In addition to the second running of the Lady Legends for the Cure Race™, Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore is adding a four-race Female Jockey Challenge to the festivities at the Maryland track on Friday May 20, the day before the 136th running of the Preakness Stakes (G1). The Friday card will also feature the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

   The Challenge races, which will star six current leading female jockeys, includes Longacres riding champ Vicky Baze, who has ridden 2,006 winners through March 27, 2010. Also scheduled to ride are Forest Boyce, Rosie Napravnik, Chantal Sutherland, Hayley Turner and Emma-Jean Watson.

  The jockey with the most points at the end of a four-race competition will be crowned champion. Riding assignments will be determined by a drawing Sunday, May 15, and jockeys will receive points for finishing first (12 points), second (6), third (4) and fourth (3) in each race. The champion jockey will earn $10,000. Other prize money: $7,000 (second), $6,000 (third), $4,000 (fourth), $2,000 (fifth) and $1,000 (sixth). 

  All 14 Lady Legends and Jockey Challenge riders will take part in an autograph session prior to the card.

  For more information check http://www.pimlico.com/NewsEvents/FeatureStories/Details/Baltimore022811.htm

  Everett-based photographer Kristy Batie, whose work has often appeared in WTBOA publications, recently was awarded first place in the Amateur Head Study Division of the eighth Equine Photographers Network "Equine Ideal: 2011 Online Photo Contest." Her winning photo is of a lovely mare named "Kia."

  Hundreds of entries were sent in nine categories, which were also divided into professional and amateur groups. Entries came from 15 countries and 35 states.

  To see is to appreciate, so check out Batie's work and the other outstanding photos at http://equinephotocontest.com/winners2011.asp?cat_id=105.

  Before the Portland Meadows' meet was extended three days to run through April 6, the 2010-11 season had been scheduled to end on March 30 with the featured $15,000 Au Revoir Claiming Stakes, a race for three and up runners.

  A field of eight $2,000 and $3,000 claimers started in the 12-furlong stakes with five-year-old Born'n Blue Genes held as the even-money favorite.

  David and Patricia Runyon's four-year-old gelding Stormin' Peter (Storm Blast-Ruthies Inlaws) set the pace with fractions of :24.64, :49.41, 1:14.49 and 1:40.51, only to be nipped at the wire by the head of Paris Island and nose of Born'n Blue Genes. Final race time over the wet fast track was 2:07.41.

  Paris Island, under Marijo Terleski's guidance, had stalked the pacesetters before making his move near the wire and then held off the strong late move of Clockwise Racing's Born'n Blue Genes (Tribunal-Born to Be Blue). Bred and raced by Cascade Junction Farm and trained by Nick Lowe, the win improved Paris Island's record to 5-5-7 from 27 starts and gave the eight-year-old gelding earnings of $38,904. All of the top three finishers were bred in Washington.

  One horse changed hands after the race as Tracy Lebret and trainer Mike Thompson claimed Born'n Blue Genes for $3,000.

  The Washington and Oregon Horse Racing Commissions are offering a 16 hour stewards/judges continuing education seminar scheduled for September 19 and 20, 2011. The seminar will be held at Emerald Downs in Auburn and is open to anyone wishing to attend. The agenda will be posted when finalized.  Also, the WHRC will host a day at the races at Emerald Downs on Sunday, September 18 for anyone arriving that day. The event will include a tour of the facilities and the races in the afternoon. For the registration form which includes local lodging information (360) 459-6462 or http://www.whrc.wa.gov/registration.pdf.

  Four-year-old Upperline, who is owned by trainer Michael Stidham, John Adgar, Stone Farm and Jack and Teresa Hodge's Oakcrest Farm, earned her third stakes victory when she won the $100,000 Bayou Handicap at Fair Grounds by four lengths on March 25. The Kentucky-bred filly by Maria's Mon-Snowflake (Ire), by Caerleon, improved her record to 5-2-2 from 11 starts and has earned $270,987.

  Mark Dedomenico LLC, Barnett Stables Inc., Dr. George Todaro and trainer and 2011 National Racing Hall of Fame finalist Jerry Hollendorfer's Honour the Deputy finished second by a head to Worth Repeating in the $100,000 Tokyo City Cup Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita on March 26. The four-year-old Florida-bred son of Honour and Glory-Deputy's Delight, by French Deputy, has a record of 3-2-1 from seven starts with $87,229 in earnings.

