Isn’t He Clever, who set a track record in his most recent start, appears to be the chief threat to the Steve Asmussen-trained pair of Prayer for Relief and Master Rick in Monday’s Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap. The 1 1/16-mile race was drawn on Friday, with the five-horse field completed by Formaggio and Battle Hardened.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Disposablepleasure could not break through the upper echelon of the 3-year-old filly division on dirt last year so her connections tried experimenting.

After a mediocre race on turf and a disastrous effort on synthetic, Disposablepleasure was given some time off while her connections pondered her future.

Back to the dirt since she began her 4-year-old season, Disposablepleasure has earned the right to return to Grade 1 competition when she runs in Monday’s $400,000 Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Todd Pletcher said he felt the rail post position might have compromised Cross Traffic when he finished a game second to Flat Out in the Grade  3 Westchester last month at Belmont Park.

Hours before post positions were to be drawn for Monday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Metropolitan Handicap, where Cross Traffic will again meet Flat Out, Pletcher said, “we’d prefer to draw an outside post where we have some options.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Black Onyx is recuperating in Florida from the injury that knocked him out of the Kentucky Derby on the morning before the race.

The initial prognosis was a chip in his left front ankle that could possibly require surgery. Turns out, it was a hairline fracture that did not require an operation.

The Spiral Stakes winner is now at a farm in Williston, Fla.

“He’s out there for some R & R and we’ll re-X-ray it in six weeks,” trainer Kelly Breen said. “His return depends on Mother Nature. We’re hoping that’s it, and that he’s back in no time.”

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Few $7,500 claims turn into stakes winners. Winiliscious could join that select group Sunday in the $75,000 Monmouth Beach Stakes for fillies and mares at Monmouth Park. She faces five rivals in the one mile, 70 yards race, including the comebacking Cash for Clunkers, as the holiday weekend continues on the Jersey Shore.

The 12-race card starting at 12:50 p.m. Eastern features a second distaff stakes, the $75,000 Miss Liberty on the turf.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pop Artist heads a solid field of older horses in a $25,000 claiming race that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint attracted seven horses but, as usual, Pop Artist is the one to beat.

ELMONT, N.Y. – In lieu of a stakes, the Sunday feature at Belmont Park is a $77,000 first-level allowance race for fillies and mares highlighted by a pair of 3-year-olds from top barns.

Trainer Bill Mott, whose roster of stakes-caliber 3-year-old fillies is deep, sends out Charity Ball, while trainer Kiaran McLaughlin sends out the well-bred Sister State in the field of eight.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Something Extra tries to win the $200,000 Connaught Cup Stakes at Woodbine for the second straight year on Sunday, when he will face last year’s Canadian champion turf male Riding the River in the seven-furlong turf sprint.

Something Extra started once during the winter – a closing second in the Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint. In his last race, he lost the Grade 3 Shakertown at Keeneland by a nose after encountering traffic in the stretch under Julien Leparoux.

FORT ERIE, Ontario – Fort Erie, which had been scheduled to close for good last Dec. 31, instead will begin its 116th season Sunday at 1:15 p.m. with 50 racing days, 26 fewer than last year.

The track seemed out of options when the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation removed slot machines from the facility a year ago in April and left both the racetrack and the horsemen without their 10 percent share of net proceeds. But the provincial government came through with an unspecified amount of funding for the racetrack this spring.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Always in a Tiz, ninth in the Grade 1 Wood Memorial in his last start, is being pointed to the $1 million Belmont Stakes here on June 8, part-owner and New York Racing Association board member Anthony Bonomo said Friday.

“Truthfully, I think the horse has the ability to get the distance,” Anthony Bonomo said, referring to the 1 1/2 miles. “He’s not as seasoned as some of those other horses are right now but as far as ability goes he can run and do well in the Belmont.”