2:27 PM: Fly Angel Fly finishes off the Gulfstream card with a romp over $12,500 Starter Allowance company in the final race.

After some good prices early in the card, a parade of short prices dominated the last five races. No horse paid more than $7.20 after race 6.

2:18 PM: The day finishes off with another "off the turf" race. I was looking forward to playing this race when it was on the grass with the temp. rail at 96 feet. Now? Eh, not so much.

I like 2-Coffee Run, sticking with my theme of the day of playing horses that have some form on wet tracks.

2:04 PM: A nice run by Algorithms to take the Holy Bull after Hansen threw down some insanely hot fractions. The opening quarter of 23.64 doesn't seem that fast until you consider that Hansen stumbled out of the gate. Throw in a 22.04 second quarter (and a 45.67 elapsed half-mile) and you had the makings of a tired horse at the top of the lane, regardless of how fast the slopyy track played in the Forward Gal.

Algorithms is an awfully nice looking colt, and one that could get better as he stretches out further. He's now a perfect three-for-three.

1:38 PM: Hansen getting pounded on the board (2/5) while the rest of the field all sit at decent prices. If you can beat the favorite you'll get a decent return. Algorithms is currently the second choice at 7/2

1:27 PM: Hansen's connections can't be too upset with the way the track is playing, especially in the last race when Broadway's Alibi ran off and hid from the rest of the field. We know Hansen loves to explode from the gate and open up early, something that could be a big advantage today.

1:25 PM: That was a laugher. 5-Broadway's Alibi crushes the Forward Gal at odds of 6/5.

1:19 PM: Grade 2 Forward Gal is up next and I'm keeping things kind of basic by going with the 1-Good Deed, a filly that has shown decent form on a sloppy track in the past. She's 4/1 on the board. Lots of speed in this one so she's going to have to relax in the first quarter mile to have a good shot.

The outside filly, 6-Say a Novena, also has some wet track form and she likes to come off the pace. The race might set up for her.

1:00 PM: The slop didn't deter Coup as she wins at odds of 3/5 in an off-the-turf one mile Maiden Special Weight

If you saw the HRTV interview with trainer Graham Motion prior to the race, you saw him state that they were unsure as to whether they were going to run this filly after the race was taken off the lawn. Motion said that they kept her in the race because he wanted to see her run on the dirt at some point. Good call on his part.

12:41 PM: Race 8 is off the turf, so forget everything I just wrote. Didn't see that they took this one off. Race 11 is also "off". Ugh. I hate races taken off the turf.

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This is an open thread for all Super Saturday information and results.  A running results tracker of all races can be found at the Google Doc linked below.

2011 Super Saturday/Arc Sunday Entries and Results

Scratches and Changes for today's tracks (when available):

Belmont 10.1
Santa Anita 10.1
Parx 10.1
Hoosier Park 10.1

8:02 AM PDT: I love the odds you get in Europe; nowhere else do you see a horse go off at odds of 57/10, as Rajsaman (FR) did before winning the G2-Prix Wildenstein at Longchamp this morning. 57/10.  Can we just call that 6/1 or 5.5/1?

8:20 AM: It's all in French, but if you want to watch nice, high quality video replays of all the Arc festival races, you can watch them at the Arc Web TV site. (Officially called La Web TV du Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe)

The ground is officially labeled "Good" at Longchamp today, which should alleviate some of the concerns of the Workforce (GB) camp for tomorrow's Arc.

9:08 AM: Notable scratches at Belmont today:

4-Aruna and 7-Senada are out of the Flower Bowl
2-Teaks North out of the Hirsch Turf Classic
6-Big Drama out of the Vosburgh
5-Senada out of the Kelso.

The main track is "MUDDY", the turf course is "YIELDING"

10:15 AM: Ben's Cat (1/2) took a lot of money prior to the Maryland Million Turf Sprint, and then he backed it up by running down Steady Warrior at Laurel.  Ben's Cat already won a Breeders' Cup Challenge race for the Turf Sprint (Turf Monster Hcp. at Parx) back on Sept. 3rd.

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Today's Pacific Classic is the 9th race on the Del Mar card and will go to post at approximately 5:00pm Pacific time.  The race will be shown on TVG. The $0.50 Players Pick Five will begin with the first race of the day at 1:00pm Pacific. Additionally, the entire Del Mar card will be streamed live on DRF.com.

Current changes at Del Mar.

8-Bourbon Bay has been scratched from the Pacific Classic. He will run in race 3, the Del Mar Handicap.

At the bottom of this post you'll find a summary of the results, payouts, fractions and internal splits for entire Pacific Classic card.  Click on the winning horse's name to go to the result chart (via Equibase).

6:45 PM: Bombs away! in the 11th and final race on the Del Mar card; 7-Woodman's Lass gets up to win the nightcap at boxcar odds of 54/1, triggering massive payouts and a Pick 6 carryover of $341,252.09.

