CHICAGO - You could ask more of the guy. You could ask him to be perfect, since he had one turf starter at this National Jockey Club meet who lost. The other three horses whom trainer Chris Block sent out to run on the Hawthorne grass course this spring came back winners. It was much the same last fall, when Block won far more than his share of grass races at the Hawthorne meet. Saturday, bettors have another chance to catch a Block-trained grass horse, as he sends Big Bold Sweep out in Hawthorne's featured 10th race.

OLDSMAR, Fla. - The live racing season at Tampa Bay Downs moves into its final weekend Saturday with a 13-race card that is highlighted by the first running of the $60,000 Chris Thomas Memorial Turf Stakes.

The headliner, renamed from the Columbia Stakes in honor of the late local sportscaster and racing enthusiast Chris Thomas, will be run at nine furlongs on the infield course and has drawn a field of 11 locally based grass specialists.

Tam's Terms, winner of 7 of 9 lifetime starts on turf, will be a formidable threat to win the Henry S. Clark Stakes for the second straight year at Pimlico. The one-mile Clark is the first grass stakes of the season in Maryland.

A 6-year-old gelding trained by Larry Murray, Tam's Terms was able to win the 2003 Clark off a layoff of nearly 11 months, so the fact he hasn't been out since November should not be a drawback.

A pair of Maryland-based sprinters who faced each other in last fall's De Francis Dash could meet again in the first stakes race of the season at Mountaineer Race Track.

Crossing Point, who set a Pimlico track record last September, and Take Achance on Me, a 6-year-old gelding versatile enough to run competitively in stakes on both dirt and turf, are among the 10 older horses entered in Saturday night's $75,000 Panhandle Handicap at five furlongs.

A little home cooking may be all it takes to get Stay Forever back on track in Saturday's $150,000 Hollywood Wildcat Breeders' Cup Handicap at Calder Race Course in Miami.

Stay Forever enters the Hollywood Wildcat off a pair of subpar efforts at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs. On both occasions, Stay Forever failed to muster her usual stretch-running kick, finishing eighth in both the Grade 3 The Very One Handicap at Gulfstream and the Turf Distaff Handicap at Tampa Bay.

What do you do after riding in your first Kentucky Derby? If you're Ramon Dominguez, you take a vacation. Not, as the television commercials featuring sports heroes would have you believe, to Disney World. Win or lose, Dominguez has made plans to take a trip to Belgium after the big race.

Dominguez, who has the mount on Tapit in Saturday's Derby, will be serving a seven-day suspension he was issued last fall while riding at Delaware Park. His tentative plan is to resume riding at Delaware on May 10.

EAST BOSTON, Mass. - For New England's horsemen and horseplayers, Saturday marks the end of the longest winter in many years as Suffolk Downs returns for the 2004 season after six dark months.

PHOENIX - For Magnificent Val, it's all about revenge. For Aspen Hill, it's time for validation. For Frisco Belle, it's a chance to change the pecking order.

Saturday's $40,000 Desert Sky Handicap at a mile on turf at Turf Paradise brings out six horses, three of which ran within a length of each other in the March 13 Sun City.

Aspen Hill was the 19-1 upset winner of the Sun City, which was also run at a mile on turf. She just managed to beat highweight and 3-10 favorite Magnificent Val, with Frisco Belle a close third.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - San Francisco Bay Area breeder-owners Sheila and Larry Ullmann were disappointed last Saturday when their 6-year-old mare Bold Roberta ran a distant seventh in the B. Thoughtful Handicap at Hollywood Park's Gold Rush Day for California-breds.

But last weekend's disappointment could turn into this weekend's celebration when Bold Roberta runs in Sunday's $55,000-added Woodside Handicap at Bay Meadows. The six-furlong sprint attracted three other multiple stakes winners, Channing Way, Christmas Time, and Pheiffer.

Ellens Lucky Star, who makes her first start of the year, heads a field of eight Indiana-bred fillies and mares entered in the $40,000 Shelby County Stakes.

A winner of 5 of 10 starts in 2003, including three straight stakes at Hoosier Park last fall, Ellens Lucky Star shows five recorded works in the past month at Churchill Downs in preparation for the six-furlong Shelby County. Trained by Greg Foley, her latest work is a sharp four-furlong breeze from the gate in 47.30 seconds Wednesday morning.