HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Ken McPeek is planning to put his improving 3-year-old prospect Nistle's Crunch on the road to the Kentucky Derby. He's just not sure which of the many available trails he'll take just yet.

Nistle's Crunch, a son of Van Nistelrooy, comes off the best performance of his career, a two-length entry-level allowance victory here on March 1. The versatile Nistle's Crunch has not finished worse than third in six career starts - two on Polytrack, two on turf, and two on conventional dirt.

Kodiak Kowboy cruised to a six-length win in his 3-year-old debut on Friday, when he captured a six-furlong optional claiming race in 1:10.21 at Oaklawn Park. He will be pointed next for the $100,000 Lafayette at seven furlongs at Keeneland on April 6, said his trainer, Steve Asmussen.

Kodiak Kowboy ($2.80) was making his first start since finishing third behind Kentucky Derby favorites War Pass and Pyro in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Oct. 27. Friday, he tracked the pace in a four-horse field, then easily swept to the lead in the stretch under jockey Luis Quinonez.

NEW ORLEANS - Elliecat won't have the element of surprise this time when she goes forward in the Fortin Handicap, one of six stakes featured on the closing Saturday's Lagniappe Stakes Day.

Her last race was the Chou Croute Handicap, on Feb. 16, where she wired the field at 75-1, holding on to win by a neck.

As Elliecat has matured on the track, trainer Dallas Keen has seen an increased maturity in the barn. Elliecat has always been notoriously hard to handle, biting grooms and trying to throw riders.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A charity dinner and auction to assist jockey Justin Vitek in his battle with leukemia has been scheduled for April 21 at the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.

GROVE CITY, Ohio - Beulah Park is scheduled to reopen Monday after canceling its last 11 racing days due to weather-related problems with its racing surface. Beulah has canceled a total of 17 full or partial days since the beginning of the winter/spring meet on Jan. 7.

STICKNEY, Ill. - Followers of the Chicago racing scene have grown familiar with the "bdancing" horses trained by Terrel Gore and owned by Bob and Nancy Bartels. The most notable among them is the Illinois-bred stakes veteran Bluesbdancing, who is training along at Hawthorne toward her 2008 debut. But the one running in the featured fifth race Sunday at Hawthorne, Shadowbdancing, also might be worth tracking.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Rafael Bejarano, the leading rider at Santa Anita, will be out two to four weeks with small fractures to two vertebrae in his back, the result of being thrown in an accident in the final race on Thursday at Santa Anita, his agent, Joe Ferrer, said Friday.

"He should be able to ride in a month," Ferrer said after he and Bejarano left the office of Dr. Dan Capen, a noted orthopedist and horse owner who has treated many jockeys over the years. "It could have been worse."

ARCADIA, Calif. – Rafael Bejarano, the leading rider at Santa Anita, was taken by ambulance to Arcadia Methodist Hospital on Thursday after he was injured in a one-horse spill in the eighth and final race.

Bejarano was thrown hard to the ground when his mount Parisian Art collapsed at the eighth pole and died of an apparent heart attack. Parisian Art was trailing the field and being eased when he went down; Bejarano landed head first. According to Santa Anita president Ron Charles, who was on the track soon after the accident, Bejarano was talking and moving his arms and legs.

Speechifying, a 5-year-old mare owned by Indian Mills Stock Farm and trained by Phil Aristone, was named Pennsylvania's horse of the year Wednesday night during the annual awards program of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, comprising horsemen who race at Philadelphia Park.

During her 4-year-old campaign in 2007, which began with her running for a $15,000 claiming price against maidens, Speechifying won six races and $291,301, highlighted by a victory in the $250,000 My Juliet Stakes. She was also named top older female and top claiming horse.

The featured ninth race at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., on Thursday was declared a no contest after the starting gate was unable to be pulled from the racetrack because of problems with a tractor. Wagers on the race were refunded, while bets tied into multiple races were given an "all" in the ninth race.

"We had a tractor malfunction," said David Longinotti, assistant general manager at Oaklawn. "We told it to go, and it wouldn't go. We'll obviously completely check out the tractor tonight, and hopefully we won't have any more problems with it in the future."