HOT SPRINGS, Ark.- Payton d'Oro ran down pacesetter Distinctive Dixie to win the by a half-length at Oaklawn Park on Wednesday. It was another four and a half lengths back in third to Punta Ballena.

The Bayakoa was part of the Racing Festival of the South, the annual cluster of nine stakes that are spread out over the final week of the meet. The series ends Saturday with the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Franny Freud posted an easy victory as the odds-on favorite Wednesday in the at Keeneland, setting up the New York-bred filly for a possible run on the Kentucky Derby undercard.

Always in control after breaking sharply under Garrett Gomez, Franny Freud drew clear to win the 25th running of the $150,000 Beaumont by 4 3/4 lengths.

"She did everything right," said Gomez. "When I set her down, she went ahead and put it out there and sprinted away home."

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Seven older females are entered as would-be challengers to Forever Together when she makes her 6-year-old debut Saturday as the defending champion in the best race on the Blue Grass undercard, the Grade 2 Jenny Wiley Stakes (race 8), but one of her more noteworthy opponents may wait for an easier spot some 24 hours later.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Andy Durnin got his proverbial 15 minutes of fame as the exercise rider of Fusaichi Pegasus, the strong-willed colt who became the first favorite to win the Kentucky Derby in 21 years when he prevailed for trainer Neil Drysdale in 2000.

Tony Dutrow will take two shots at Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Comely Stakes, sending out the uncoupled entry of She'll Be Doggone and Volare Cantare in the one-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.

Though he is unlikely to make it into the field due to insufficient graded stakes earnings, A Little Warm is being trained as if the Kentucky Derby will be his next start, trainer Tony Dutrow said Wednesday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - While this year's Wood Memorial winner, Eskendereya, will head to Louisville as the favorite for the Kentucky Derby, I Want Revenge - last year's Wood winner and morning-line Derby favorite until being scratched the morning of the race - has returned to training at Aqueduct.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Winter-raced Sulis will meet several salty 3-year-old fillies in Friday's Woodbine feature, a first-level allowance over five furlongs on the Polytrack.

Sulis was a rare first-out winner for trainer Mike Doyle in a five-furlong maiden special last Nov. 26. Bet down to 7-2 from a 10-1 morning line, she mounted a wide rally to prevail by three-quarters of a length, and was awarded a Beyer Speed Figure of 69.

In her only other outing, Feb. 24 at Gulfstream, Sulis never reached contention in a tough allowance sprint while racing wide over a sloppy track.

ARCADIA, Calif. - The familiarity of training in Southern California will keep the star 3-year-old filly Blind Luck at Santa Anita until the days approaching the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on April 30.

Dan Ward, assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, said Blind Luck will follow a schedule on Kentucky Oaks week similar to that of last week, when she was shipped to Oaklawn Park on Tuesday, was galloped there on Wednesday and Thursday, and raced on Friday, winning the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse took a new approach during the winter months heading into the 2010 meeting at Woodbine. And the early returns have been encouraging as Casse fashioned a record of 2-3-1 from his first nine starters, highlighted by a score in the $102,400 Debut Stakes with Grazettes Landing.