WHO'S HOT

ARCADIA, Calif. - The staff at trainer Bobby Troeger's stable at Hollywood Park are under instructions to walk gently past the stall of Gato Go Win this week.

"You don't drop anything around here," Troeger said. "He's sharp as a tack."

The tip-toeing policy will be enforced until Saturday, when Gato Go Win starts in the $150,000 Potrero Grande Handicap at Santa Anita. The sprint is Gato Go Win's first start in a graded stakes since last June. The Potrero Grande is one of three Grade 2 supporting stakes on the 11-race Santa Anita Derby program.

Nite Light, who finished second as the favorite in last year's Excelsior, is back for another try in the Grade 3, $200,000 stakes race for older males at 1 1/8 miles.

Nite Light developed a reputation as a marathon specialist last year, but has run decently at nine furlongs. Trainer Todd Pletcher said the primary reason he entered Nite Light in the Excelsior was because two stakes races at 1 5/8 miles here failed to fill.

Eightyfiveinafifty, who flirted with the Triple Crown trail before bolting in the Whirlaway Stakes in February, returns to action in Saturday's Grade 3, $200,000 Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Digger has gotten very good in this, his 6-year-old season. Just how good he has gotten will be determined Saturday when he takes on a solid field in the Grade 1, $250,000 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.

The Carter is one of three supporting stakes on the 11-race program highlighted by the Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial for 3-year-olds. Those two races, plus the $200,000 Bay Shore and $200,000 Excelsior Breeders' Cup will comprise an all-stakes pick four with a guaranteed pool of $500,000.

Michigan's summer Thoroughbred racing season has been reduced to three days following action by the state Gaming and Control Board, which cited budget constraints in cutting the season at Pinnacle Race Course from its original 65-day schedule.

The action has drawn the ire of the state's Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association executive board, which was scheduled to meet Wednesday evening in Lansing to discuss options.

"It's nonsensical - it verges on insane," said Gary Tinkle, executive director of the Michigan horsemen's association.

Handle in this economic climate seems only to head one direction: Down. But Hawthorne has bucked that trend during the month of March, actually posting handle gains over a similar period during the track's 2009 meeting.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Trainer Rick Dutrow can count among his 1,472 career victories wins in locales as distant as Dubai. Dutrow, though, has never won a race in Illinois, and his first-ever starter at Hawthorne Race Course will be a New York-bred named Yawanna Twist, one of eight horses entered Tuesday in Saturday's Grade 3 Illinois Derby.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Will the real First Passage stand up?

That's the question handicappers will have to answer when Grade 3 winner First Passage returns off her disappointing 2010 debut in Friday's $57,000 Harmony Lodge Handicap, a 6o1/2-furlong overnight stakes for fillies and mares.

First Passage is one of three horses trainer Marty Wolfson has among the seven entered for the Harmony Lodge. She will carry high weight of 122 pounds if she starts, one more than D'wild Ride.

"I'll see which ones are doing best by Friday and run two of the three," said Wolfson.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It might be argued that when you win the Eclipse Award for top jockey in North America, there's nowhere to go but down.

Of course, Julien Leparoux, the 2009 Eclipse winner, wouldn't look at it that way. The 26-year-old Frenchman is loving life despite what may appear to be a sluggish start to his repeating as champion jockey. As the 2010 Keeneland spring meet gets under way Friday, Leparoux is happy to be back at the racetrack where he first proved he had the big-time skills to make it anywhere.

"I am always happy to be back at Keeneland," said Leparoux.