OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Handicappers will have to take another look at Friday’s $150,000 Toboggan Stakes at Aqueduct as the race lost one of its major players and may have picked up a significant newcomer.

Maximus Meridius, last year’s Toboggan winner and the 7-2 morning-line third choice for this year’s running when it was originally scheduled for last Saturday, opted for a Wednesday allowance race at Parx and will scratch from the Toboggan.

Meanwhile, the New York-bred Doc Sullivan showed up in the entries for the re-drawn race, though his status is not yet finalized.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Ottinho has a powerful pedigree and in his lone victory demonstrated serious determination.

Whether he’s able to join the upper crust of the 3-year-old division on the Triple Crown trail remains to be seen and likely won’t be known even if he wins Friday’s $200,000 Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The small-field feature race Friday at Santa Anita includes one of the day’s shortest prices, which prompted trainer Dean Pederson to say, “I hope it’s smart money.”

So will bettors who view Our Moonlight as the most probable winner in a pick six that begins with a $52,045 carryover. Runner-up in her sprint comeback, Our Moonlight stretches out in race 8, an entry-level allowance mile for fillies and mares. Surprisingly, Our Moonlight is the 8-5 second choice in the program.

Pederson knows who Our Moonlight is up against.

Nearly
Not This Time – Ib Prospecting, by Mineshaft
Bred in Florida by Wind Hill Farm ($350,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Centennial Farms)

WHO’S HOT

Nearly opens as the 10-1 favorite on the Derby Watch Top 20 after a dominant 5 3/4-length victory last Saturday in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park. He has now won three straight races after a head-scratching debut and will point to the Grade 1 Florida Derby on March 28.

Golden Tempo successfully stretched out from six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles in a professional, if not overly fast, victory in the Grade 3 Lecomte on Jan. 17. The Risen Star on Feb. 14 should tell more.

One opponent horsemen often can’t figure out how to defeat is Mother Nature. And thus, with Turfway Park losing seven cards due to a winter storm that upended life in much of Kentucky, and frigid air that blanketed the state in the aftermath, the $125,000 Wishing Well Stakes for female sprinters was pushed back from its original Jan. 24 date to Jan. 30 – and then again to Friday night, when it is expected to go with a field of 11, largely intact from the first draw.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The richest road to the Kentucky Oaks begins Friday at Oaklawn Park, where Hit Parade and Counting Stars bring win streaks into the $300,000 Martha Washington.

The 1 1/16-mile race is the first leg of the local series that continues with the Grade 3, $750,000 Honeybee on March 1 and the Grade 2, $1 million Fantasy on March 27. The Martha Washington drew eight and offers Kentucky Oaks points to the first five finishers on a scale of 20-10-6-4-2.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The developing Super Cruise will take on a sharp First Division in the $135,000 General MacArthur on the Southwest Stakes undercard Friday at Oaklawn Park.

The race is one of two overnight stakes on a 12-race card that features the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest and $300,000 Martha Washington. First post is 11:30 a.m. Central.

For 21 consecutive years there wasn’t a Kentucky Derby run in which Todd Pletcher didn’t have a starter.

Until 2025. Thirty-six hours before the race, Grande, who had finished second in the Wood Memorial four weeks earlier, was scratched due to a cracked heel in his right front foot. Grande was Pletcher’s only entrant in a race in which he started multiple starters 20 of 24 years in which he ran. Thus, the longest streak of consecutive Derby appearances was over.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Send in the closers.

The Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes on Friday at Oaklawn Park could have a completely different pace scenario than the track’s first Kentucky Derby points race of the season, the Smarty Jones.

“There’s a lot of pace in this race,” said trainer Mark Casse.

Casse won the Smarty Jones with Strategic Risk, who was prominent throughout for a 4 1/2-length win in the 1 1/16-mile race on Jan. 3.