INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Over the next two Saturdays, trainer Bill Currin has stakes horses running at Hollywood Park and Churchill Downs. The first leg will be much easier than the second.

In Saturday's $150,000 Fran's Valentine Stakes at Hollywood Park, featuring California-bred fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles on turf, Currin starts Castling, a stakes winner on the Hollywood turf course last year.

On May 3, Currin travels to Churchill Downs, where Outta Here starts as a longshot in the Kentucky Derby.

CHICAGO - Some horsemen throw a wide net over stakes races, hoping to pull up an important win in one of them, but the Southern California-based trainer Wally Dollase has been working with laser precision in Chicago. Dollase shipped the unproven Ten Most Wanted to Hawthorne for an easy victory April 5 in the Illinois Derby, and for Saturday's Grade 3, $250,000 Sixty Sails Handicap, he has brought in Bare Necessities, who should be a strong favorite.

"I've been lucky picking my spots," said Dollase, a 25 percent winner in graded stakes the last two years.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - They are connected by name and by Saturdays in springtime, but the Derby Trial and the Kentucky Derby are sharing another unmistakable link this year: the omnipotence of trainer Bobby Frankel and jockey Jerry Bailey.

Indeed, when Churchill Downs opens its spring meet, all eyes will be on the Hall of Fame tandem of Frankel and Bailey. Midas Eyes, the heavy favorite in the $150,000 Trial, will represent the Hall of Fame duo on Saturday, one week before the men endeavor to make history with heavily favored Empire Maker in the 129th running of the Derby.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - There are only two stakes scheduled for the grass at Aqueduct's spring meet and the first of those stakes, Saturday's $100,000-added Fort Marcy Handicap, could become the victim of a forecast calling for an inch to two inches of rain.

The precipitation was to begin Friday evening and continue into Saturday.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - The return of Ladies Din and the prospect of a turf course softened by rain didn't scare anyone away from Saturday's Grade 2 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile at Bay Meadows.

Whether highweight Ladies Din is scratched from the race depends on the amount of rain the course takes between Thursday's entry time and Saturday's running. An 8-year-old, Ladies Din has not run since winning the Grade 1 Shoemaker Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park last May 27.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Last year, Bluesthestandard was racing for a claiming price of $10,000. Saturday, he will be shooting for his fifth straight win as one of the favorites in the Grade 3, $300,000 Texas Mile at Lone Star Park.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Joe Bravo, an eight-time riding champion at Monmouth Park, will ride for the first time in 11 months at Aqueduct on Saturday.

Bravo, 31, is named on Duke's Crossing in the fourth race.

Bravo suffered multiple fractures in his left leg in a spill at Monmouth in July 2001 and was sidelined eight months. He returned to the saddle in March 2002 at Gulfstream Park, but was involved in another spill at Monmouth on May 30 that resulted in a broken left wrist.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Boston Common, winner of the Grade 2 Jerome Handicap last year, will make his much-anticipated Woodbine debut Saturday in the Grade 3, $164,700 Vigil Handicap.

The seven-furlong race has also lured Wake at Noon, Canada's reigning Horse of the Year, along with Shaws Creek, Krz Ruckus, Cheap Talk, Davids Expectation, and Forever Grand.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - All the entrants in Saturday's $200,000 Grade 2 San Francisco Breeders' Cup Mile will be provided with extra security before the race under a new California Horse Racing Board program.

Board investigators and racetrack personnel will be posted at the stall of every horse entered in the race "to ensure the highest integrity for the only Grade 2 race of the meet," according to a CHRB release.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Excessivepleasure will try to lead from start to finish Saturday in the $250,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-olds. But the richest race on the California Gold Rush card at Hollywood Park is no lock for one of the most heavily fancied runners on the card.

At 1 1/8 miles, the Snow Chief is a virtual marathon for Excessivepleasure.