INGLEWOOD, Calif. – At 7, Awesome Gem is the senior member of Saturday’s $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup. He has made more starts, 35, and earned more prize money, $1,974,682, than the other six projected starters.

He also may be the outsider capable of an upset.

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and trained by Craig Dollase, Awesome Gem is making his 12th start in a Grade 1, seeking his first win at that level. In 2007, he was second in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar and third in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Chad Brown was very confident that Expansion was going to run a big race in last month’s Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap. His suspicions were proven correct when Expansion ran a bang-up third behind Winchester and Gio Ponti, beaten a total of 1 1/2 lengths.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Michael Baze, who came to Chicago from California for the Arlington Park meeting, currently sits second in the Arlington jockey standings, trailing leading rider Junior Alvarado 52 wins to 45. Wayne Catalano, meanwhile, is perched atop the Arlington trainer standings, with 30 wins to 28 for Nick Canani. It has been Baze aboard 24 of those 30 Catalano winners. Other riders have combined to go 6 for 45 riding for Catalano.

postedBy Steve Andersen

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Richard’s Kid, the winner of the 2009 Pacific Classic, will make his first start since a seventh-place finish in the Dubai World Cup in March in the $500,000 Hollywood Gold Cup on Saturday.

The winner of the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita in February in his only other start this year, Richard’s Kid adds depth to a race led by California male handicap division leader Rail Trip.

ELMONT, N.Y. – After winning the Pegasus Stakes at Monmouth Park on June 19, it seemed likely that Afleet Express would make his next start in the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Aug. 1 at the Jersey Shore track.

But with the $1 million Travers on Aug. 28 being the primary objective this summer, Afleet Express will most likely make his next start in the $500,000 Jim Dandy at the Spa on July 31.

“I’d like to run where he’s stabled,” trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Saturday morning. “With the Travers being the ultimate goal I think that’s the best way to go.”

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – While Big Red Mike will be heading down to Fort Erie for the July 25 Prince of Wales, the second jewel in the Canadian triple crown the post-Queens Plate roll call includes few others planning to take that route.

Sam-Son Farm’s trio of Hotep, Giant’s Tomb, and Dark Cloud Dancer all will be considered for the Prince of Wales, as will Mobthewarrior.

Hotep and Giant’s Tomb, the Queen’s Plate’s second- and fourth-place finishers, both won on the dirt at the Fair Grounds this winter, and the Prince of Wales is run over 1 3/16 miles on that surface.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A disappointing performance by a returning Kentucky Derby hero helped bring another eventful Churchill Downs spring meet to an end Sunday, as Mine That Bird now will join hundreds of Kentucky horses in moving soon to Saratoga for the balance of the summer.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Nick Gonzalez stable is a study in contrasts, a fact made most apparent by Big Red Mike’s victory in Sunday’s Queen’s Plate.

Participating in the Queen’s Plate represented a pinnacle for Gonzalez, who has a large stable at Fort Erie while his wife, Martha, runs the show here at Woodbine.

But while the horses were heading out to the track for the Queen’s Plate, Gonzalez asked his son and assistant, Nick Jr., to text a staff member at Fort Erie to find out how Talk to Da Manager had made out in the day’s final race.