BALTIMORE - While many fans and horsemen are excited about the prospect of watching the superstar filly Rachel Alexandra run against the boys in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, there is at least one person who doesn't think it's such a good idea.

BALTIMORE - It's fitting that Rachel Alexandra, the phenomenal 3-year-old filly, should make her first start against males here at Pimlico in the Preakness, since this track - this race - figures prominently in the mythology concerning equine battles of the sexes.

ELMONT, N.Y. - With track announcer Tom Durkin singing her praises through the stretch, Doremifasollatido split horses and drew clear to win the Grade 2 Matron Stakes here at Belmont Park last fall. Crowned last year's champion New York-bred juvenile filly on the strength of that performance, Doremifasollatido makes her first start since the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies in Friday's $65,000 Fall Aspen Stakes at Belmont Park.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. - Canterbury Park opens its doors for its 23rd season of live racing Friday while looking to the state capitol for assistance that will ensure the future of racing at Minnesota's only Thoroughbred track.

BALTIMORE - Multiple graded stakes winners Kiss the Kid and Proudinsky head a deep field of 13 horses entered in the Grade 2, $150,000 Dixie Stakes, one of seven stakes on Saturday's Preakness Day undercard at Pimlico.

Kiss the Kid, trained by Amy Tarrant, has won 3 of his last 4 starts, including the Grade 3 Appleton Handicap and the Fort Lauderdale Handicap at Gulfstream Park this year. Kiss the Kid will break from post 4 under Eibar Coa.

The combination of a surface switch and new equipment worked wonders for Barbaro's younger brother Wednesday afternoon at Delaware Park.

Racing on turf for the first time and adding blinkers to his equipment, the 3-year-old Nicanor romped to a 15 1/4-length victory in a maiden race.

The victory for the sibling of Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, came after he failed in three starts on dirt at Gulfstream Park.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Saturday is big for new owners with ambitious plans, beyond Jess Jackson acquisition Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness. Although California sprinters Dehere Again and Guns on the Table are eligible to a second-level allowance, both start for new owners in the Grade 3 Los Angeles Handicap at Hollywood Park.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - They'll try it again. One of the five races washed out last Friday at Churchill Downs, a second-level allowance for fillies and mares, is back on the drawing board a week later, once again occupying the feature slot on a twilight program.

Three of the six fillies from last week were rounded up for a reprisal, with Quick Notice and Nursery Rhyme still among the main players. This time, however, the $52,700 one-mile feature also drew Distinctive Dixie, runner-up in the April 8 Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park in her last race.

AUBURN, Wash. - Vann Belvoir is claiming horses like there's no tomorrow. A former leading rider at Emerald Downs and now one of the track's top trainers, Belvoir has claimed five at a meeting that's only 12 days old.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - The Marine Stakes has served as an important prep for the Queen's Plate, with horses such as Wando in 2003 and Victor Cooley in 1996 using the race as their final stepping-stone to Woodbine's $1 million showpiece for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.

But the only Canadian-bred in this year's Marine, to be run Saturday, is Parabola. The 1 1/16-mile Marine is an open race for 3-year-olds.