Macho Macho’s 4-year-old campaign began promisingly enough, with a solid fourth behind three good horses – Graydar, Mark Valeski, and Bourbon Courage – in the New Orleans Handicap. That comeback race might have been a means to an end, the end being the Alysheba Stakes on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill. But the end of Macho Macho’s chances in the Alysheba came early, when he was squeezed to the back of the field going into the first turn. Runner-up Cyber Secret was disqualified because of the incident, but little good that did Macho Macho, who checked in sixth.

The Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup, a turf sprint, used to be the biggest race of the season at Penn National. Now, it’s only a supporting undercard feature for the $500,000 Penn Mile, a new turf race for 3-year-olds that apparently filled an empty niche on the East Coast stakes calendar, attracting the four best sophomore grass horses in New York.

Trainer Sleepy Gilbreath will attack Remington Park’s richest program in history on Saturday night with such prominent runners as Ochoa, the all-time leading earner among Quarter Horses, and Cold Cash 123, the World Champion of 2011. The horses lead a cast of six starters Gilbreath will have in five Quarter Horse stakes on the card that are worth a combined $1.7 million. The program includes the Grade 1, $1,075,260 Heritage Place Futurity, while top older horses have a chance at a berth into the Champion of Champions in the Grade 1, $250,000 Remington Park Invitational.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Danny Williams is happy to be back in British Columbia after spending the last 12 years as a jockey agent at Woodbine. Williams is hoping for a good effort from a horse he trains, Proxyman, in his debut Saturday in the second race at Hastings.

[bc_video_id:293872:]ELMONT, N.Y. – It would appear that the best New York-breds in training are either sprinters or turf horses, leaving a void in the traditional handicap division of route horses.

It is a void that 4-year-olds Readtheprospectus and Awesome Vision may be ready to fill. Readtheprospectus has won five consecutive races, while Awesome Vision has won three of his last four starts. The two head a field of six entered in Saturday’s $150,000 Commentator Handicap, the richest, though not the most compelling, of seven stakes offered on New York Showcase Day.

With the Massachusetts Gaming Commission planning to award the sole destination casino resort license designated for the Boston area by March of next year, there is optimism about the future of Suffolk Downs as the track opens its 78th season Saturday.

Most of the fillies and mares running in the $35,000 Ingrid Knotts at Arapahoe Park on Saturday face the same obstacle – the race will be their first start back following a long layoff. In all, a field of six will go in the six-furlong stakes that is restricted to horses bred in Colorado.

Horse-for-the-course Win Willy will try to surpass $1 million in earnings when he faces nine other older horses going 1 1/16 miles on dirt in the $50,000 Joe French Memorial Stakes at Delaware Park.

The 7-year-old Win Willy, with 10 career victories and $985,437 in earnings, has 4 wins and 2 seconds in 7 lifetime starts at Delaware.

Last season, Win Willy won two stakes at Delaware and was a close second in the French. Although 0 for 4 this year, he ran well enough to pair up 94 Beyer Speed Figures in back-to-back stakes at Oaklawn Park in January and February.

ALTOONA, Iowa – With the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks and Grade 3 Iowa Derby looming on June 29, 3-year-olds come to the fore at Prairie Meadows for Saturday’s $60,000 Prairie Mile for both sexes and $60,000 Panthers Stakes for females.

The Prairie Mile drew a field of eight headed by Black Bear, who makes his stakes debut after dominating at Oaklawn Park in his only two starts, and King Henny, who will be contesting his eighth straight stakes race.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Sean Smullen does most of his training at Frank Stronach’s nearby Adena Springs Farm, where he oversees a constant stream of horses coming in from the racetrack and then shipping back to their various trainers here at Woodbine.

But Smullen also maintains an ontrack operation, which is overseen on a daily basis by his assistant Patrick Dixon, and while his charges often are not at the top of the stable’s hierarchy, he also has been known to have a runner in his stable.