LEXINGTON, Ky. - Karelian got a great forward trip under Julien Leparoux and had plenty in reserve to turn back a sustained run by favored Court Vision and avenge a bitter defeat in the on a sun-splashed Friday afternoon at Keeneland.

Court Vision beat Karelian by a nose in the lone Grade 1 turf race for older males at the 2009 Keeneland fall meet, the Shadwell Turf Mile. This time, however, Karelian proved clearly best, shaking clear on the lead passing the sixteenth pole after Court Vision had pulled almost even.

The Arlington Park stable area, which can accommodate 2,140 horses, opens Monday, with training on Arlington's 1 1/8-mile Polytrack surface scheduled to begin on Wednesday. Arlington's 91-day meet begins April 29 and runs through Sept. 26.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The New York Racing Association has eliminated its overnight stakes program for the upcoming Belmont Park spring/summer meet and will use that money - nearly $2.2 million - to increase purses for open-company races. Belmont's 59-day meet opens April 30.

Purses for open-company maiden and allowance races will go up by $10,000 from what they were worth at Aqueduct. The new purses reflect a $7,000 increase when compared to last year's Belmont spring/summer meet. Purses for claiming races will go up $5,000, and maiden claimers will go up by $3,000 from Aqueduct.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Santa Anita will complete a five-day racing week on Sunday with none of the 42 races having as many as 10 runners.

A rash of small fields throughout the week is likely to keep the track from averaging eight runners per race for the winter-spring meeting, which ends next Sunday. But for the final five days of the meeting, starting Wednesday, the track's director of racing, Mike Harlow, expects the field size situation to brighten.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - When Elliott Walden quit training to work as racing manager for WinStar Farm in the summer of 2005, he was skeptical about having young horses broken and trained in Kentucky in the winter.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Todd Pletcher reports that Eskendereya is doing very well after his eye-catching performance in last Saturday's Grade 1 Wood Memorial and is back galloping over his winter base at the Palm Meadows training center.

"Visually, it sure looked like the race wouldn't have taken anything out of him, but sometimes you never can tell how a race like that might affect a horse," Pletcher said Thursday. "But so far everything seems good."

Trainer Roger Attfield headed into the current season with the long-term favorite for the Queen's Plate in Hollinger, who was undefeated in four starts and Canada's champion 2-year-old.

But Attfield could have another ace up his sleeve as Mobilizer, a Stronach Stable homebred, finished a game third when he made his first career start in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Keeneland on Thursday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Field Commission is ready for his first action of the season in Sunday's six-furlong Jacques Cartier Stakes at Woodbine.

Canada's champion sprinter in 2009, Field Commission spent the winter on majority owner Ed Seltzer's farm near Ocala, Fla., and checked back into Woodbine last week.

"He worked a bunch of times down there," said Danny Vella, who trains Field Commission and also is part-owner of the Ontario-bred 5-year-old horse. "He came here pretty much ready to run."

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Pulsion is having blinkers removed for the Arkansas Derby here at Oaklawn Park on Saturday, but he obviously still retains plenty of speed. He was sent out Friday morning for a quick workout, and sped three furlongs for trainer Patrick Biancone.

Track clockers had Pulsion in 35 seconds, breezing, but Biancone had him slightly faster, and galloping out a half-mile in 48 seconds.

Pulsion had a similar three-furlong breeze the day before his last start, the Florida Derby, in which he finished sixth after setting or forcing the early pace.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The Apple Blossom is not scheduled to be run until 6:30 p.m. local time on Friday, so in order to keep Zenyatta from getting too wound up waiting for the late post, she was taken to the track at Oaklawn Park shortly before 8:30 a.m. Friday in order to take a one-lap jog around the track.

"Just wanted to get her out, let her think she's done something," said Zenyatta's trainer, John Shirreffs.