Sam Houston Race Park in Houston will have an expanded stakes schedule for its Quarter Horse meet that opens May 1, because it is picking up dates for Retama Park near San Antonio in a one-year agreement made last summer. A total of 41 stakes will be run during the 54-date meet at Sam Houston. The season will continue through Aug. 29.

The Grade 1 Sam Houston Futurity on Aug. 28 will again highlight the stakes schedule. Last year, the race was worth $335,200. Trials for the Sam Houston Futurity, at 400 yards, are Aug. 13.

It has been unseasonably cool in the High Desert region of New Mexico this spring but jockey Isaias Enriquez did his part to warm things up on SunRay's opening weekend with a couple of big days in the saddle.

Enriquez accounted for four of the six Thoroughbred races on opening day and added another three wins on Saturday to bolt out to an early lead in the rider standings. Enriquez had riding commitments at Sunland Park on Sunday, when he settled for a couple of runner-up performances and a third-place finish in the $100,000 Sunland Park Handicap on board Quiet Again.

Heavy rain that forced the cancellation of last Saturday's card after one race resulted in the John Henry Stakes - scheduled to be the first stakes over Evangeline's new turf course - being scrapped, but the race will be rescheduled, according to the track's racing secretary, Coleman Lloyd.

"The John Henry will definitely be brought back," Lloyd said. "We just are not sure when. I know it won't be this weekend but [Kentucky] Derby Day is a strong possibility. I will let horsemen know just as soon as we make a final decision."

The much-anticipated rematch of The Nutz and Wayzata Bay in Saturday's $75,000 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes apparently is off, as trainer Judi Hicklin notified the Fonner Park racing office that she no longer intended to enter Wayzata Bay. The Nutz defeated Wayzata Bay by a length in last year's Bosselman. Wayzata Bay went on to win the Grade 2 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap, then was third in the Grade 3 Hawthorne Gold Cup in September.

In recent years, jockey Cody Jensen's list of accomplishments has been dominated by success at Los Alamitos. This year, Jensen is branching out.

Last month, Jensen relocated from Los Alamitos to Remington Park in Oklahoma City. He will ride there through the spring, move to Ruidoso Downs in the summer, and then return to Los Alamitos for the fall, when the track runs its most lucrative races.

For Jensen, 33, the decision to leave Los Alamitos on a year-round basis came down to opportunities.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Between the two of them, veteran trainers Spanky Broussard and Richard Hazelton have stored up enough experience to sit and tell racing stories for several weeks straight. They also both have talented Illinois-breds to start in Saturday's Illinois-bred stakes-racing extravaganza at Hawthorne.

Stalking the early pace under clever handling from rider Casey Lambert, Dos and Don'ts kicked clear in the final yards to capture Tuesday's closing day Daylight Spring Stakes at Sunland Park. Odds-on favorite Sky Jedi finished three-quarters of a length back in second followed by Accolades N Praise.

Trained by Johnnie Nall, Dos and Don'ts ($8.20) has won his last three starts, including a maiden score at Santa Anita last fall. The son of Petionville covered the six furlongs in 1:09.31 and picked up his biggest payday to increase his career earnings to over $86,000.

AUBURN, Wash. - It's still early at Emerald Downs - 27 races down and about 800 to go. But already the 3-year-old filly division is looking like Ladyledue's personal playground.

Undefeated in two starts at 2, Ladyledue is scheduled to make her 2009 debut Saturday in the $30,000 Inaugural Stakes at six furlongs. Only seven other horses were nominated. Either the division is short in numbers or they're already ducking Ladyledue.

Bonnie Jenne, who trains the front-running filly for owner Jon Sather, figures it's a numbers game more than anything else.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Trainer Mike Harrington will come out firing again this spring in 2-year-old maiden races at Hollywood Park - he entered the two morning-line favorites, Awesome Swiss and Really Uptown, in race 1 Wednesday; the filly Alpine Empire debuts in race 1 Thursday.

The babies already are declassified.

"They aren't going to be secrets when handicappers look at the Form," Harrington said. "Almost every time I worked these 2-year-olds, they black-letter worked. Unless I'm working ringers, it's safe to say they're going to be live."

The Ontario Racing Commission has upheld an appeal lodged by jockey Simon Husbands and quashed a one-year suspension handed down by the Woodbine stewards last Dec. 8.

Husbands, who had been cited for "an unsatisfactory ride" on Bug's Boy during the third race on Nov. 30, had been granted a stay of that penalty and his appeal was heard at the ORC offices on March 30-31.