Dan Illman

I'm hoping for a square price on HUDSON LANDING (#1, 8-1 ML) in Saturday's Grade 3 San Francisco Mile at Golden Gate Fields. He's 7-years-old and hasn't won a race since November 23, 2012, but for those of you that think the 2012 San Francisco Mile winner is too long in the tooth, make sure you watch his most recent start, a $62,500 optional claimer at one mile over the Tapeta surface on March 30.

The Grade 3 Elkhorn Stakes on closing afternoon at Keeneland is a fantastic betting affair. It's a full field of well-matched horses and that's just about everything a horseplayer can ask for in a race.

For the second year in a row, Nicholas Gonzalez made a prescient claim at Gulfstream for Tucci Stables. In 2013, the trainer-owner combination haltered Midnight Aria for $35,000 out of a runner-up performance in a nine-furlong turf race. Six starts later, Midnight Aria placed his name in the record books with a gate-to-wire triumph in the Queen's Plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.

MIDNIGHT HAWK is the fastest and classiest horse in Saturday's Grade 3 Illinois Derby at Hawthorne, and may have a strong pace advantage to boot. Each of his last four Beyer Speed Figures is faster than ANY number his rivals have EVER earned. Not only is he the lone stakes-winner in the field, but he's a graded stakes winner with three other graded placings. He's assured a starting berth in the Kentucky Derby with 52 points (currently 14th on the list) and looks like the most naturally talented runner in the Illinois Derby.

It's onward and upward for CAT BURGLAR after the 4-year-old polished off a stakes-caliber group of milers at Santa Anita last Sunday.