hit stayed in the barn.

"I'll just have to wait for the Bold Venture," said Jordan, referring to the $150,000 stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs here July 17.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - It would seem that the vast majority of the participants in last Sunday's Plate Trial will be heading on to the Queen's Plate.

In addition to one-two finishers Big Red Mike and Mobilizer, the trainers of Mobthewarrior, Giant's Tomb, Ghost Fleet, and D's Wando plan to swing back in the July 4 Queen's Plate.

Mobthewarrior, making just his second start of the season in the 1 1/8-mile Plate Trial, raced well while being beaten 2 1/4 lengths as the third-place finisher.

Mine That Bird had his fourth workout, and his first in company, for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas when he breezed five furlongs in a bullet 59.60 seconds over a fast track shortly after the regularly scheduled renovation break Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Sunday evening, several hours after Zenyatta caught a game St Trinians in deep stretch of the $250,000 Vanity Handicap to extend her unbeaten streak to 17, trainer Mike Mitchell sent John Shirreffs a text message.

Mitchell's St Trinians had given Zenyatta a scare, and Mitchell wanted to offer congratulations, with a friendly piece of advice at the end.

"I think it's time Zenyatta left California," he wrote.

Mitchell will get his wish, but probably not as soon as he would like.