LEXINGTON, Ky. – There is a temptation to believe that, because of injuries and age, Successful Dan is not the same horse he once was.

Perhaps that is true. But one look at his perfect record over the Polytrack surface at Keeneland, and selling Successful Dan short when the 7-year-old gelding returns to racing Sunday would seem a risky stance indeed.

Successful Dan has never lost in four tries at Keeneland, a record that surely makes him the horse to beat when he breaks from post 1 in the Grade 3, $150,000 Ben Ali Stakes, the eighth of nine Sunday races.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Pineapple looks like the one they will have to catch and beat in a $15,000 claiming race for 3-year-old fillies that will serve as Sunday’s feature at Hastings. The six-furlong sprint drew seven horses and goes as race 7 on an eight-race card that begins at 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario — Going strictly by the company lines, the speedy Black Hornet stands out in Sunday’s $150,000 Woodstock Stakes, an open six-furlong test for 3-year-olds at Woodbine.

Black Hornet made each of his three starts last fall. He rallied wide to beat $40,000 maidens traveling six furlongs in his Oct. 8 opener. About a month later, he earned a big 85 Beyer Speed Figure when a front-running second in a six-furlong allowance won by Clearly Now, who went on to take the Grade 3 Swale Stakes at Gulfstream.

OPELOUSAS, La. - Evangeline Downs was forced to cancel it final three races Thursday night after a power outage struck the plant just before 9 p.m. local time.

The eighth race of the 11-race program had just gone official when what was believed to be a transformer failure plunged the facility into total darkness. Multiple units of the Opelousas fire department responded. There were no reports of injury to either humans or horses. There were also no immediate plans to make up the cancelled races.
 

ARCADIA, Calif. - There is a two-day carryover of $370,763 for Friday’s pick six at Santa Anita.

Consecutive wins by Becky Lou ($66.20) and Song of a Witch ($75.40) on Thursday eliminated most tickets. Going into Thursday’s final race, Medusalina was the only horse covered in the pick six. The filly finished fourth in a race won by 9-1 Warren’s Flasher.

Friday’s pick six pool could grow by more than $1.2 million. The bet covers the third through eighth races on a program that begins at 1 p.m. Pacific.

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Jockey Joel Rosario capped a sensational Thursday afternoon at Keeneland by guiding Unbelievable Dream to a last-to-first victory in the Grade 3, $100,000  Appalachian Stakes.

After Rosario bided his time early, Unbelievable Dream came absolutely rolling to be up in the final strides of the one-mile turf race by a half-length over Overheard. Eden Prairie was third, while Watsdachances, the 3-5 favorite in a field of eight 3-year-old fillies, could do no better than fourth in her seasonal debut.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Sky Kingdom and Oilisblackgold, the first two finishers of the Grade  3 Tokyo City Stakes over 1 1/2 miles on dirt March 23, are switching surfaces for Sunday’s San Juan Capistrano at 1 3/4 miles on grass.

They are part of a projected field of seven that includes All Squared Away, Fire With Fire, and Interaction, who were second through fourth in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Stakes on March 16; and Smart Ellis, who won an optional claimer over 1 1/8 miles on March 3. Lime Rickey, third in an optional claimer on March 22, is another expected runner.

STICKNEY, Ill. – With more top-level racehorses than any trainer in North America, Todd Pletcher leaves no stone unturned when hunting for graded-stakes opportunities, and he almost always has entrants for the only two graded races remaining on Chicago’s spring calendar.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Beholder, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2012 and the winner of two Grade 1 stakes this year, worked a half-mile in 49.40 seconds at Santa Anita on Thursday.

The workout was the first for Beholder since her win in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks on April 6, and the first of two works at her home track before she is shipped to Churchill Downs at the end of this month for the Kentucky Oaks on May 3.

AUBURN, Wash. – There’s a new option on the wagering menu at Emerald Downs this year. It’s called the 123, and it might take some time for players to get used to it.

In a nutshell, it’s a modified pick six in which the better selects one horse in each of the final six races on the card and then accumulates points based on the horses’ across-the-board payoffs. The $2 ticket stays “live” for all six races in the sequence, and when all is said and done, the ticketholder with the most points collects 60 percent of the pool.