HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – George Weaver is traditionally among the last of the northern-based trainers who race regularly at Gulfstream Park each winter to pull out the final remnants of their stable during the spring. It’s a strategy that paid big dividends with Sandal’s Song’s victory in the Royal Palm Juvenile here last weekend and one that could reap a final reward for the barn when Weaver sends out top contenders Ortley Avenue and Turbulent Force in Saturday’s $75,000 Roar Stakes.

BALTIMORE – One of the most royally bred 3-year-olds on Saturday’s card at Pimlico won’t be running in the Preakness. Invictus will get the chance to take a crucial next step in his career when he makes his stakes debut in the $100,000 Sir Barton Stakes. The 1 1/16-mile race is for 3-year-olds who have not yet won an open stakes.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Kentucky-based Brindi will attempt to double up at Woodbine in Saturday’s $100,000 Ruling Angel, an open overnight stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Brindi is unbeaten when racing with Lasix for trainer Kelsey Danner. She made her first three starts this year over the Tapeta at Turfway Park, winning an allowance/optional claimer on Lasix in January before missing the board without it in both the Valdale and Serena’s Song stakes.

When the connections of Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty decided just days after the colt’s win in the first leg of the Triple Crown to skip the Preakness Stakes, racing’s chattering classes leapt to the ramparts to resurrect calls for the Triple Crown schedule to be altered.

Unlike in previous years, however, there was no such spirited debate occurring in the executive offices of the companies that have stakes in the races.

Under new management for the first time in decades, Laurel Park in Maryland started off slowly this year, according to a handle analysis conducted by Daily Racing Form, but wagering figures skyrocketed over the last three weeks of its meet.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Todd Pletcher has nothing against the Preakness.

“I don’t hate the Preakness,” Pletcher said. “I love the Belmont.”

Pletcher has started a record 65 horses in the Kentucky Derby and a modern-day record 37 horses in the Belmont Stakes. Saturday, when he sends out River Thames in the 150th Preakness Stakes, it will be just his 11th starter in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Pletcher is 0 for 10 in eight runnings of the Preakness, with Impeachment’s third-place finish in 2000 – Pletcher’s first Preakness starter – his best result.

BALTIMORE – Candied, a 4-year-old filly trained by Todd Pletcher, is breaking her streak of five straight graded stakes starts to run in the $125,000 Allaire duPont Distaff Stakes at Pimlico Race Course on Friday. Pletcher is looking for class relief at 1 1/8 miles before his filly returns to graded stakes competition this summer.

“We’re hoping to get another race under her belt and hopefully shoot for bigger things down the road,” Pletcher said.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Red River Rebel and Tap Gold, a couple of 7-year-old warhorses who finished noses apart when second and third, respectively, behind Chess Master in their most recent starts, will renew acquaintances and likely vie for favoritism under similar allowance and optional-claiming conditions Friday at Gulfstream Park.

The $57,000 headliner lured a field of 10, including a pair on the also-eligible list, and is carded at five furlongs on turf.

BALTIMORE – Rain clouds over the city spell uncertainty for countless runners across two 14-race cards at Pimlico this weekend. Family, a 3-year-old filly trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., has more to overcome than most making her first start on dirt in the Grade 3 Miss Preakness Stakes on Friday.

“Her second work on the dirt was much better than her first work,” Joseph said. “The surface is obviously unknown, but she’s capable of handling it and she’s bred for it.”

While saying he wasn’t disappointed that Sovereignty was not running in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, Michael McCarthy, trainer of Kentucky Derby runner-up Journalism, said he’d look forward to a rematch at some point in the future.

“Hopefully, Journalism stays healthy and Sovereignty stays healthy, and somewhere down the road, we get to hook up,” McCarthy said. “I think it’d be great for the fans, really great for the sport.”

McCarthy said it’s possible Journalism could run back June 7 at Saratoga in the Belmont Stakes, the race Sovereignty is targeting.