LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Turned out Steve Asmussen had little impact on the Kentucky Derby trail in 2010, which is not to say that Asmussen won't have a say in the proceedings on Kentucky Derby Day.

Asmussen has horses for three of the five Derby Day undercard stakes, two of whom might wind up as major stakes players this summer. Hot Dixie Chick will make her second start of the season as the prohibitive favorite in the Eight Belles Stakes. The Grade 3, $100,000 Eight Belles, carded at 7 1/2 furlongs, drew a field of seven, with the other six quite possibly at Hot Dixie Chick's mercy.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The top two choices in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday have 'em surrounded. Lookin At Lucky, the favorite, drew the rail, and Sidney's Candy, the second choice, drew the outside post in a field of 20 when post positions were drawn on Wednesday for Derby 136 at Churchill Downs.

Devil May Care, the filly who will challenge 19 males, wound up in the middle, in post 11.

The racing program at Louisiana Downs will have a different feel this meet. The track will have its earliest opening and closing in years, and the stakes schedule has been streamlined into five big-event cards, led by the Super Derby program Sept. 25. Louisiana Downs has also has a new racing secretary and hired Hall of Fame rider Braulio Baeza. The changes go into effect Saturday, when the track begins its 84-date meet. The season ends Sept. 26.

FORT ERIE, Ontario - Fort Erie's 113th season begins Saturday, and optimism is high as the 78-day racing schedule gets under way.

The Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium has leased the track from Nordic Gaming under a three-year agreement, and several new members of management are in place. Jim Thibert, chief executive officer of the Consortium, announced that a purse structure of $7.8 million will provide an average of $100,000 a day.

Pat Jarvis knows she may be bucking the odds a little bit, but she's confident going into Saturday's 58th running of the Oregon Derby on closing day at Portland Meadows. Jarvis will saddle the filly Caged Mistress against six males, including even-money favorite Seven Torrents, who has won stakes as the odds-on favorite in each of his three Portland Meadows starts.

Golden Gate Fields officials received approval from the California Horse Race Board to continue four-day race weeks for the first two weeks in May. The track will run on a Thursday through Sunday schedule.

Golden Gate Fields has run four-day weeks throughout its current meet, racing on a Thursday through Sunday schedule while Santa Anita conducted its meeting. Golden Gate ran four-day weeks during the first two weeks of the Hollywood Park meet, which opened April 21, running Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Thursday dark.

Will fast times - and big bucks - at the Jersey Shore lead to a slow-go at Belmont Park?

Belmont opens its 59-day spring/summer meet on Friday with a nine-race card that drew 95 entries, including nine horses in the Grade 3, $100,000 Westchester Stakes. The question is: Will fields remain as strong three weeks from now when Monmouth Park, located just 70 miles away, opens its summer meet offering, on average, $1 million a day in purses?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - If a swift pace may be the undoing of front-runners in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, the same could happen to 3-year-old grass horses in the Grade 2, $175,000 American Turf Stakes on Friday.

Eleven horses were entered in the American Turf, a 1 1/16-mile race, but Make Music for Me has bigger fish to fry, having gotten into the Kentucky Derby field. At least three of the remaining 10, however, including morning-line favorite Lost Aptitude, figure to have designs on the lead, and the American Turf pace could turn swift.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Another Arlington summer of Wayne Catalano and Frank Calabrese begins Friday, but for the second straight year, they will play for different teams. And for the second straight year, it's Calabrese and trainer Nick Canani who will be squaring off against Catalano on a regular basis.

The Woodbine Entertainment Group has announced several new executive appointments following its monthly board meeting last Friday.

"I'm set to take over as chief executive officer in June," said Nick Eaves, president and until recently chief operating officer of Woodbine Entertainment. "These changes were about setting ourselves up with a new leadership group, to take over the primary focus of our business."

Jamie Martin has been promoted to executive vice president of racing, and also will assume overall responsibility for marketing and communications.