BALTIMORE - Trainer Neil Howard is resisting any inclination to throw into the deepest of waters, at least for now. Despite back-to-back victories in tough races at Keeneland, Alumni Hall was never really considered for the Pimlico Special, even though Howard had every intention of heading to Maryland from Kentucky.

If a record producer can win the Kentucky Derby, then certainly a Film Maker can win the Gallorette.

The runner-up in last fall's Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Film Maker makes her 5-year-old debut in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Gallorette Handicap.

finished second in this race last year, falling a half-length short of the Todd Pletcher-trained Ocean Drive in the 1 1/16-mile race. Last year, Film Maker was making her second start off a layoff, having finished an inexplicably poor sixth in the Jenny Wiley Handicap at Keeneland.

The Sir Barton Stakes served as a launching pad to victory in the Belmont Stakes for Sarava in 2002, and if Reel Legend can win the $100,000 Sir Barton on Saturday, a berth in the final Triple Crown race awaits, according to his trainer, Jimmy Jerkens.

"It looks like he can go a route," Jerkens said from Belmont Park. "If he rates kindly and does it the right way, we'll give it serious thought."

To get an idea of who the main contenders will be in the $100,000 Woodlawn Stakes on Saturday, it will be helpful to check the results of the Home of the Free Stakes on Friday at Belmont Park. Four of the Woodlawn entrants were also cross-entered in the Home of the Free, including the likely top three choices, and as of Thursday, at least two of the trainers were unsure where they were going to run. Both races are at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

"I'm probably 50-50," said Rick Violette Jr., the trainer of Wallstreet Scandal, on Thursday morning.

BALTIMORE - Closing Argument quite possibly will win the Preakness, assuming he runs as well as he did two weeks ago in his narrow-miss, second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby. But if he does win Saturday, the colt will buck an amazingly abysmal trend of Derby runners-up in the Preakness for the last four-plus decades.

Since 1961, only two second-place finishers in the Derby - Summer Squall in 1990 and Prairie Bayou in 1993 - have come back to win the Preakness. That's not counting Forward Pass, who was awarded the Derby on disqualification in 1968.

Indiana Downs cancelled racing Thursday, citing safety concerns stepping from two possible cases of strangles in horses stabled in its receiving barn.

The horses were immediately removed from the grounds and transported to Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana for quarantine and observation, the track said in a press release distributed Thursday evening.

EAST BOSTON - Boston's best sprinters spent this weekend last year prepping for the $200,000 James B. Moseley Handicap. That stakes isn't on the schedule this season, but that won't stop several of those top runners from returning to headline Saturday's Preakness Day card at Suffolk Downs.

A pair of front-runners, one a lightly raced 4-year-old who has yet to face stakes company and the other a mare who has never raced outside Argentina, could hold the key to Saturday's $75,000 Sweet N Sassy Handicap at Delaware Park.

Fortress Hill, a Todd Pletcher-trained filly who has won her two starts this year by a combined margin of 10 lengths, and Fantastica Roma, idle since winning a Group 3 stakes in Argentina last August, could wind up battling each other for the lead in the six-furlong Sweet N Sassy.

Two fast sprinters who were separated by a half-length in Mountaineer's first stakes of the season two weeks ago are rematched in the $75,000 Waterford Park Handicap at six furlongs.

In the five-furlong Panhandle on May 7, the 3-year-old Bernie Blue, facing older horses for the first time, overtook 4-5 favorite Danieltown in the stretch to win for the fifth time in six career starts. Bernie Blue's winning Beyer of 102 represented a 24-point improvement upon his previous career best.

ELMONT, N.Y. - The Shuvee Handicap has been won by such memorable mares as Lady's Secret, Personal Ensign, Sky Beauty, and Inside Information. By that standard, Saturday's 30th running came up short in terms of quality.

The field for the Grade 2, $200,000 mile race includes , the one-two finishers in Aqueduct's Grade 3 Next Move Handicap; Traci Girl, who was running for $35,000 claiming tags with no takers last summer; Bohemian Girl, who has lost her last four graded stakes by a combined 25 lengths; and multiple Grade 1 winner Society Selection.