There will be stakes action aplenty on the embattled south Florida circuit Saturday. Four stakes races, valued at $75,000 apiece, will be decided, one at Gulfstream Park and three others just eight miles down the road at Calder, which features the opening two legs of the 2013 Florida Stallion Stakes series.

Sr. Quisqueyano is far and away the class of the field in the Showing Up Stakes at Gulfstream. The Showing Up, however, is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, a surface Sr. Quisqueyano has yet to try in a dozen career starts.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Mark Casse has two sharp horses for Saturday’s $150,000 Ontario Matron at Woodbine. Sisterly Love will be favored in the 1 1/16-mile route for fillies and mares, but Eagle Hall could be the sleeper in the Grade 3 stakes.

Dreamin Big came from way off the pace in the $89,500 Florence Henderson and drew off to an 8 1/2-length win in course-record time Wednesday night at Indiana Downs. The Florence Henderson was one of four Indiana-bred races on Wednesday's card, and trainer Mike Lauer saddled the winners of three of them, including Dreamin Big.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar drew an opening-day ontrack crowd of 43,030 on Wednesday, a decline of 9 percent over the record 47,339 that attended opening day in 2012.

Wednesday’s program was the first time that ontrack attendance on opening day  had fallen since 2004.

[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]

In 2003, the track reported an ontrack crowd of 40,682 on opening day, a figure that dropped to 39,346 in 2004. The ontrack audience rose annually for eight years, beginning in 2005.

DEL MAR, Calif. – After losing a tough decision in the first division of the Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday at Del Mar, trainer John Sadler, owner Kosta Hronis, and jockey Julien Leparoux evened the ledger in the $112,500 second division when Rising Legend held off a furious late rally from Gabriel Charles to prevail by a head.

[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]

Gabriel Charles was closing so quickly that Sadler admitted he thought Rising Legend was caught.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Essence Hit Man survived a claim of foul to win the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes for the second year in a row Wednesday night at Woodbine.

Essence Hit Man ($3.90) went right to the front under Jesse Campbell and set rapid splits of 22.21 seconds and 44.01 in the 6 1/2-furlong test. Dimension, a 28-1 outsider from Kentucky, stalked along the rail in third on the turn and then took dead aim at Essence Hit Man in the stretch.

DEL MAR, Calif. - Gervinho, who missed more than six months of racing over the winter because of a knee injury, won the second stakes of his abbreviated career in the first division of Wednesday’s $113,150 Oceanside Stakes on opening day at Del Mar.

Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Gervinho closed from fifth in a field of 10 to win the one-mile turf race by a neck over 14-1 Greeley Awesome. Freakin Rocket finished third, his first loss in his third career start.

[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]

DEL MAR, Calif. – Peter Miller hardly looks, or acts, like someone you’d expect to be channeling Pink, but when the trainer won the first race at Del Mar on Wednesday, he spoke for himself specifically, and Southern California racing generally, as he bounced into the winner’s circle.

“Let’s get this party started!” Miller, the defending training champ here, shouted after his horse Casa de Cambio won the first race on opening day as Del Mar started its 74th season before another overflow crowd.

On July 1, Christopher Kay began his job as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Racing Association. Kay, 60, had previously been COO and general counsel at Toys 'R' Us, managing director Universal Parks and Resorts, and COO at Trust for Public Land. Despite this limited background in racing, Kay was chosen to lead NYRA into the future, one that includes re-privatization by October 2015. On July 6, Kay sat down with Daily Racing Form's David Grening to discuss the challenges that lay ahead.

Not enough horses were entered to fill the three days of racing scheduled at Hastings this weekend, so the decision was made to cancel Saturday’s card. The combination of a shortage of horses and a virus going through the backstretch caused the cancellation.