HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Charlie Appleby won 14 graded stakes with 10 horses in North America last year. Bold Act didn’t account for any of them, though it wasn’t due to lack of effort.

Bold Act had two thirds and a second from three graded tries last year, twice beaten as an odds-on favorite. Bold Act, who won the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland in 2023, is back in the United States on Saturday when he heads a full field for the Grade 3, $215,000 William McKnight Stakes going 1 1/2 miles on turf at Gulfstream Park.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – When it comes to Nobals, trainer Larry Rivelli always seems to be calling audibles.

After being forced to scratch from the Hong Kong Turf Sprint in December due to shipping fever and then scratching again from last week’s Duncan Kenner Stakes at Fair Grounds due to a surface switch, Rivelli has shipped Nobals to South Florida for Saturday’s $165,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint scheduled for five furlongs.

Nice as Pie and B G Warrior own five stakes wins and another five stakes placings at Turfway Park. But the path to the winner’s circle of the $125,000 Wishing Well Stakes on Saturday night does not necessarily go through them.

Bill Mott appears to have a surplus of talented female sprinters in his barn.

Three will be in action Saturday, two at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 2, $215,000 Inside Information Stakes, one at Aqueduct in the $150,000 Interborough Stakes. Of the three, the reason Mott chose to send Socially Selective to New York was quite logical.

“She’s never won a stakes,” Mott said. “I just thought that was a good spot.”

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Six years after City of Light won the then-$9 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational on dirt, one of his progeny will try to win the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream Park.

Formidable Man, who at age 4 will be the youngest among the dozen runners expected to go postward in the Pegasus Turf, brings a three-race win streak into the race, highlighted by a Grade 1 victory in the Hollywood Derby on Nov. 30 at Del Mar.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano, who has the distinction of winning two runnings of the Southwest Stakes on a single day, will be chasing after his fourth victory in the race when he teams with Speed King on Saturday.

Bejarano first won the Southwest in 2012, when the race was split into divisions and he shipped in and accounted for both aboard Bob Baffert trainees Secret Circle and Castaway. Bejarano and Baffert returned a year later and won the Southwest with Super Ninety Nine.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Apprentice jockey Tyler Bacon will have the most significant mount of his career Saturday when he rides American Promise in the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

And the 17-year-old is ready for the opportunity, according to American Promise’s trainer, D. Wayne Lukas.

“I started watching him here at Oaklawn and I was very impressed with him, what I saw on the racetrack, and equally impressed with the way he handles himself off the racetrack,” Lukas said. “He’s very articulate, very easy to deal with, listens very well.

The best racehorse in the world during 2024 and the best racehorse in Hong Kong the last two seasons – not a bad get for a late-January card at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Rafael Bejarano and trainer Chris Hartman have been a formidable team at Oaklawn Park, and on Friday the duo will attempt to win the featured ninth race with What’s Up Doc.

The 6-year-old gelding is one of the chief contenders in a competitive $55,000 starter allowance for 4-year-olds and up over 1 1/16 miles. The race carries an optional claiming price of $50,000 and has a purse of $68,000.