Trainer Roger Engel is having a meet to remember at Will Rogers Downs, where he had won 12 races from 21 starts through Tuesday to sit atop the standings at the Claremore, Okla., track. Engel, whose 57 percent win rate is topped only by his 80 percent in-the-money stat, went 2 for 2 locally last Sunday, and also had a double on March 17.

While racing in New York took a holiday last week for Palm Sunday, rider Channing Hill took advantage of the situation to return home for a family engagement and also pick up a trio of rides at Fonner Park.

Mending Fences, a front-runner seeking his first stakes win, drew the rail for Saturday night's Grade 3, $200,000 Connally Breeders' Cup Turf Handicap at Sam Houston Race Park. The 1 1/8-mile turf race is the richest of three stakes to be run on the closing-night card.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Pretty much anybody who is somebody in horse racing will step foot into Keeneland this spring. It's safe to say that $660,000 in average daily purses would entice the best of the best to almost any corner of the country, but the success of Polytrack, the proximity to the Kentucky Derby, and other contributing factors are sure to make the 15-day spring meet that begins Friday a veritable melting pot of the sport's elite.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Whether it be at auction or through private purchase, Michael Tabor is unabashed in his quest to obtain his next big horse. But for all the money he spent at the 2-year-old sales in 2006 and the yearling sales in 2005, Tabor's next big horse may have been born right in his own back yard.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Ermine, who went from maiden winner to stakes winner within two starts last year at Oaklawn, further distinguished herself after the season ended, and on Saturday returns here as the probable second choice to Breeders' Cup Distaff champ Round Pond in the Grade 1, $500,000 Apple Blossom Handicap.

The 1 1/16-mile Apple Blossom is one of the nation's premier races for fillies and mares, and a field of eight was probable as of Tuesday. Others pointing for the race are Take D'oTour, India, Lemons Forever, Baghdaria, Rahys' Appeal, and River Savage.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - There is more than one way to skin a cat, and more than a few ways, apparently, to make it to the Kentucky Derby.

Trainer Darrin Miller has hand-picked the Grade 3 Transylvania Stakes, which helps to open the 15-day Keeneland spring meet Friday, as a rather unusual route to make the May 5 Derby at Churchill Downs with Sedgefield, the Silverton Hill Farms colt who was second in the March 24 Lane's End Stakes.

CHICAGO - Saturday's Illinois Derby, which is expected to attract between nine and 12 horses when entries are taken Thursday, will have some of the usual suspects on this year's Triple Crown trail. Trainer Todd Pletcher is expected to send Cowtown Cat, who passed his first two-turn test winning the Gotham Stakes in New York. Doug O'Neill, Hawthorne racing officials said, plans to send two runners, the highly touted Cobalt Blue and little-known Family Talk. Steve Asmussen trained Family Talk until recent weeks, but Asmussen has his own Illinois Derby probable, Reporting for Duty.

When trainer David Hofmans arrives at his Hollywood Park stable before dawn, one of the first things he does is ask his staff about the condition of Greg's Gold, the barn's crack sprinter. When Greg's Gold returns from training, Hofmans asks again - and then gets further involved.

"I want to know the before and after," he said. "Then, I feel the legs again."

I Spy Wolfie drove to 1 1/4-length win over Filet Gumbo in the $45,000 Fort Bend County for 3-year-old Texas-breds at Sam Houston Race Park.

I Spy Wolfie ($6.60) sat in fourth early in the seven-furlong stakes, took over through a half-mile in 46.65, and went on to cover the distance over a muddy track in 1:24.58.

Alex Birzer rode I Spy Wolfie for owner and trainer Charles Smith.