OZONE PARK, N.Y. – In lieu of a stakes, a pair of second-level allowance races – one on turf, one on dirt – serve as the co-features on the final Saturday program at Aqueduct.

The stakes scheduled for Saturday, the $75,000 Road Princess, was instead carded for Sunday featuring the graded stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Kauai Katie.

Saturday’s eighth, a $69,000 second-level allowance scheduled for 1 1/16 miles for the turf, is a competitive event headed by the uncoupled Chad Brown-trained entry of Shakeira and Deanaallen’skitten.

STICKNEY, Ill. – For those accustomed to Hawthorne’s daily fare, $5,000 claimers with $10,000 pots, the purse for the eighth race on Saturday’s card, the Illinois Derby, hits like a ton of bricks: $750,000.

“For that kind of money, you’ve got to take a shot,” said trainer Steve Hobby.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Coolmore Lexington Stakes is known as a final stop on the road to Churchill Downs, although that’s meant in the context of the Kentucky Derby.

The maxim might well hold true again Saturday, when the Grade 3, $200,000 Lexington is run at Keeneland, but in this case, the 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race could prove a stepping-stone to the Kentucky Oaks and not the Derby.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Bourbon Bay, the winner of the San Juan Capistrano in 2010 and 2012 at Santa Anita and five other stakes in Southern California, has been retired, trainer Neil Drysdale said.

Drysdale had Bourbon Bay nominated for Sunday’s $150,000 San Juan Capistrano Handicap, but decided to end the career of the 7-year-old gelding after talking with owner David Heerensperger. Bourbon Bay worked six furlongs at Betfair Hollywood Park last Monday before the decision was made on retirement.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Bill Connelly has taken full advantage of allowance conditions for his stable star, Sweet Cassiopeia, as the chestnut mare has run off four straight victories while managing to avoid stakes competition.

That winning streak will be put on the line Saturday at Keeneland when Sweet Cassiopeia steps up in class to oppose nine other filly-mare turf sprinters in the main supporting feature on the Coolmore Lexington undercard, the $100,000 Giant’s Causeway.

Free World has made all five of his starts in Louisiana, but he should feel right at home racing around two tight turns in Saturday night’s $85,000 Robert Hilton Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds.

In a break from tradition, Prairie Meadows will open its 2013 stakes schedule Saturday evening with the $60,000 Golden Circle, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds which attracted five colts and geldings.

The Goldfinch, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year old-fillies, usually kicks off the stakes calendar. The stakes was moved this season to next Saturday, April 27.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The last time that Obviously raced, he finished third to Wise Dan and Animal Kingdom in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.

“He got beat by the Horse of the Year and the horse that won the [Dubai] World Cup,” said jockey Joe Talamo. “That’s pretty good when you look back. That’s as tough as it gets.”

Fortunately for Obviously, he does not face such world-famous runners in Saturday’s $100,000 San Simeon Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. His six rivals have all won or placed in stakes in the last year, but not such major races.

There are 14 horses in the main body of the field for Saturday’s Henry Clark Stakes at Pimlico, but that’s only part of the reason why the last of three $75,000 stakes on the program is the toughest to handicap.

Among the group scheduled to race one mile on grass in the Clark, eight will be making their first start of the season, meaning players must guess who’s rusty and who’s ready. To compound matters, not a single runner shows a win within the past two seasons at the precise distance of the Clark.

Average all-sources handle during the recently concluded Oaklawn Park meet in Hot Springs, Ark., was $2.85 million, the track announced on Thursday, up 2.3 percent from the comparable figure last year.

Although average all-sources handle rose, average attendance for the 54-day meet declined 2.4 percent to 10,319, a figure that is still one of the highest for attendance among U.S. racetracks. The average benefited from attendance of 66,158 on the closing day of the meet, Arkansas Derby Day.