HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Booth has emerged as one of the nation’s top sprinters over the winter at Oaklawn Park, and trainer Steve Asmusssen is pleased with the horse’s attitude coming into his biggest test yet, the Grade 3, $500,000 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap on Saturday.

“He’s confident,” Asmussen said. “Very confident.”

Booth has won his last two starts by a combined margin of seven lengths. He put up a Beyer Speed Figure of 105 in the Commodore overnight stakes on Feb. 24 and returned to earn a 107 for his effort in the Grade 3 Whitmore on March 15.

A pair of lightly raced 4-year-old fillies shipping from New York could be the horses to beat in a pair of $100,000 stakes races for females at Laurel Park on Saturday. Trainer Chad Brown has entered Catherine Wheel in the Heavenly Cause Stakes while Linda Rice will bring Tipple for the Primonetta.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – There are different ways to test greatness in racing, and Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna will encounter a new one Saturday when she starts as the 124-pound highweight in the Grade 1, $1.25 million Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.

Plenty of trainers are shipping in to take advantage of a stacked Laurel card Saturday, but the two $100,000 stakes for older males will run through local connections. Speedyness, a 4-year-old gelding trained by Jamie Ness, will be the likely favorite in the Native Dancer Stakes, while Brittany Russell enters West Coast defectors Worcester and New King in the Frank Whiteley Stakes.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The competition is certainly less salty than her last start. Now it might just be a matter of whether Alpine Princess can handle an off track when she runs in Saturday’s $150,000 Top Flight Stakes at Aqueduct.

In her most recent start, the Grade 2 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park, Alpine Princess finished fourth, beaten 10 lengths by reigning Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna. There is no one of that caliber in the Top Flight, which drew six but may only go with five. Trainer Chad Brown has Catherine Wheel cross-entered in Saturday’s Heavenly Cause Stakes at Laurel.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A well-matched field of stakes-tested fillies and mares will square off under allowance conditions going 7 1/2 furlong on the turf, weather permitting, in Saturday’s $57,000 headliner at Gulfstream Park.

Time Passage, De Regreso, Golden Canary, and Freedom Speaks are all former stakes winners seeking to recapture their old form in the eighth race on a 10-race card that also includes a $56,000 allowance test going a mile for older horses on the main track.

The unthinkable happened April 10, 2021, at Keeneland. A horse not trained by Chad Brown won the Jenny Wiley Stakes.

Brown has won this 1 1/16-mile turf fixture for fillies and mares seven times and six out of the last seven years, and on Saturday he sends out likely favorite Excellent Truth in the Grade 1, $650,000 Jenny Wiley.

Excellent Truth would be Brown’s first Jenny Wiley winner making her first North American start. Sistercharlie had one American run after being imported from France before winning in 2018.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Grade 3, $400,000 Lexington Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland is the final race awarding points toward the Kentucky Derby. However, the race is more likely to produce candidates for the Preakness Stakes.