LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Thursday was truly the calm before the storm when it comes to tracking this year's Kentucky Derby workouts.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Excessive Passion returned from a layoff of nearly four months to pull a 17-1 upset in Wednesday's $75,000 Harry Henson Stakes on the opening day of the Hollywood Park spring-summer meeting.

Sent off as the sixth choice, Excessive Passion closed from eighth in a field of 10 to win by a half-length over 20-1 pacesetter Locksley Hall. Smiling Tiger finished third, with Face and an Ace fifth, losing by 2 1/4 lengths.

Snowbound Superstar, who won 15 consecutive races from 2006 until last September and was widely considered one of the finest 870-yard horses in Quarter Horse history, was retired earlier this month.

Trainer Paul Jones said the decision to retire Snowbound Superstar was made for multiple reasons.

He s 7 years old, Jones said. He s been through two knee surgeries, and he s not the horse he used to be. Rather than see him go down the ranks, we decided to retire him. He s such a great horse. He s not going to be as competitive.

STICKNEY, Ill. - There is a lot of old, but plenty of new in the six Illinois-bred $100,000 stakes races carded for Saturday at Hawthorne.

The sextet of statebred-restricted dirt stakes bring out familiar names like Shrewd Operator, Stonehouse, and Nicks, but the best betting races in the sequence look like the pair of sprints for 3-year-olds, the Pretty Jenny for fillies and the Land of Lincoln for colts and geldings.

AUBURN, Wash. - This week's fan-poll question on the Emerald Downs website is, "Who will be the leading rider at EmD in 2010?" Believe it or not, there is more than one possible answer.

Ricky Frazier has all but owned Emerald's rider standings the past six years, winning the title each season except 2005, when he finished second behind Kevin Krigger, and 2008, when Seth Martinez staged a furious rally to edge him in the waning days of the meeting.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Fifteen Love drew ideal posts for two Saturday stakes at Lone Star Park, making the decision of running him in the Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile or the $50,000 Grand Prairie Turf Challenge a little more difficult for his connections.

"I'm okay on both races," trainer Jerenesto Torrez said after Fifteen Love drew post 4 of 8 in the Texas Mile, and 3 of 11 in the Turf Challenge. "Right now, I don't know what we're going to do. The good thing is that he doesn't have any problem with the grass or the dirt."

Proud Heiress was trainer Wayne Mogge's 19th Woodbine starter and became his first local winner when she captured last Sunday's Grade 3, $153,800 Whimsical.

A 5-year-old who races for owner Michael Cavey, Proud Heiress had finished third in last year's Whimsical and second in the Hendrie in two trips to Woodbine last year.

"We'd been looking toward to this for quite some time," said Mogge, 44, who has 26 horses based at Turfway Park. "We kind of went along the same path as last year."

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Audre Cappuccitti enjoyed plenty of success with El Prado Essence, a Kentucky-bred mare who banked $890,281.

Owned by Cappuccitti and her husband, Gord, El Prado Essence won four stakes and placed in 12 others while compiling an overall record of 10-11- 4 in 34 starts from 1999 through 2004.

On Sunday, Cappuccitti will be looking to rediscover the sweet smell of stakes success with Essence Hit Man, a son of El Prado Essence.

Wall Street Wonder continued his preparations for a start in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap on May 1 by working a strong five furlongs in 59.92 seconds Tuesday morning over Belmont Park's training track. It was his second straight bullet move.

"Looks ready,'' trainer John Terranova said.

Winslow Homer, who emerged from his victory in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes in January with a stress fracture to the cannon bone in his right foreleg, has gone back into training at Delaware Park, Tony Dutrow said Wednesday.

A 3-year-old son of Unbridled's Song, Winslow Homer is just jogging but could begin galloping next week, Dutrow said. Dutrow is hoping Winslow Homer could return for the summer races.

"If everything goes perfect with him he will be ready to run sometime in July,'' Dutrow said.