Within the first two months of 2013, Heart of Rome lost three straight races at odds of 3-1 or lower while running for a claiming tag. Now, three weeks after clearing her first allowance condition while running the fastest race of her 14-start career, Heart of Rome has been established as the 8-5 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s $75,000 Jostle Stakes at Parx Racing.

Heart of Rome, with twice as many runner-up finishes (six) as wins (three), has the appearance of a favorite worth trying to beat in the 6 1/2-furlong dirt sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Trainer David Jacobson brought a recently claimed horse to win the first stakes of the Finger Lakes season on Memorial Day and looks poised to make that a pattern in Saturday’s $50,000 Susan B. Anthony Handicap for New York-bred fillies and mares.

Trainer Mac Robertson may be sitting in an ideal situation with his versatile mare Bryan’s Jewel on Saturday at Delaware Park.

The $75,000 John W. Rooney Memorial Stakes for fillies and mares is scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on turf and serves as the local prep for next month’s Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial. But with rain in the forecast, the Rooney Memorial could either be contested on soft grass or shifted to the main track.

It will be the old guard versus the new when the 9-year-old Pay The Man takes on a Tim Hamm-trained entry that includes Significant Bling and Blazing Bling in the $50,000 Michael G. Mackey Memorial at Thistledown on Saturday. Hamm’s fillies are 3-year-olds and are part of a four-horse stable coupling with Startin Something and Private Cause in the field of 14 Ohio-bred fillies and mares.

Midwest Thoroughbreds will start a pair of contenders in the inaugural $50,000 Dark Star Cup for 3-year olds and up Saturday at Canterbury Park. The 6 1/2-furlong race honors Minnesota media legend, Dark Star, aka George Chapple, an ambassador for Minnesota racing and a member of the Canterbury Hall of Fame. Dark Star, who hosted the Canterbury Report replay show for more than 20 years, died June 1, 2012.

Cainam, the two-time defending champion of the Cyclones Handicap, faces a formidable challenge Saturday night when he tries for a third straight win in the 1 1/16-mile event for Iowa-breds.

Since resurfacing this season in Jon Arnett’s stable, the late-rallying Cainam has gone winless in three tries. Most recently, Cainam, now 6, and jockey Glenn Corbett, his partner in 29 of his 31 lifetime starts, trailed throughout when a well-beaten fifth in a mile and 70-yard allowance test versus open company.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Rafael Bejarano dismounted from Scarlet Strike an unsatisfied jockey after her second-place finish in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park on May 11.

Scarlet Strike's stretch-long rally missed catching upset winner Charlie Em by a head in the one-mile turf race.

"I was frustrated a little bit," Bejarano said.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Slim Shadey has been the dominant turf horse at 1 1/4 miles on turf in California for the past 18 months.

At that distance, Slim Shadey won the Grade 2 San Marcos Stakes in January 2012 and again in February of this year, the Grade 2 John Henry Turf Championship last October, and was second to Acclamation in the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Handicap in June 2012.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Retired Hall of Fame jockeys Jerry Bailey and Angel Cordero Jr. were contemporaries of Gary Stevens and believe the fellow Hall of Famer is riding better now than when he did just before his retirement in 2005.

Stevens, 50, returned to the saddle in January, and three weeks ago he rode Oxbow to victory in the Preakness Stakes. Stevens will be aboard Oxbow again in Saturday’s 145th running of the Belmont Stakes, a race he has won three times.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Soft Whisper is not yet a stakes winner, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t seen the big time.

A third-level allowance victory by Soft Whisper came before a huge crowd on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs and strongly suggested that the 4-year-old filly is ready to be a major player at a higher level.

That opportunity comes Saturday at Churchill Downs, where Soft Whisper will start from the outside post in a well-matched field of six fillies and mares in the Grade 3, $100,000 Mint Julep Handicap.