As they have done for months, the 3-year-old fillies Her Laugh and Simply Joking breezed together Sunday at Fair Grounds, working a half-mile for upcoming starts, but as he said would be the case after both horses won stakes races Dec. 21 at Fair Grounds, their trainer, Whit Beckman, will continue keeping the pair apart.

Simply Joking, who clocked 49 seconds in her Sunday breeze, starts Saturday at Fair Grounds in the $150,000 Silverbulletday, stretching out to a route after making a winning career debut in the six-furlong Letellier Stakes.

After losing an entire week of racing to a winter storm followed by frigid air that remained in Kentucky, Turfway Park plans to resume racing Wednesday with an expanded 10-race card highlighted by a $180,036 carryover in the late pick five.

Sierra Leone and Domestic Product were the best 3-year-olds in trainer Chad Brown’s barn in 2024. They weren’t the only ones.

Brown had promising 3-year-olds in Tuscan Gold and Malarchuk in the barn. Both had issues last spring that kept them off the track for the remainder of their 3-year-old seasons. Thursday, both Tuscan Gold and Malarchuk look to begin their 4-year-old campaigns in a first-level allowance/optional $25,000 claiming race going one mile that serves as the feature on Gulfstream Park’s nine-race card.

ARCADIA, Calif. – British jockey William Pyle will have his American debut Thursday at Santa Anita, a month after he arrived for a seven-week stay to ride in the mornings for trainer Dan Blacker.

Pyle, 22, will ride the Blacker-trained Victory Matters off a two-year layoff in a maiden race for California-breds at a mile on turf.

Pyle, who has won 54 races in the last four years, has been exercising Victory Matters in recent weeks.

“He gets on well with the horse,” Blacker said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The rescheduled California Cup program at Santa Anita on Saturday, consisting of five stakes for statebreds, added four runners from the original lineups on Jan. 11.

The Jan. 11 program was one of three days of racing from Friday through Sunday that were canceled last weekend because of the effects of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles County.

Three of the five California Cup races this Saturday drew the same horses entered last weekend.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Even without live racing, parts of Santa Anita were packed over the weekend.

Last week, with terrifying wildfires striking areas near the track, Santa Anita opened its parking lot as a staging ground for power company vehicles. Last Friday, another section of the parking lot became a massive donation center after officials from the nearby city of Pasadena asked track executives if space was available.

Santa Anita general manager Nate Newby said the reaction from track officials was swift.

“We said, ‘Absolutely,’ ” Newby said.

Maybe running a horse for maiden $32,000 claiming isn’t a sign that you believe a horse has talent, but trainer Kathleen O’Connell does believe in Flash Frozen.

“I’ve always liked the horse, he’s just been a really slow learner,” O’Connell said. “I thought it would be until he was 4 that he’d ever get a gate card.”

Redistricting, runner-up in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar on Nov. 30, will not make the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 25, Brown said.

“He had a minor setback,” Brown said. “He’s going to be fine but now I’m considering taking my time and starting his season possibly in a race like the [Muniz Memorial Classic].”

The Grade 2, $300,000 Muniz is run at Fair Grounds on March 22.

ARCADIA, Calif. – After a weeklong interruption caused by fires wreaking havoc in Southern California, Santa Anita is scheduled to resume racing Thursday.

The program is the same that would have been run last Friday. That card was postponed due to the fires. The 10 races on Thursday will be run as originally drawn.

Sierra Leone, the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner and finalist for the Eclipse Award in the 3-year-old male division, had his second work in a week on Sunday, going a half-mile in 50.60 seconds at Payson Park.

Brown said he has liked what he’s seen thus farm from Sierra Leone since he resumed training and is pointing the colt toward the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh on Feb. 22.