Successful Florida sire Jess's Dream, the only son of Hall of Fame racemare Rachel Alexandra, was euthanized following a battle with laminitis, owner-breeder Stonestreet reported on Sunday. He was 12.

Stonestreet announced last fall that homebred Jess’s Dream – by Rachel Alexandra’s fellow Stonestreet colorbearer and Hall of Famer Curlin – had been pensioned from stallion duty at Ocala Stud. He was gelded, and plans called for him to become a pony at Stonestreet’s Florida training center before health complications recently set in.

On closing weekend of the summer meeting at Saratoga Race Course in 2009, Rachel Alexandra brought the house down on the meet, as well as her Horse of the Year campaign, by defeating older males in the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes. That same weekend, her stablemate Hot Dixie Chick earned a Grade 1 victory by taking the Spinaway Stakes.

Steve Asmussen was born to this.

He and his brother Brian Keith Asmussen are children of horsemen who are children of horsemen. They virtually were raised in horse barns. The older one, Brian Keith, started galloping Thoroughbreds as a 9-year-old. At 12, Steve had a groom’s license. As teens in Laredo, Texas, by the time school began each day, they had been up for hours. “You can get a lot done before school if you start working at 5,” Steve Asmussen once said.

It’s fitting that Alejandro makes the first start of his 3-year-old season on Saturday at Fair Grounds.

Co-featured on the Risen Star program is the Grade 2 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, and Alejandro is carrying the genetic torch for the great Rachel Alexandra. He starts in race 4, a 1 1/6-mile maiden race for 3-year-olds.

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Bonny South won the 2020 Fair Grounds Oaks, and her little sister Sun Path can take a step toward similar races in 2021 when she starts in the eighth race Friday at Fair Grounds.

Sun Path looks like an odds-on favorite in this nonwinners-of-two lifetime allowance for 2-year-old fillies over one mile and 70 yards. Her start is part of a strong end to the Friday program. Race 7 is an appealing two-turn maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies, race 9 a competitive first-level turf-route allowance, and race 10 a second-level, dirt-route allowance including several good horses.

All eyes will be on Gladys this Friday when the full sister to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra launches her career in the sixth race at Gulfstream Park.

Gladys goes in a maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies over six furlongs. She will break from the outside post in the field of 10.

Gladys has been prepping at Palm Meadows for her debut for Dede McGehee and trainer Kelsey Danner. She will face a significant rival in Speeding, a daughter of top sire Into Mischief who was third in her career debut last month at Gulfstream Park.

Stakes-placed Wooderson, a half-brother to Hall of Famer Rachel Alexandra, will begin his stud career for Burdette Thoroughbred Farm of Arkansas in 2021, becoming the latest stallion from this family in a regional marketplace.

Wooderson, by Awesome Again and out of the stakes-winning Roar mare Lotta Kim, won 3 of 10 career starts, with a maiden win at Saratoga as a 3-year-old later followed by allowance victories at Keeneland and Monmouth. He was second by a length in the 2019 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga to Tom’s d’Etat, now one of the top hores in training.

The suspension of racing at Santa Anita certainly took some wind out of the sails of what was expected to be a very big Saturday of stakes racing. But Tampa Bay Downs and Aqueduct will still offer stakes-loaded cards.

The Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby is the main event at Tampa, where four other stakes will be run, most notably the Grade 2, $225,000 Hillsborough. The Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham is the feature at Aqueduct and is supported by three other stakes, including the Grade 3, $200,000 Tom Fool, and the $250,000 Busher.

Rachel Alexandra, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks, received her earliest training lessons in Texas, as have at least two starters in this year’s Kentucky Oaks.

Trainer Bret Calhoun said Classy Act and Patrona Margarita were broken in Texas. Both also race for residents of the Lone Star State.

Gun Runner will have a number of rivals when he ends his racing career Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup, but he has no challengers when it comes to Horse of the Year for 2017.

Sure, both Arrogate and World Approval were announced earlier this month as fellow finalists for the Horse of the Year trophy, which will be presented at the conclusion of the 47th annual Eclipse Awards dinner Thursday night at Gulfstream Park, but everyone knows this is a walkover for the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner.