HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Proud Spell will miss the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on Saturday after her trainer, Larry Jones, discovered some swelling in her left hind ankle Monday night. She had been scheduled to have a key work for the race Tuesday morning, but instead was being prepared to ship later in the day to Jones's barn at Keeneland.

"We're hoping it's just an infection in there," Jones said. "She's got a little bit of a mark on her. Like I said, we're hoping it's just an infection because it's come up all at once.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Chilly and wet weather notwithstanding, springtime in Kentucky pretty much became official Tuesday when entries for opening day at the Keeneland spring meet were released.

The 10-race Friday opener is anchored by the $150,000 Transylvania Stakes, a 1 1/16-mile turf race that features the kind of melting-pot look that will typify the 15-day meet to its April 24 conclusion. Recent arrivals from Gulfstream Park, Fair Grounds, and Santa Anita form the core of the Transylvania, the first of 17 stakes at the meet.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Proud Spell is out of the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on Saturday after her trainer, Larry Jones, discovered some swelling in her left hind ankle Monday night. She had been scheduled to have a key work for the race Tuesday morning, but instead will ship to Jones's barn at Keeneland.

"We're hoping it's just an infection in there," he said Tuesday morning. "She's got a little bit of a mark on her. Like I said, we're hoping it's just an infection because it's come up all at once.

HOT SPRING, Ark. - Old Fashioned continued his preparations for the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby on Tuesday morning, by breezing five furlongs in 1:00.40 at Oaklawn Park. It was his first work since finishing second to Win Willy in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes on March 14.

STICKNEY, Ill. - The entries just kept coming for Saturday's Grade 2, $500,000 Illinois Derby, and when the race finally closed mid-Monday afternoon at Hawthorne, a surprisingly large field of 11 had been assembled.

Seven or thereabouts had been expected over the weekend, but several other horses materialized Monday, adding to the race's core of Musket Man, Giant Oak, and whatever trainer Todd Pletcher was sending.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The stewards' decision to disqualify Big Drama from first to second in last Saturday's Swale Stakes cost trainer David Fawkes and owner Harold Queen both a Grade 2 victory and the majority share of a $150,000 purse. But the afternoon wasn't a total loss. Big Drama's connections still came away with a track record and the satisfaction of knowing their colt should be a major player in the 3-year-old division.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Imperial Council will be given the best chance by most handicappers to upset probable odds-on favorite I Want Revenge in Saturday's Grade 1, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. On Sunday, trainer Shug McGaughey did his best to have Imperial Council ready for the challenge by having the colt work a sharp half-mile at the Payson Park training center in Florida.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Jockey Julien Leparoux, the nation's fourth-leading rider in mount earnings with $3.3 million just three months into 2009, will be shooting for a rich double at Oaklawn Park on Saturday. He is scheduled to ride Acoma in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom and It's a Bird in the Grade 2, $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap.

ARCADIA, Calif. - For now, the conversations in racing rightfully focus on the build-up to the Triple Crown. By this summer, trainer Ron Ellis is hoping that Rail Trip, the unbeaten 4-year-old colt, will be part of national discussions.

Rail Trip makes his stakes debut in Saturday's $85,000 Santana Mile, on the undercard of the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby program. Owned by Mace and Samantha Siegel, Rail Trip will be favored in the Santana Mile, a race that Ellis and the Siegels chose over Saturday's $500,000 Oaklawn Handicap in Arkansas.

The Golden Gate turf course opens Wednesday for the first time since January, just in time to bolster entries. Short fields have been common lately, and last week the Thursday card had to be canceled because of lack of entries.