BALTIMORE - Larry Jones kind of likes it over this way. Jones got the richest victory of his career last summer when Island Sand won the $1 million Delaware Handicap just a little north of here on Interstate 95, and now the veteran trainer is back in the Mid-Atlantic region to soak in the Preakness festivities at Pimlico.

BALTIMORE - Mary Eppler hopes a little home-course advantage plays in her favor when Bright Gold runs in Friday's $75,000 The Very One Handicap at Pimlico.

The Very One begins an all-stakes late pick four that has a guaranteed pool of $250,000.

is coming off a second-place finish to Gilded Gold in last month's Giant's Causeway at Keeneland. Gilded Gold is the horse to beat again in the The Very One, but Eppler is hopeful of turning the tables.

BALTIMORE - The Preakness won't be the only race worth watching Saturday at Pimlico. In fact, eight other stakes, five of them graded, also are carded on a blockbuster 13-race program that was drawn Wednesday afternoon.

The richest of the supporting events, the $250,000 Dixie Stakes, drew a matchup of Breeders' Cup champions: , winner of the 2004 BC Turf. They are among a field of seven older horses entered in the Grade 2 Dixie, which is carded as the 10th race.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Battle Won, fifth as the favorite in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap on

May 6, has been sent to San Luis Rey Equine Hospital in California to be treated for an internal ailment, trainer Chuck Simon said Wednesday.

Simon said the nature of Battle Won's ailment is unknown. A 6-year-old gelding, he came out of the Churchill Downs Handicap physically sound, Simon said, but blood tests taken after the race revealed something was amiss.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - There will always be a certain attachment at the Mike Mitchell barn to Remembering Star, the 3-year-old colt who makes his stakes debut in Saturday's $150,000 Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes at Hollywood Park.

Remembering Star is named in honor of the late Star Over the Bay, a claimer-turned-multiple stakes winner who was euthanized after suffering injuries in a race in Singapore last May.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Exactly what kind of a Belmont Stakes awaits us June 10 will become clearer late Saturday afternoon, after the results of the Preakness and the Peter Pan are known.

The 1 1/8-mile Peter Pan has traditionally been run two weeks before the Belmont, but it was pushed back an additional week this year. As of Wednesday afternoon, a field of eight 3-year-olds was expected for the 53rd running of the Grade 2, $200,000 Peter Pan: Harborage, Hesanoldsalt, Ice N Lemon, Lewis Michael, Really Indian, Scanlon's Song, Strong Contender, and Sunriver.

CHICAGO - Say what you will about the Illinois-bred 3-year-old filly Rich Fantasy. Just don't say it to her on a wet racetrack.

It appears Pat Mouton, trainer of the now-retired The Beter Man Can, has come up with another top-flight Louisiana-bred filly. Hottamolly rallied to win the $50,000 Fantasia by 3 1/4 lengths Saturday at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La.

She covered the six furlongs in 1:10.38 and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 92.

"I thought it was great," Mouton said. "It really didn't surprise me, to be honest with you."

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - There are four allowances carded for Friday night at Lone Star Park, and trainer Donnie Von Hemel sends out top contenders in three of them.

The allowances will go as the sixth through ninth races and are part of a 10-race program. The featured ninth is a 7 1/2-furlong money allowance on turf for fillies and mares, and it appears to be a showdown between the Von Hemel-trained D Fine Okie and Louisiana shipper Rue des Reves.

A Bit O'Gold, Canada's Horse of the Year, champion older male, and champion turf male in 2005, will not be returning to the races.

"Due to general wear and tear, we've decided to retire him," said trainer Catherine Day Phillips, who along with her husband, Todd Phillips, is a partner in The Two Bit Racing Stable that owns A Bit O'Gold. "He's been very, very good to us for three years, and we think he deserves a dignified retirement.

"We had discussed some time ago that he would be retired to our farm."