  After finishing second in her first start, Dedomenico, Carver and Hollendorfer's three-year-old filly Dove Forest took her next outing, a five-furlong maiden special weight race at Golden Gate run on March 26, by 2 1/4 lengths. The Kentucky-bred daughter of Forestry-Caressing, by Honour and Glory, has earned $22,400.

  It was announced in late March that Tacoma native Corey Johnsen has been elected the new chairman of the Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP). The former president of Lone Star Park and current president of Kentucky Downs fills the post recently vacated by former Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones, who became KEEP's first chairman when it was formed in 2004. A horse owner and breeder, Johnson currently resides in Midway, Kentucky

  The $500,000 top-selling filly, and second highest priced two-year-old overall, at the 2011 Ocala Sales Company's March Select Two-year-olds in Training Sale on March 15 and 16, was a filly by hot second crop sire Bernardini. The filly, named Sweet Dreams, is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Dream Rush and to Dr. Rodney Orr's 2010 allowance-winning filly Dream Sweeper, by Salt Lake. Lane's End Bloodstock purchased the juvenile daughter of Turbo Dream.

  Ron Crockett Inc.'s Eyes On the Prize, a five-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Pure Prize-Run In, by Dynaformer, won an allowance/$50,000 optional claiming race, at 1 1/16 miles, at Golden Gate on March 25 The Frank Lucarelli trainee has earned $107,783 in her 27-race career.

  Church Camp, the four-year-old daughter of Forest Camp who won the $70,000 Santa Lucia Stakes at Santa Anita Park on March 27, is out of Holy Forest, a daughter of Demons Begone. The Kentucky-bred filly improved her record to 4-2-0 from nine starts and has earned $146,420.

  Karl C. Krieg's homebred Absolutely Cool, a four-year-old Washington-bred son of Absolute Harmony-Coup de Foudre, by Basket Weave, finished second by a half-length to Rule by Force in the 6 1/2-furlong $25,000 Coyote Handicap run at Turf Paradise on March 26. The Valorie Lund-trained gelding, who was ridden by Vicky Baze, has earned $38,212 from his 3-3-1 record in ten starts.

  Al Hodge's Soul Custody, who ran third in both the Washington's Lottery Handicap and Washington Oaks in 2010, took a mile allowance race at Golden Gate Fields on March 27. The Ontario-bred daughter of Perfect Soul (Ire)-Halo's Gleam, by Halo, who is trained by Tim McCanna, now sports a record of 4-1-5 from 16 starts and has earned $81,318. Francisco Duran was aboard the bay filly for her half-length win.

  Five-year-old Worth Repeating, the son of Giant's Causeway who took the Grade 3 Tokyo City Cup Stakes at Santa Anita Park on March 26 and has earned nearly $200,000, was produced out of the A.P. Indy matron Lady Nicholas, a half-sister to Gibson Thoroughbred Farm stallion   Parker's Storm Cat . Their French classic-winning dam, Macoumba, is a half-sister to four other stakes winners and former Washington sire Matricule (also a son of A.P. Indy), who now stands at Painted Desert Farm in Oregon.

  Three-year-old Naples Bay remained unbeaten in two starts after the daughter of Giant's Causeway won a 1 1/16-mile allowance/$50,000 optional claiming race over Gulfstream Park's turf course on March 26. The half-sister to Grade 1 winner and major sire Medaglia d'Oro is out of Washington-bred stakes winner Cappucino Bay, by Bailjumper, a half-sister to Washington champion juvenile Maharesred. All four runners were bred by Montanans Al and Joyce Bell.

  En Chantant, a three-year-old daughter of Unbridled's Song, won a 1 1/1-mile maiden race at Kokura in Japan on March 26, The new winner is out of Grade 1 stakes winner and $329,000 earner Celtic Melody, who was sired by Mr. Greeley and is a granddaughter of 1986 Washington broodmare of the year Fool's Miss.

  Dyson Lavanway's first-time starter Countess Gracie won her first outing, a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight race at Portland Meadows on March 28, by 7 1/2 lengths. Also bred and trained by Lavanway, Countess Gracie is a three-year-old Washington-bred daughter of Count Me In-Casey's Sy, by Synastry.

  The Department of Labor and  Industries announced an increase in the premiums for the different risk classes for the horse racing industry. These new rates went into effect on January 1, 2011. The  Commission will begin taking applications for 2011 licenses on December 15,  2010.

  The trainer's base premium went up 20 percent from 2010, while the groom premiums are increased  nearly 12 percent. Finally,  exercise rider's premium increased 26 percent at Emerald Downs.

  For further information go to http://www.whrc.wa.gov/ and scroll down opening page.