The $50,000 Royal North Stakes for Ohio-registered 3-year-old fillies, scheduled for Saturday at Beulah Park, has been rescheduled for April 12. The $50,000 H.B Noonan for 3-year-old Ohio-registered colts and geldings, originally scheduled for April 16, has been rescheduled for April 26.

The track's extended closing because of tumultuous weather in the Columbus area led to the schedule changes. Horseman pointing their horses for the races complained that they did not have enough time to prepare.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Saturday's outstanding Florida Derby program got even better with a little help from Mother Nature.

Heavy rains forced the cancellation of the second half of last Saturday's program, including the $200,000 Shirley Jones Handicap. As a result, racing secretary Bill Couch rescheduled the Grade 2 Shirley Jones for Florida Derby Day, when it will join the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes and Grade 2 Bonnie Miss Stakes as supporting features on the card.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Tres Borrachos, who in his dirt debut was third in the El Camino Real Derby at Bay Meadows on March 8, is being pointed for the Gradeo2, $1 million Arkansas Derby, said his trainer, Beau Greely.

"It's the plan to run, as long as I hear we're going to get in," said Greely.

ARCADIA, Calif. - One way or another, Eric Guillot is determined to take a 3-year-old on the Kentucky Derby trail this spring.

This Saturday, Guillot starts Salute the Sarge in the $75,000 San Miguel Stakes over six furlongs at Santa Anita. A win in that race could lead to a start in the $325,000 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 19, the last major prep for the Kentucky Derby on May 3.

Steve Asmussen, the nation's leading trainer in wins and earnings, was the leading trainer at the Fair Grounds meet this year, finishing with 86 wins for the 81-day meet that ended Sunday.

Asmussen has been the leading trainer at Fair Grounds for seven of the past eight meets. Asmussen is also the trainer of Pyro, who won the Louisiana Derby at Fair Grounds this year and is a leading candidate for the Kentucky Derby.

James Theriot won the riding title with 94 wins, 13 more than Shaun Bridgmohan. It was Theriot's first riding title at the track.

Jockey Justin Shepherd is coming off perhaps the best year of his career, and he has kept his momentum going into the Will Rogers Downs meet in Claremore, Okla. Shepherd had a triple at the track Tuesday and earlier this month went 5 for 5 with his mounts on a card.

Shepherd leads the standings at Will Rogers with 21 wins from 95 starts. He also leads all riders in mount earnings at the meet, with $256,727.

Shepherd's season comes on the heels of a 2007 in which he won 106 races and a career-best $2,417,115 in mount earnings.

Trainer John Locke, who leads the standings at Sam Houston Race Park, is closing in on career win 1,000. As of Tuesday, he had won 991 races. Locke will have five chances to add to his total Friday, with four horses in at Sam Houston Race Park and one starter at Oaklawn Park.

Locke has divisions of his stable at both tracks. He has won 44 races from 221 starters this meet at Sam Houston, and his starters at the track have earned $473,673. Last year was a banner one for Locke, who won 109 races and had career-best stable earnings of $1.5 million.

It doesn't seem to matter who's riding for trainer Murray Rojas these days at Penn National.

Rojas went 6 for 16 last week to pass Scott Lake and move to the top of the meet's trainer standings with 17 victories from 82 starters through March 22.

Four different jockeys rode winners for Rojas, including two apiece by Justin Kravets and 10-pound apprentice Manuel Chaves.

Fasig-Tipton Texas has cataloged 303 horses to its 2-year-olds in training sale, which will be held in the sales pavilion in the Lone Star Park stable area on Tuesday, April 1, beginning at 10 a.m.

The under-tack show is set for Sunday, March 30. The workouts will begin at 10 a.m. at Lone Star.

A broad base of stallions are represented by offspring, among them Dixie Union, Empire Maker, and Forestry.

Maryland-based jockeys Sheldon Russell and Oliver Castillo will each be sidelined four to six months as the result of injuries sustained in separate spills last Saturday at Laurel Park.

Russell, a 20-year-old apprentice who was tied for sixth at the meet with 21 winners from 90 mounts, fractured two vertebrae in his back when his mount, Positive Note, broke down on the backstretch of the fifth race and landed on him. Russell missed four months with a similar injury sustained last October.