Golden Gate Fields will offer nine stakes during its upcoming meeting, but the Grade 2 San Francisco Mile won't be one of them. The San Francisco Mile, Northern California's highest-graded stakes, won't be run this year because track officials are concerned it would conflict with the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park and, consequently, draw a field of less than Grade 2 quality and be downgraded, said Golden Gate Fields general manager Robert Hartman.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - If trainer Valerie Rhoden wanted to find a tough first test for the comebacking Funny Flyer, she certainly succeeded. The 6-year-old stakes-placed gelding makes his first start in 11 months in Friday's Bay Meadows feature, a $25,000 claimer at six furlongs.

He'll be meeting a pair of strong entrants sent out by trainer Billy Morey: Bradford, who has a win and a second in his two starts this year, and Shore Patrol, winner of four straight, including his last two here.

Following a 10th anniversary meet in 2007 in which rain put a damper on business, Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, reopens Thursday for its 11th season with officials hopeful for a brighter meet.

There is reason for guarded optimism, knowing it seems unlikely the track could be hit with as much precipitation as it was during its 2007 meet, when over 27 inches of rain fell, resulting in 60 races being moved from turf to dirt and contributing to the 527 scratches during the meeting.

At a time when many of his counterparts have long since retired from the racetrack, Sandburr is still going strong at the ripe old age of 9. Thursday night he will be among the favorites in the opening-night Premiere Stakes at Lone Star Park, a race he won last year as an 8-year-old, and if his better races from this year are any indication, he stands a strong chance to defend his title.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Hey Byrn will get one last opportunity to earn enough graded money to get into the Kentucky Derby field when he starts as the odds-on favorite in Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Holy Bull Stakes. The winner receives $90,000.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Gayego will have two significant questions to answer on Saturday when he starts as the probable favorite in the Grade 2, $1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park. He must prove he can win at both two turns and on dirt as he ventures outside of Southern California's synthetic surfaces for the first time following a runner-up finish to Georgie Boy in the Grade 2 San Felipe last month at Santa Anita.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - After the madness surrounding the first leg of the Triple Play Race Series, a three-race series that offers inflated purses for claiming horses, Sunday's second leg should be relatively tame.

Thirteen ran in the two divisions of the March 16 first leg, which was for $10,000 claimers. A total of 88 claims were dropped for seven horses in the two races, resulting in 50 owners and trainers crowding together to watch the shake for each horse.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Michael Matz has been down this road before. Well, not this road, exactly, but one he hopes will lead again to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Fresh from a victory in the Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap last Saturday, Daytona will try for the second Grade 1 win of his career in the Shoemaker Mile at Hollywood Park on May 26.

Daytona has won 5 of his last 6 starts, all in stakes. He won the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at 1 1/4 miles on turf at Hollywood Park last November. This year, he has won 2 of 3 starts, including the Grade 3 Fair Grounds Handicap at about 1 1/8 miles in February. His only loss of the current campaign was a third in the Mervin Muniz Jr. Handicap at Fair Grounds last month.

For the second consecutive year, Del Mar is offering the richest stakes schedule in its history. The track is offering 31 major stakes and 11 overnight stakes worth a total of $7.35 million for the upcoming meeting, which runs from July 16 to Sept. 3.

Last year's stakes program was worth $7.25 million.

The track has added a new race, the $150,000 Cougar II Handicap over 1 1/2 miles on the Polytrack surface on July 30. The race is designed to be a prep to the newly created $500,000 Breeders' Cup Dirt Marathon at the Oak Tree at Santa Anita meeting in October.