LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Owing to his name, if nothing else, Bourbon Courage will be a fan favorite when friends and families reconvene at Churchill Downs amid the usual reverie that has made the Friday after Thanksgiving the fall-meet version of Louisville’s Day at the Races.

Fun and frivolity aside, Bourbon Courage merits a legitimate spoiler’s chance as one of the more accomplished challengers to Game On Dude and Will Take Charge in the Grade 1 Clark Handicap, which will be held Friday for the 139th time.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Paladin Bay swept by the front-running Lexie Lou to take the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes Nov. 2, but the tables were turned last Sunday, when Lexie Lou led throughout the $125,000 South Ocean Stakes, leaving favored Paladin Bay back in second.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer will have a strong team for the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 14.

So far this month, Hollendorfer has swept the two stakes for 2-year-old males at Betfair Hollywood Park, winning the Prevue Stakes with Shared Belief on Nov. 10 and Saturday’s Real Quiet Stakes with the multiple stakes winner Tamarando.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Game On Dude worked a half-mile in 48 seconds at Betfair Hollywood Park on Sunday, the final workout for the multiple stakes winner before Friday’s $500,000 Clark Handicap at Churchill Downs.

Game On Dude is based with trainer Bob Baffert at Santa Anita, but Baffert said he opted to send the 6-year-old gelding across town to Hollywood Park because the Santa Anita track has been slow to dry after midweek rains.

“It’s still too wet,” Baffert said. “I’m just worried about quarter cracks and bruised feet.”

VINTON, La. – Rise Up will be freshened before embarking on a 3-year-old campaign, trainer Tom Amoss said Sunday, a day after the colt dominated the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot.

Rise Up scored by six lengths in the Jackpot, a 1 1/16-mile race for which he earned a preliminary Beyer Speed Figure of 88. He also picked up 10 points toward Kentucky Derby preference through the system administered by Churchill Downs. Rise Up is scheduled to ship early this week to Florida. 

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher didn’t want Verrazano’s fourth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile to be the lasting impression observers had of the multiple Grade 1-winning 3-year-old.

So, despite the fact that his connections had announced plans to retire the horse after the Breeders’ Cup, Pletcher lobbied his owners to run Verrazano in next Saturday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. As a Grade 1 winner, Verrazano will be running for the winner’s share of a $750,000 purse.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Mike Maker and his principal clients, Ken and Sarah Ramsey, dominated the 2012 Claiming Crown, winning four of the seven stakes, including the featured Jewel with Parent’s Honor. And from the looks of the nominations lists, the potent team stands a good chance of duplicating that success this year.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The $250,000 Hollywood Derby at Betfair Hollywood Park next Sunday is the last chance of 2013 to gather the 3-year-old turf division for a lucrative race.

For Admiral Kitten, a multiple stakes winner owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey and trained by Mike Maker, the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby could be his second win at the highest level. Admiral Kitten won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington Park in August. He was a fast-closing second in the Grade 1 Jamaica Handicap at Belmont Park on Oct. 5.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Of course Ian Wilkes misses Fort Larned. The recently retired winner of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic gave Wilkes and owner-breeder Janis Whitham and their families a ton of thrills, and it’s only natural that a vacuum has been created in his absence.

NEW ORLEANS – Delaunay won’t have a chance to defend his title in the Thanksgiving Handicap at Fair Grounds after contracting what trainer Tom Amoss hopes is a minor illness.

Amoss said Delaunay didn’t finish his feed Friday night, something the horse had never done before, and was running a temperature Saturday morning when entries for the Thanksgiving Handicap were being taken.