MIAMI - Calder Race Course will present 50 stakes worth more than $6 million during the Calder and Tropical at Calder meets in 2010, down approximately $300,000 from the overall value of the 2009 stakes program.

The Summit of Speed and Festival of the Sun programs will again anchor the 33-race Calder schedule, although purse cuts have been made to several key races on both programs. The Summit of Speed will be held Saturday, July 10, with the Festival of the Sun to be presented Saturday, Oct. 16.

:: STAKES SCHEDULE: (PDF)

Jockey Paco Lopez stole the show here Thursday, winning four races in a row, the second through the fifth, on the 10-race card. The winners, none of whom was favored, ranged in price from Edgemoor ($9.40) to Moose Man ($41.20), two coming from the barn of Eddie Plesa Jr. and the others for trainers Rick Sacco and Steve Klesaris.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - As of Friday, Pleasant Prince held down the all important 20th and final spot on the graded earnings list with $162,500. But with 14 more graded stakes for 3-year-olds still on the calendar leading up to the Kentucky Derby on May 1, it's not a position the Florida Derby runner-up figures to hold on to for very long.

But despite the realities of the math, owner Ken Ramsey and trainer Wesley Ward are sticking to their guns and not planning on running Pleasant Prince again prior to the Derby.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - Daniel Centeno, three time leading rider at Tampa Bay Downs and the current leader in the jockey standings with 106 victories this season, will be sidelined until Wednesday as he recuperates from injuries sustained in a spill that occurred during the running of Thursday's eighth race.

Hollywood Park will redirect a portion of money available for marketing and promotions toward purses for lower-level claiming horses at the upcoming spring-summer meeting that begins on April 21, according to the track's racing secretary, Martin Panza.

Panza said the additional money, from the industry-run California Marketing Committee, will be directed to purses for horses running for prices ranging from $8,000 to $40,000, with the bulk of the increases geared toward horses running from $8,000 to $20,000.

After enduring a winter in 2009 he doesn't want to remember, jockey Javier Castellano is enjoying a start to 2010 he won't soon forget.

Hampered by two spills last year at Gulfstream Park, where he finished with 18 wins, Castellano has threaded his way to the top of the jockey standings this year at Gulfstream with 48 winners through Sunday. Though he is unlikely to stay on top because he will leave for Keeneland following Sunday's card - with four weeks remaining in the Gulfstream meet - Castellano has more than erased the bad memories of 2009.

Two New York horsemen's groups put out a joint press release Thursday condemning Gov. David Paterson's proposed plan to restart the bidding process from the beginning to select an operator of a casino at Aqueduct. The plan, if adopted, would likely delay the selection process until the end of the year.

The New York Thoroughbred Breeders and the New York Horsemen's Association said a delay of that magnitude would be a death knell to the $2.4 billion horse racing industry, which accounts for approximately 35,000 jobs statewide.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Shane Sellers, who last summer returned to the saddle after a five-year hiatus, will move his tack to Delaware Park after the Fair Grounds meet concludes this weekend. Sellers will be represented by agent Bill Castle, who is also the agent for David Cohen, the defending Delaware Park riding champion and the runner-up to Ramon Dominguez this winter at Aqueduct.

FLORENCE, Ky. - For all the fun that will take place Saturday at Turfway Park, where the showcase race, the Lane's End Stakes, will be renewed as a rite of spring, it will be hard to ignore the proverbial elephant in the room.

STRONG MEET FOR CALHOUN

Trainer Bret Calhoun has not started any horses in the local preps for the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, but that does not mean his stable is light on good 3-year-olds. His strength has been with 3-year-old sprinters.