ARCADIA, Calif. – The Nysos show is likely to go international in early 2026, and he may take a talented friend with him.

After a win in the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita, trainer Bob Baffert said Nysos is on schedule for a start in the $20 million Saudi Cup at 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 14 in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Cup also is a possibility for Nevada Beach, the three-time stakes winner who challenged Nysos through the stretch of the Pincay before losing by a head.

“That was a good prep for both and for something bigger,” Baffert said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – On turf and wet dirt tracks, Gratefully compiled an unbeaten record in three starts at Saratoga and Aqueduct in the second half of 2025.

The experience could be vital for a potential fourth win in her California debut on Thursday at Santa Anita.

Gratefully, trained by Robert Falcone Jr., is entered in a six-furlong allowance race for fillies and mares on turf, but an unsettled forecast could result in the race being run on the main track.

“She’d still run,” Falcone said Sunday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The new connections of both Reynolds Channel and Interceptor will be hoping for less eventful trips than their recent acquisitions had in their last starts when the two meet again Thursday in a starter allowance that looks like the best race on an eight-race New Year’s Day program at Aqueduct.

Though Mailata was the 5-2 morning-line favorite in Tuesday’s $75,000 Future Stars Stakes at Parx Racing, his connections also entered him in Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.

Trainer Butch Reid said a decision on where Mailata would run would likely be made sometime Monday, but he sounded as though he preferred the Jerome.

“I like the spot, outside post in a five-horse field going a mile. Seems perfect for me,” Reid said.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Doc Sullivan won his third stakes race of the year and stated a case to be New York-bred champion older dirt male with his victory in the Alex M. Robb Stakes last Friday at Aqueduct.

But that may not have been the most exciting thing to happen for trainer John Ortiz and owner TriStar Farm last week.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice looks poised to add to her record-setting season totals in New York with eight entrants in five of the eight races on Wednesday’s Aqueduct card, the final program of 2025.

Rice enters the day with 171 wins, already a record for wins by a trainer for one year on the New York Racing Association circuit and 45 more than Chad Brown who is second. Rice, who has a career-best 188 training wins overall in 2025, also will finish as the leading owner at NYRA in 2025 as her 61 victories are 15 more than Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables.

ARCADIA, Calif. – From a class-handicapping perspective, there is a stark contrast between a Grade 1 race with a $1 million purse and an ungraded stakes worth $100,000.

Therefore, based on class, the favorite in the Eddie Logan Stakes scheduled for Wednesday at Santa Anita looks tough. The colt’s name is Stark Contrast.

Two months after finishing second at 58-1 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, Stark Contrast returns as the choice to win the ungraded Eddie Logan. A field of seven is entered in the turf mile, the final stakes of the season for 2-year-olds.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Public Assembly’s best performance this year was arguably a second by a neck to Mrs. Astor in the Grade 3 Red Carpet Stakes on Nov. 23 at Del Mar.

“She ran too good to lose,” trainer Phil D’Amato recalled over the weekend. “She got beat by a filly that had a phenomenal year.”

Mrs. Astor won three stakes in 2025, as well as the Red Carpet and Robert Frankel Stakes in the final months of 2024.

Public Assembly can win her second stakes in Wednesday’s Grade 3 Robert Frankel Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf for fillies and mares at Santa Anita.