OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It certainly wasn’t by design that Metfardeh would be making her fourth career start at Aqueduct in early January of her 4-year-old season when the daughter of Into Mischief sold for $2.3 million as a yearling in fall 2023.

Perhaps her maiden win last November was a sign that Metfardeh can still have a successful career. Sunday, she will take the next step as she heads a field of eight older fillies and mares entered to run 1 1/8 miles in a first-level allowance race at Aqueduct.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The first invitation list has been released for this year’s $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Jan. 24. The group of a dozen horses is topped by White Abarrio, the runaway winner of this event a year ago, and Florida Derby winner Tappan Street, the only horse to finish in front of likely Horse of the Year Sovereignty during the 2025 season.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A filly-mare sprint stakes that looked like a formality for the favorite unraveled when Grade 1 winner Tamara was injured and retired days before her comeback.

Instead of a short-price standout in the Grade 3 Las Flores on Sunday at Santa Anita, the six-furlong stakes attracted five allowance-caliber runners seeking their first U.S. stakes victory.

Rockin With Energy has won or lost several stakes for fillies and mares in the first two or three seconds in the last year.

Quick starts led to wins in the Charger Bar and Las Damas handicaps at Los Alamitos in 2025. Poor starts led to comprehensive losses in the Denim N Diamonds Stakes and Mildred Vessels Handicap at the same venue.

Rockin With Energy had a clean getaway in her last start, in the Las Damas Handicap on Nov. 22, leading to hopes she can do the same in Sunday’s $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap at 400 yards.

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and his wife, Julie, spent December celebrating some personal milestones in the lives of their sons, jockey Keith Asmussen and the stable’s accountant and bookkeeper, Darren Asmussen.

Darren was married on a recent Saturday in Texas.

“Darren’s wedding was one of the most significant events I’ve ever witnessed in my whole life,” Steve Asmussen said. “It was beyond emotional.”

Keith agreed.

“It was a beautiful wedding,” he said. “I was in awe the whole time. It was very special.”

Apprentice jockey Amir Mendoza ventured to the United States from his native Panama this winter and is making his mark in the standings at Oaklawn Park – all while getting to know a jockey from his country that he has long admired.

“He’s a huge Luis Saez fan, and they have the same valet at Oaklawn,” said agent Jose Santos Jr., the son of retired Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Jose Santos. “We got lucky. Mark Kelly, his valet, is an awesome guy and takes great care of him, and we were lucky to get in with him. Julien [Leparoux] recommended him.”

The near-millionaire Corningstone has been retired and is scheduled to be bred during the upcoming season, according to her trainer, Kenny McPeek.

The 6-year-old daughter of Kantharos won 10 of 31 starts and earned $979,978. She raced for Payson Stud Inc. and RTA Trust.

Corningstone made her final start Dec. 26, finishing fifth in the Pippin Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Wakuda will attempt to win her third consecutive race Sunday at Oaklawn Park in the $150,000 Mockingbird, a stakes that last year produced a Breeders’ Cup winner in Shisospicy.

The Mockingbird, which is for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs, closes Oaklawn’s holiday meet. Following a break of 25 days, racing will resume Jan. 30 for the classic meet that continues through the close of the season on May 2.