INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Since the partnership began last December, Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith and Game On Dude are unbeaten in four stakes.

The win streak includes such prestigious races as the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in March and such lucrative races as the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic in West Virginia in April. Game On Dude won the Charles Town Classic by a half-length over California rival Clubhouse Ride.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Trainer Bret Calhoun will attack the Stars of Texas Day program at Lone Star Park on Saturday. He has eight runners in the four restricted stakes that close out the meet, led by the reigning Texas-bred horse of the year, Coyote Legend, in the $50,000 Assault. The program also features the $50,000 Valor Farm, and a pair of $100,000 divisions of the Texas Thoroughbred Association Sales Futurity for total stakes purses of $300,000.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – Thoroughbreds 8 and 9 years old are like humans in their early to mid-30’s. It’s an age well past peak-performance level, and horses that old still on the racetrack usually are stable ponies or blue-collar claimers. This is even truer of sprinters: Speed often is the first thing to go.

ELMONT, N.Y. – With the top 3-year-olds from the Triple Crown season still on hiatus, Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park affords six late developers the opportunity to win a graded event.

Battier, who began his career in a maiden $25,000 claimer at Parx Racing last fall, is the only stakes winner in the Dwyer field, having won the restricted Fit to Fight Stakes at Aqueduct in April. After that race, a majority interest in the Tale of the Cat colt was purchased by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and the horse was turned over to trainer Todd Pletcher.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Rob Gilker was more relieved than anything when Herbie D won the $50,000 Lieutenant Governors’ at Hastings last Monday. Gilker was a bundle of nerves going into the 1 1/16-mile race.

One of the reasons for Gilker’s concern was that Herbie D didn’t follow up his brilliant, front-running win sprinting in the John Longden 6000 when he came back going around three turns in the Sir Winston Churchill. Herbie D ran a good race in the Winston Churchill but finished third as the heavy favorite.

At age 6, Heavenly Landing might seem on the other side of midnight, but hold that thought. A Pulpit mare, she still has the class and recency to prevail under the right circumstances, and her presence figures to be felt Saturday in the $50,000 Ellis Park Turf Stakes.

Eleven runners are entered in the 1 1/16-mile Ellis Turf, and the apparent theme is that “it looks like a very competitive race,” said Eddie Kenneally, who trains Heavenly Landing for Lally Stable. “Our mare is doing great and looks like she’s as good as any of the others in there.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Lucy’s Bob Boy steps outside his comfort zone for the first time on Saturday in the Grade 3, $150,000 Salvator Mile at Monmouth Park.

The Salvator is the supporting event on the 12-race card, topped by the Grade 1 United Nations.

Lucy’s Bob Boy will be making his first start away from Charles Town, where he is a local legend. A 4-year-old gelding, Lucy’s Bob Boy has chalked up a remarkable record at the home track: 13 wins from 16 starts with 3 seconds.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario –Trainer Mark Casse had several high-profile nominees for Saturday’s $125,000 Sweet Briar Too Stakes at Woodbine, and opted to run Dixie Strike in the seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares.

Dixie Strike is returning from an eight-month vacation, and Casse has a respectable 15 percent strike rate with six-month-plus layoff horses since the beginning of 2012.

ALTOONA, Iowa – The $60,000-added Iowa Stallion Stakes, a mile and 70-yard test for 3-year olds at Prairie Meadows on Saturday, has drawn a field of six and is headed by the race’s lone supplementary nomination, Rushin’ Rubietta.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Even though he suffered his first defeat at Belmont Park in his last start, it would be incorrect to label Flat Out’s third-place finish in the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap a bad race.

Attempting to move into contention leaving the five-sixteenths pole, Flat Out had to check behind a tiring Handsome Mike, losing his momentum. While it may not have cost him the win – Sahara Sky and Cross Traffic ran terrific finishing noses apart – Flat Out may have made it more interesting. Instead, Flat Out was beaten 3 1/2 lengths.