Gulfstream president and general manager Tim Ritvo said entries for the Memorial Day program on May 26 will be drawn four days in advance on Thursday to accommodate patrons wishing to play the Rainbow 6 on Memorial Day. May 26 has been designated by Gulfstream management as the mandatory payout for the Rainbow 6 pool, which has survived since Jan. 10. The jackpot exceeded $6 million when racing resumed here Friday.

AUBURN, Wash. – These are heady times for Monique Snowden, when her seemingly endless 14-hour workdays can finally turn into something more tangible. The 35-year-old trainer has never had a stakes winner, but she’ll have a serious contender Sunday when she sends out Disruption in the $50,000 Governor’s Handicap at Emerald Downs.

Photos taken at the Kentucky Derby show Denver Broncos wide receiver Wes Welker passing out $100 bills to fans after scoring big on the Derby at Churchill Downs. But did he or someone from his group win too much?

Churchill Downs said Friday that someone from his party received an overpayment in winnings of $14,898 from a betting-terminal malfunction combined with mutuel-clerk error, track spokesman Darren Rogers said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Like many of the 19 horses in this year’s Kentucky Derby, Wildcat Red never really had the opportunity to run his best race on Derby Day. Now, trainer Jose Garoffalo is eager to get his star back to the track and is looking for him to have a big second half to his 3-year-old campaign.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Winning Prize will scratch from the Grade 3 American Stakes on Saturday, trainer Neil Drysdale said Friday. The winner of the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile and the Grade 2 Arcadia in two recent starts, Winning Prize was the 8-5 morning-line favorite for the American.

“He hasn’t done well with the heat, which is very unusual for this time of year,” Drysdale said. “So, we’ll run in the next one.” The next one is the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile on June 14.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Commanding Curve on Friday recorded his first breeze since his runner-up finish in the Kentucky Derby, working a half-mile in 48 4/5 seconds over a “good” track at Churchill Downs as he prepares for the June 7 Belmont Stakes.

He breezed in company with the runner-up from the 2013 Derby, stablemate Golden Soul. The two were given identical times by track clockers.

“It was just easy – he showed good energy,” trainer Dallas Stewart said of Commanding Curve. “We’re focusing on the Belmont. He’ll have another work next week.”

 May 16 preview

 It is still warm in Southern California, although not triple-digit hot. Santa Anita canceled racing Thursday due to extreme heat. Temperatures are expected to drop Friday into the 90s. Twilight racing resumes Friday at Santa Anita, with first post at 3 p.m. Pacific.

 It was a dry winter, and the fast turf course this spring has been a topic of discussion among track officials. Concerns include the speed-friendly profile, and final times that have been excessively fast.

BALTIMORE – Predicting the pace of the Kentucky Derby this year was an exercise in uncertainty. Some forecasters got the slow pace right, but many thought the fractions laid down by the early leaders would be several lengths faster. In the end, a lack of surefire, need-the-lead-type horses combined with instances of bad luck and passive tactics to produce the second-slowest Derby half-mile split, 47.37 seconds, in 16 years.

At the annual Alibi Breakfast on Thursday, retired jockey Ramon Dominguez was honored with the Special Award of Merit, given by the Maryland Jockey Club to someone who has made a positive impact on racing.

Dominguez won 4,985 races in his career, was a three-time Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s top jockey, and was a leading rider on the Maryland and New York circuits. Dominguez was forced to retire last year due to head trauma suffered in a spill at Aqueduct in January 2013.

DEL MAR, Calif. – The $1 million TVG Pacific Classic Stakes on Aug. 24 is the summer highlight at Del Mar, where more than $8 million in stakes purses will be offered during its first meet of 2014.

The 36-day summer meet runs from Thursday, July 17, through Sept. 3. In addition, Del Mar will host a 15-day fall meet Nov. 7-30. The fall meet will be the last with a synthetic racing surface. Del Mar will replace the surface with and a dirt track for 2015.