CHICAGO - If a short stretch and a long stride are incompatible, there's good reason to like Mr. Soul in the co-featured ninth race Friday at Arlington Park.

Race 9 is for 3-year-old entry-level allowance horses or $50,000 claimers, and its 1 1/8-mile distance provides a prime justification for backing Mr. Soul. Co-featured on the 10-race card is the sixth, for female third-level turf allowance horses.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - The defection of multiple graded stakes winner On the Acorn will make it easier for Lava Man to win his comeback Saturday in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park.

On the Acorn emerged as California's top long-distance turf runner this spring, winning the Grade 2, 1 3/4-mile San Juan Capistrano and Grade 2, 1 1/2-mile Jim Murray Memorial. But when weight assignments were released for the 1 1/4-mile Whittingham Handicap, On the Acorn's trainer, Mike Mitchell, said no thanks.

CHICAGO - Well, Dreaming of Anna finally won a race, but is the champ really back?

Plans to begin installing a Tapeta synthetic racetrack at Golden Gate Fields next Monday have been put on hold. The Albany, Calif., planning department was expected to decide whether to issue Golden Gate a permit to install the track during a Monday meeting, but the decision has been tabled until an unspecified date.

Costa Rising, away since February, is launching a comeback with the long-term goal being the $100,000 Shiskabob on turf at Louisiana Downs on July 21. His first start back will be in the $100,000 Pola Benoit Memorial at Evangeline Downs on June 30.

Costa Rising, a 4-year-old colt who has won 10 of 16 starts and $544,949, last raced on Feb. 3 when he won the $194,000 Louisiana Premier Night Championship at Delta Downs by 5o1/4 lengths. Shortly after the race he underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone chip from his left knee.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Todd Pletcher's decision to run the filly Rags to Riches certainly created a much-needed buzz to this year's Belmont Stakes. It will also create myriad opinions whether she is good enough to beat the boys, including Preakness winner Curlin and Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun.

AUBURN, Wash. - Jockey Mick Ruis got off on the wrong foot at this meeting. He rode only two winners from his first 42 mounts at the stand, then he was suspended for six racing days for questionable rides on the Doris Harwood-trained Odessa Beach and the Steve Bullock-trained Fabadabado. When he left to visit family in California during his suspension, few expected him to return.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The Woodbine Oaks generally has been a provincial affair, with the bulk of the field comprised of fillies born and raced in Ontario.

There has been the odd exception as Ready and Alluring, second in 2005; Quick Blue, third in 2001; and Gal in a Ruckus, the 1995 winner, all were making their first Woodbine appearances in the Oaks.

This year’s running of the 1 1/8-mile race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies boasts no fewer than four candidates who would be making their Woodbine debuts.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Silent Pleasure, who was scratched from the Grade 3, $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap after an apparent spider bite, could move into Grade 1 company for his next start, his co-owner and trainer Howard Scarberry said.

MIAMI - A potential starting berth in next month's Grade 3 Azalea Breeders' Cup Stakes could be up for grabs here Thursday when the undefeated and untested 3-year-old filly Just for Keeps faces older horses while also stretching out to seven furlongs for the first time in the $28,000 allowance feature.