LEXINGTON, Ky. – Could it get any better? The Friday opener of the Keeneland spring meet is racing at its finest, with three stakes anchoring a 10-race card rounded out by four allowances and three maiden-specials.

Six-figure purses, including sizable bonuses for Kentucky-breds, are the rule, with an $80,000 maiden race for 2-year-olds being the lone exception. The feature is the Grade 1, $600,000 Ashland Stakes, a key Kentucky Oaks prep headed by Wonder Wheel, the reigning champion among the current crop of 3-year-old fillies.

On the one-year anniversary of relocating to California, jockey Ramon Vazquez finds himself in an enviable position Saturday – riding favorite Practical Move in the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby and Grade 1-winning filly And Tell Me Nolies in the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks.

Vazquez, 37, moved from Oaklawn Park to Santa Anita and began riding regularly in California on April 8, 2022. Top local jockeys Flavien Prat and Umberto Rispoli had announced plans to relocate; the timing was right for a West Coast move by Vazquez, whose agent is Bill Castle.

Best birthday gift ever? The 2021 yearling that Jim Bernhard purchased for Dana Bernhard ranks near the top. “My wife always gives me great birthday presents . . . the first Thoroughbred I decided to buy was a horse for her birthday at the July sale,” Bernhard recalled this week.

Reincarnate, third in last Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Arkansas Derby, remains pointed to the Kentucky Derby, Tom Ryan, managing partner of SF Racing, part-owner of the colt, said this week.

Ryan said he was “proud” of Reincarnate’s effort and suggested a weather-interrupted training schedule in California may have hampered him some. Ryan said the horse has returned to trainer Tim Yakteen’s California stable and has emerged from the race in good order.

Jareth Loveberry, leading rider during 2020 and 2021 at Arlington and leading rider during Hawthorne’s spring meet in 2022, has moved his tack to Kentucky. Loveberry confirmed he’ll be taking mounts at the upcoming Keeneland meet and plans to go on to Churchill Downs.

Two Emmys, scratched by Fair Grounds stewards on the advice of the track veterinarian during his warm-up for the $300,000 Muniz Memorial on March 25, is just fine, trainer and majority owner Hugh Robertson reported Sunday.

In fact, Two Emmys was fine getting saddled before the Muniz and fine when he got back to Robertson’s Fair Grounds barn after being scratched lame.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Two months after an impressive maiden race win in her lone start, Clearly Unhinged runs in Saturday’s Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles.

The $400,000 Santa Anita Oaks will be a learning experience for the filly and her intrigued trainer, Michael McCarthy.

Will Clearly Unhinged set the pace the way she did in the maiden race at 6 1/2 furlongs? Can she handle a two-turn race against more experienced fillies so early in her career?