The Pick 6 pays a consolation of $2,493.80 for 5-of-6.

6:12 PM: Three straight double digit winners has made the Pick 6 a little more interesting coming into the final leg. Here are your will pays for the Pick 6:

1: $11,367.40
2: Carryover
3: Carryover
4: $341,252.40
5: $337,873.60
6: Carryover
7: Carryover
8: $341,252.40
9: $68,250.40
10: $113,372.80
11: $170,626.20
12: $85,100.20

5:40 PM: 5-Acclimation and Patrick Valenzuela take the Pacific Classic field gate-to-wire for a big Grade 1 win.

Twirling Candy ran hard at the end and, even though he came up short, the 10 furlongs doesn't appear to be the problem with this colt. Acclimation set a new track record with the win and Twirling Candy was right there with him.

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It's the biggest day of the 2011 Saratoga meeting, and one of the biggest days on the racing calendar.  That's right, it's Travers Day.  The Grade 1 Travers Stakes is the 12th race on the card and will go to post at 5:45pm Eastern (TV: NBC).  The first graded stakes of the day is the Grade 2 Ballston Spa in race 8.

You can find a summary of the entire day's results, payouts, final times, and fractional splits, at the bottom of this post. Click on the name of the winning horse to go to the chart (via Equibase).

2:55 PM: Stay Thirsty takes the Travers and both stakes races for three-year-olds at Saratoga this summer. Shackleford and Coil were no shows, while Rule On Ice was able to secure 4th.

2:30 PM: A thrilling finish to the King's Bishop as Caleb's Posse is able to wear down Uncle Mo in the final furlong.  Uncle Mo was very game in his first race off of an extended layoff, but didn't have enough in the tank to put the field away at the top of the stretch.

1:45 PM: 3-Hilda's Passion grabs a clear lead within the first furlong and then stream rolls the field to win the Grade 1 Ballerina in the tenth race at odds of 5/2. Why couldn't she have done that on Derby day!

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A big day of racing as the final two major prep races for the 2011 Kentucky Derby take place at Oaklawn Park (Arkansas Derby) and Keeneland (Blue Grass Stakes).  I've got a preview of the Arkansas Derby over at the mothership, SBNation.com. 

Obviously, the key questions in the Arkansas Derby are 1) will The Factor get more pace pressure in this race, and 2) if left alone, can he take them all the way as he did in the Rebel?  There appears to be more early speed in this race than we saw in the Rebel, but I'm not sure it's of high enough quality to really bother The Factor in the early going.  Maybe it will, but I can see him shrugging off a couple of early challengers and running the half in something like 46+.  The bigger question for me is whether he can keep running these fields into the ground race after race.

If The Factor can't hold on in the stretch it could a wide-open race in the final furlong as there are a ton of horses that love to run from off-the-pace in deep stretch.  I'll probably take a stab with Sway Away in this spot or maybe Elite Alex.

Over at Keeneland, the Blue Grass Stakes will run for the fifth time on the Polytrack surface and ever since this race switched from dirt to synthetic it's become an extremely difficult race to handicap.  Part of that is the inclusion of horses that have never run on Poly before, making it very hard to read their form.  The other side is the over-betting of horses that have run well on dirt.  We want to believe that good races on the dirt tell us something as to how a horse will run on Poly, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.  It's not that horses that run on dirt can't win on Poly, they can and they do.  It's more to the point that their dirt form yields few clues as to whether they'll succeed on the surface.  The value appears to be with turf and synthetic grinders, horses that don't require a big turn of foot in order to win races.

I liked the looks of King Congie in the Blue Grass after he scratched out of the Spiral a few weeks ago.  He's never tried Polytrack but he's run solid races over the turf in his last three starts (all victories).  Crimson China is another that seems particularly suited to run well at Keeneland based on his success at Turfway and in England last fall.

Santiva has run okay at Keeneland in the past but I don't know if Polytrack is his preferred or best surface; he seems to be a couple notches better on dirt.

Once today's prep races are completed I'll have a more structured Kentucky Derby contenders post since the probably starters will be much more defined in terms of graded earnings.  We'll also have a good amount of data to compare across all the preps that have occurred this spring.

Some thoughts on yesterday's Grade 1 races:

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While the Wood Memorial and the Santa Anita Derby will grab the biggest headlines this weekend, top stakes action is taking place all across the country this afternoon with four Grade 1 races, four Grade 2s and four Grade 3s.  Below is a summary of this weekend's graded stakes action, post times, conditions, and running results.

Click on the winner's name to go to the full result chart (via DRF.com when available).

UPDATE #4: Uncle Mo comes up with a huge zero at Aqueduct, finishing 3rd behind 2-Toby's Corner and 3-Arthur's Tale.

At Hawthorne, 3-Joe Vann won the Grade 3 Illinois Derby.

