It was a colt named Chillax who might have led you down the wrong path before the Fountain of Youth Stakes on March 1 at Gulfstream Park. Workout video from Feb. 15 showed Chillax getting the best of a Fountain of Youth starter Sovereignty, and if Sovereignty could not beat an unraced colt while breezing, how could he beat his Fountain of Youth rivals?

This already has been a banner year for the trainer Brendan Walsh, and it is not over yet.

With about six weeks still left in 2025, Walsh has hit career bests in all the major categories. He has won 116 races, more than any previous year, and has stable earnings greater than $13.8 million, about $2.4 million more than his previous top. Walsh has won 21 stakes, surpassing his previous high of 16, and has 15 graded stakes wins, six more than his best.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Fast Market were slow to figure out exactly what their filly wanted to do, and now that they have, they hope to end the 3-year-old filly’s season with a stakes victory in Sunday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Pebbles at Aqueduct.

The Pebbles, which goes as race 3, and the $150,000 Forever Together for older females in race 7, are the final two turf stakes to be run on this circuit in 2025. Turf racing altogether has only one more week, if that, remaining.

Touch Gold, winner of the 1997 Belmont Stakes, has been euthanized at age 31 due to the infirmities of old age. His death was reported by Old Friends, where he had resided for the past decade.

Not every cloud has a silver lining, but this week at Del Mar stormy weather produced at least one small benefit – the Desi Arnaz Stakes will not be a one-horse race after all.

Del Mar is scheduled to resume racing Sunday after the Saturday card was canceled because of inclement weather that upended both the stakes schedule and turf program.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Regal Moment should be favored to land her first added-money race in Sunday’s $100,000 Ashbridges Bay, one of two 1 1/16-mile Tapeta stakes for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds on the Woodbine card along with the $100,000 Lake Ontario for the boys.

HALLANDALE BEACH Fla. – Epigram, among the more impressive 2-year-old maiden winners this season at Gulfstream Park, will attempt to validate her debut win when stepping up against stakes competition for the first time in Saturday’s $75,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint.

A field of eight was drawn for the 6 1/2-furlong dash over the main track, which includes a trio from the barn of leading trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., topped by the multiple stakes-placed Tessellate.

The 3-year-old filly Shred the Gnar was a seven-length winner of the first race on the Kentucky Oaks card May 2 at Churchill, a first-level allowance race going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Her time of 1:42.04 yielded a 94 Beyer Speed Figure. Ten races later, Good Cheer won the Kentucky Oaks running 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.15, earning a 91 Beyer.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After suffering her first career defeat in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, which ended a five-race winning streak, Laurelin returns to where her career and streak began when she runs in Saturday’s Grade 3, $350,000 Jockey Club Oaks at Aqueduct.

Lone Star Park closes its Quarter Horse meet Saturday night with the richest race in Texas, the Grade 1, $910,508 Texas Classic Futurity. The race is one of five stakes on a 12-race card that drew 2023 All American Futurity winner Cowboys Gun Z.

The Texas Classic Futurity field is led by stakes winners Jc Speeding, who is 5 for 7, and Holy Guacamolee, who is chasing after his fourth consecutive win. They are part of a field of 10.