MIAMI - Turf stakes for 3-year-olds are few and far between throughout the year in south Florida, and members of the division could lose a rare opportunity to get on the grass with Sunday's $55,000 Lord Juban Stakes a good bet to be washed over to the main track.

Gulfstream Park carded only two turf races for 3-year-olds on its 2009 stakes schedule, the most recent being the Grade 3 Palm Beach on March 14, and there isn't a scheduled grass stakes for the division on the Calder calendar until the Needles on Sept. 26.

BALTIMORE - Eight months was not long enough for Smart and Fancy. Eight months and almost five furlongs, now that was just right. In her first start since October, Smart and Fancy needed the length of the stretch to wear down three dogged rivals and take the $50,000 The Very One Stakes for female turf sprinters on Friday at Pimlico.

BALTIMORE - Trainer Bret Calhoun has a problem - the kind of problem you'd like to have. Chamberlain Bridge won the Aegon Turf Sprint during Derby Week at Churchill Downs, and on Friday at Pimlico, Mr. Nightlinger was at least as impressive capturing the $98,500 Jim McKay Turf Sprint Stakes by 1 1/2 lengths.

"I've got to find a way to keep those two apart," Calhoun said after the McKay.

The New York Racing Association on Thursday held a six-hour hearing with trainer Jeff Mullins over a security-barn violation that occurred at Aqueduct in April, but it adjourned without any action being taken. It is expected that further testimony from additional witnesses will be needed before NYRA decides what, if any, penalties will be issued.

AUBURN, Wash. - There's business being conducted at the east end of Barn 2 on the Emerald Downs backside, but it's not exactly business as usual. Veteran trainer Craig Roberts has been absent since suffering a stroke more than four months ago. The official program still reads "Craig Roberts, trainer," but assistant trainer Martin Pimentel is running things while Roberts undergoes an arduous rehabilitation program at a nursing facility in Seattle.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Mark Casse sent out back-to-back winners of the 1 1/8 mile Woodbine Oaks, with Kimchi prevailing in the 2006 running and Sealy Hill in 2007. On Sunday, Casse will send out his main hopeful for this year's June 7 Woodbine Oaks, with Tasty Temptation scheduled to face 10 rivals, including stablemate Closing Speed in the 1 1/16-mile La Lorgnette.

The La Lorgnette, an open race for 3-year-old fillies, previously was run in September but has traded places on the stakes calendar with the Grade 3 Selene, another open 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-old fillies.

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.