Barba will keep top 3-year-old prospects apart

It's time to break up the Alexis Barba stable, at least the stakes-winning 3-year-olds.

Barba has just six horses in training at Hollywood Park, and two of them won stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday - Make Music for Me in the Pasadena Stakes and Alphie's Bet in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes.

Barba said on Sunday that the pair will start in different Kentucky Derby prep races next month. The plan is for Make Music for Me to start in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on April 3 and for Alphie's Bet to run in the $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 10.

Alphie's Bet made his graded stakes debut in the Sham Stakes over 1 1/8 miles, and responded with a victory by 2 1/4 lengths over favored Setsuko. Trainer Richard Mandella said on Sunday that Setsuko will be pointed for the Santa Anita Derby.