UPDATE #3: Two Grade 1 races go off almost back-to-back in New York and Kentucky.  At Aqueduct, 1-Morning Line (2/1) stalked longshot pacesetter Sunrise Smarty and wore down Apriority in the final furlong to take the Grade 1 Carter Handicap.

Over at Keeneland, 2-Lilacs and Lace shocked the field of the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes winning in wire-to-wire fashion at odds of 48/1. Co-favorites Kathmanblu and Dancinginherdreams never seriously threatened Lilacs and Lace at any stage.

The exata of Lilacs and Lace with Wyomia pays $622 for $2.

UPDATE #2: Favored 3-J J's Lucky Train (9/5) wore down Vengeful Wildcat in the final furlong to take the Grade 2 Bay Shore at Aqueduct.

UPDATE #1: 8-Separate Forest (5/1) takes the first graded stakes of the day with a gutsy wire-to-wire performance in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Handicap on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita.

Over at the Big A, 1-Hot Summer (6/1) upset Ava K. to win the Comely Stakes by two lengths.

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Not only are there tons of great stakes races to watch today, but Gulfstream Park will carry almost $600,000 into today's $0.10 Rainbow Pick Six. Toss in the richest race in the world (Dubai World Cup), a $1 million prep for the Kentucky Derby (Louisiana Derby), several races on the road to the Kentucky Oaks (Bourboneete Oaks, Fair Grounds Oaks), and a race in New Mexico with an $800,000 purse (Sunland Derby); that's not a bad day of racing.

Scraches and changes for today's tracks can be found through the links below:

Fair Grounds
Gulfstream Park
Meydan
Santa Anita Park
Sunland Park
Turfway Park

Below is a rundown of the major races this weekend, along with a running update of the winners.  Click on the name of the winner to be taken to the full result chart (when available).

Both TVG and HRTV will have coverage of the races from Dubai.  HRTV's feed is the track/international feed from Dubai.  TVG's is the same video but with in-studio commentators.

UPDATE #5: A huge win for Japan in the Dubai World Cup as Victoire Pisa (JPN) holds off Transcend (JPN) in the stretch for the win.  It was quite a scene in the winner's circle where the Japanese connections were highly emotional given the circumstances going on back in their home country. 

Japanese racing has been seeking a big international win for many years now and they finally achieved that with Victoire Pisa's triumph this morning.

UPDATE #4: A lovely ride by Frankie Dettori on Rewilding (GB) in the Sheema Classic on his way to a pretty easy score in the 12 furlong turf race.  

UPDATE #3: Euroears ran a valiant race but wore down in the stretch under the pressure of Rocket Man (AUS), who avenges his loss in last year's Golden Shaheen.

Based on the races on Tapeta today, I think it's accurate to say the main track is very unkind to front-running horses.  Euroears went :24+ on the frontend and still couldn't hold on.  You're not going to get an opening quarter much slower than that in a six furlong sprint.

UPDATE #2: A thrilling stretch drvie between Kahwlah (IRE) and Master of Hounds in the UAE Derby with Kahwlah becoming the first filly to win the race since its inception.

UPDATE #1: J J the Jet Plane (SAf) sprinted through the fog to nip War Artist (AUS) at the wire of the Al Quoz Sprint at 5f on the turf.  J J the Jet Plane went off at 6/4 odds with the UK bookmakers.  The pool North American players are betting into had the winner at even money.

We have our first update of the morning and what looks to be our first major change: Kinsale King, the defending champion in the Dubai Golden Shaheen, appears to be a scratch from the race.  That's a big scratch and it puts Rocket Man in an excellent position to capture the race he narrowly missed out on last year.

Saturday's stakes schedule features some pretty big names in the racing landscape: Uncle Mo, Switch, St. Trinians (GB), Jaycito, Brethren, and Comma to the Top, just to name a few.  The Gulfstream Park Handicap  features an very evenly matched filed of older stakes horses, including Jackson Bend, Tackleberry, Tizway, Duke of Mischief, Soar Emprie, and Rule.  It's a field of eight, but a very, very solid eight.

I'll be spending most of my Saturday sitting on a plane or at LAX on a layover, so I'll once again have to rely on the magic of the internet in an attempt to follow any of the big stakes races of the day.

Gulfstream Changes
Tampa Bay Downs Changes
Santa Anita Changes
Oaklawn Changes

Post times for some of Saturday's major stakes races are listed below:

4:20 Eastern: G3-Hillsborough Stakes, Tampa Bay Downs
4:25 Eastern: Timely Writer, Gulfstream Park
4:55 Eastern: G3-Palm Beach, Gulfstream Park
4:03 Central: G3-Honey Bee, Oaklawn Park
5:20 Eastern: G2-Tampa Bay Derby, Tampa Bay Downs
5:25 Eastern: G2-Gulfstream Park Handicap, Gulfstream Park
5:02 Central: G3-Razorback Handicap
3:06 Pacific: G1-Santa Margarita Invitational, Santa Anita Park
4:07 Pacific: G2-San Felipe, Santa Anita Park