Just F Y I, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2023, has been retired from racing, trainer Bill Mott said Thursday. She will be bred to Into Mischief.

Just F Y I was pulled up at the three-eighths pole of the Doubledogdare at Keeneland on April 18. She was vanned off the track, but was not injured, according to Mott.

“Don’t see anything wrong with her, but she’s done enough,” Mott said. “She dropped the bit and went from 60 to zero. She was still in his [jockey Junior Alvarado] hands when she stopped. She came back sound.”

Fierceness, the 2-year-old champion of 2023 and the Travers winner in 2024, will make his 2025 debut in the Grade 2, $750,000 Alysheba Stakes on Friday at Churchill Downs, his connections confirmed. Fierceness was being originally being pointed to the Grade 3, $175,000 Westchester Stakes at Aqueduct on May 4.

Todd Pletcher, who trains Fierceness, is also pointing Locked, winner of the Santa Anita Handicap in his last start, to the Alysheba, run at 1 1/16 miles.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Let the fun begin.

That was the sentiment from trainer John Ortiz after watching Quietside put in her final workout Friday morning at Keeneland in preparation for a start in the Kentucky Oaks next Friday at Churchill Downs.

Under regular rider Jose Ortiz, Quietside went a half-mile in 48.44 seconds, according to Daily Racing Form, while galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.50. The work was done over a fast track, approximately 10 minutes before it began raining heavily and turned the track sloppy.

For Sosie, one of Europe’s top 3-year-olds of 2024, racing on soft turf is fine. Racing on heavy or very soft turf does not work.

Sosie was fourth by 4 1/4 lengths as the 7-2 favorite in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on very soft turf at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris last October. Trainer Andre Fabre later cited the condition of the course as a contributing factor in the loss.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Owner Mike Repole is fond of saying that pressure is a privilege. For the last two years, Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher have had the privilege of having the favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

In 2023, Forte, the morning-line favorite, was scratched the morning of the race due to a foot issue. Last year, Fierceness finished 15th in the Derby.

This year, Repole and Pletcher are back in the Derby with Grande, the Grade 2 Wood Memorial runner-up who will likely be a mid-range price in the 20-horse Derby field on May 3.

Chad Brown has won four of the first nine runnings of the Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct, including the 2018 edition with Significant Form. Sunday, Brown sends out two of the nine 3-year-old fillies entered for turf in the one-mile race, including Opulent Restraint, the first foal out of Significant Form. Though there are talented runners in the Memories of Silver, Opulent Restraint’s biggest rival may be herself.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Cloe is fast in Florida, but can she last in California?

After dominating a pair of short sprints at Gulfstream Park, front-runner Cloe shipped early this week to Santa Anita and on Sunday will try to carry her speed 6 1/2 furlongs in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on the hillside turf course.

Although it’s often considered in a lesser light than the New York Racing Association circuit, the meet at Finger Lakes Racetrack, which opens Monday, provides plenty of opportunities for both local horsemen and those shipping in to shine.

Tuesday at Churchill Downs is the calm before the storm. It’s the only day of Kentucky Derby week without a stakes on the card. The nine-race program, which begins at 12:45 p.m., has a $141,000 allowance on the turf and a $127,000 allowance on the dirt as nominal features on a card that otherwise consists of claiming races.

It took 53 seconds for the tickets to American Pharoah’s birthday party in February to sell out – less than half the amount of time it took him to win the Kentucky Derby.