Wildwood Royal, a multiple stakes winner over the track, heads a field of eight entered in Saturday's $50,000 Prairie Rose Stakes for filly and mare sprinters at Prairie Meadows.

Trained by Jimmy Zook, Wildwood Royal has shipped into Prairie Meadows numerous times over the past two years and has won 5 of her 6 starts here, including the 2003 Iowa Oaks and last year's $125,000 Iowa Breeders' Cup Distaff.

In her career, the 5-year-old Wildwood Royal has earned $377,958, with a 11-4-2 record from 27 starts.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Many of Woodbine's best dirt horses, including comebacking champions Mobil and A Bit O'Gold, will clash at seven furlongs in Saturday's $165,300 Vigil Handicap.

Mobil, the 124-pound highweight and likely favorite, garnered the 2004 Sovereign Award as champion older runner on the strength of his three stakes scores. He captured the Grade 3 Dominion Day Handicap by nearly 13 lengths, and took the Halton Stakes on turf for the second year in a row.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Trainer Daniel Franko has plenty of confidence in his 3-year-old barn star Abuse of Power, but he has plenty of questions about him, too.

He expects to get some answers Saturday when Abuse of Power meets six rivals in the $58,000-added Gregson Foundation Sprint for 3-year-olds at six furlongs.

"I don't know how good he is," said Franko, who has seen Abuse of Power run off with two easy victories here.

While displayed speed and talent in the two wins, he will be meeting his toughest competition Saturday.

The California futurity season starts at Los Alamitos on Saturday night with maiden-race winners leading the entrants in eight trials to the Grade 1, $262,900 Kindergarten, the year's first futurity in California.

The juveniles with the 10 fastest times will qualify for the 300-yard Kindergarten on May 14.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - It wasn't her usual dominating performance, but Regal Red was still good enough to win the $42,000 Strawberry Morn Stakes at Hastings last Saturday. A homebred daughter of On Target, Regal Red beat a fast-closing Overact by three-quarters of a length for her sixth straight stakes win. Her Beyer Speed Figure of 79 for the race equaled the lowest of her career, but her trainer, Robbie Anderson, was still pleased with the effort.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - While the spotlight will be on champions Mobil and A Bit O'Gold here in Saturday's Vigil Stakes, the field also has an interesting newcomer in Royal Place.

Owned by British Columbia-based K.K. Sangara, Royal Place checked in from California last week and had his first breeze over the Woodbine track on Tuesday.

"K.K. had been thinking about sending him here for the last few months," said Lorne Richards, who trains for Sangara here. "Once Santa Anita ended, there wasn't really a lot for him down there."

Suffolk Downs is going through tough times right now, but as the 2005 season gets under way Saturday, there is hope that things will get better.

"We're calling it our survival year," said Bob O'Malley, Suffolk's chief operating officer. "There's a lot of people that are determined to survive and make sure racing doesn't go away. Considering the tough winter, the attitude has been better than expected."

The shorter the better seems to be an apt motto for the 3-year-old filly Partners Due.

Unable to hold substantial leads at the eighth pole in back-to-back starts at six furlongs last fall, Partners Due responded well to rest and a slightly less demanding distance in her seasonal debut 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Saturday, shortens up even more, to five furlongs, for the first running of the $50,000 Xtra Heat Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Pimlico.

PHOENIX - Local products will be given a chance to shine Saturday, when Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders' Day is run at Turf Paradise. A total of 118 statebreds were entered for Saturday, and they will compete for $266,000 in purses spread out over 12 races. The number of horses and purse money are a record for an Arizona Breeders' Day. Five of the 12 races are stakes, four of which are worth $40,000 and one, the Arizona Breeders' Derby, worth $25,000.

PHOENIX - The Grand Canyon may be the best of the 12 races on Arizona Thoroughbred Breeders' Day at Turf Paradise on Saturday, but there are four other stakes as well, all for Arizona-breds.

Six 3-year-olds will do battle in the $25,000 Arizona Breeders' Derby. Buck Wine is the likely favorite in the 1 1/16-mile main-track event, which is the first race on the 12-race card. Buck Wine, trained by Glen Wasson, finished second in the Arizona Stallion Stakes on the turf here on April 9, and his only victory came on turf. Leslie Mawing rides.