With an assist from an inside-speed-favoring racing surface Saturday, Heitai aced his first test against open stakes rivals since his connections began focusing him solely on sprint races. Beating race favorite and defending champion Delaunay to the lead – and giving him three pounds under the race’s allowance conditions – Heitai won the Duncan Kenner Stakes by five lengths.

Former trainer Shelley Riley, whose book “Casual Lies: A Triple Crown Adventure” was published last year, is a semifinalist for the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, sponsored by Castleton Lyons Farm.

Riley’s book recounts the whirlwind events of the 1992 Triple Crown series and her travels with Casual Lies, the $7,500 yearling purchase who ran second in the Kentucky Derby.

Marks Mine, Northern California’s top female sprinter, will be entered in Saturday’s $50,000-added Camilla Urso at six furlongs instead of venturing south for her next start.

Expected to challenge Marks Mine are Brilliant Melody, who has won two straight, Butterfly Soul, Esperanza Latina, Koby Jo, and Rathbaun. Possible entrants include Happybirthdaybaby, Hollywood Miss, Minds Eyes, and Miss Lucky Sevens.

Golden Gate Fields is bringing back the Alcatraz Stakes after an absence of one year. The $75,000 Alcatraz, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds, will be held Sunday, May 11.

The Alcatraz was dropped from the 2013 stakes schedule and was not a part of the original 2014 stakes schedule. It was formerly run at 1 1/16 miles.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, as Phil Lebherz found out.

But that’s all right with him because weekly lunches at the old Bay Meadows led him to the passion of his life: horse racing.

It’s a passion that has taken root not only as an owner but now as a breeder with his purchase last year of Premier Equine Center in the California central-valley town of Oakdale.

“I would go to Bay Meadows for lunch,” he said of a weekly gathering of friends. “One day, I asked someone how racing worked.”

Race 1

2015 Racing Dates

April 25 - October 25 (tentative)

Post Times

1:50 p.m. PT (Saturdays and Sundays: April - July, Holidays); 7 p.m. PT (Fridays, Aug. 7 - Sept. 4); 4:00 p.m. PT (Monday: Aug. 24, Aug. 31); 12:50 p.m. PT (BC Cup: Aug. 3, BC Derby: Sept. 13)

Handicapping Information

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Shug McGaughey said surgery to repair Top Billing’s cracked cannon bone went off without a hitch Sunday in Kentucky, and the prognosis for his recovery is good.

“Everything went perfectly,” McGaughey said. “He’ll likely stay up there and recuperate at WinStar. If all goes well, we can probably have him back in training in about four months.”

Untapable, who is bound for the Fair Grounds Oaks, and Gold Hawk, who’s being pointed for the Louisiana Derby, worked in company on Monday at Fair Grounds, both getting a time of 1:01 for a five-furlong drill.

Sign began her career at age 2 winning a maiden sprint at Saratoga by nearly a dozen lengths and the Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill by four. This was during the summer and fall of 2012 – and Sign is just now getting back to work.