Odds-on favorite Secret Faith would need serious and sudden form erosion to lose the fillies division of the Louisiana Futurity on Sunday at Fair Grounds, but Smokem Wicked has less margin for error in the colts and geldings division.

Both races, with a base $100,000 purse, challenge the top participants’ sturdiness since all of them ran just two weekends ago on Louisiana Champions Day. Smoken Wicked won the Juvenile on that Dec. 14 card, while Secret Faith took a tough – and probably unnecessary – loss to a filly named Blue Fire.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The expectation of a wet track and a bevy of scratches should make Law Professor tough to beat Sunday as he seeks a repeat victory in the $150,000 Queens County Stakes going 1 1/8 miles at Aqueduct.

In January 2023, Law Professor won the Queens County Stakes by 7 1/2 lengths over a good track and followed that two starts later with a 4 1/4-length victory in the Excelsior over a muddy Aqueduct main track. He began 2024 here with an allowance victory in the slop and overall, is 5 for 7 at Aqueduct.

ARCADIA, Calif. – All-sources handle exceeded $21.49 million on Thursday at Santa Anita, part of a bumper set of statistics on opening day of the winter-spring meeting.

The all-sources handle was the highest on opening day since 2022 when handle reached $26.3 million and the third-highest handle ever on opening day. The 2020 opening day had a handle of slightly more than $23 million.

The handle jumped 17.4 percent over the 2023 figure of $18.3 million. Ontrack handle on Thursday was $2,657,871, a gain of 3 percent over 2023.

ARCADIA, Calif. – The 3-year-olds She Feels Pretty and King of Gosford will have wintertime vacations after winning graded stakes on turf at Santa Anita on Thursday.

She Feels Pretty won her second consecutive Grade 1 race in the $303,000 American Oaks at 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-old fillies, taking a commanding lead in early stretch. She Feels Pretty won by 2 1/2 lengths as the favorite.

For 2025, She Feels Pretty will have a season geared toward the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

“That’s our goal,” trainer Cherie DeVaux said.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Easier company and a better draw are key reasons Artislas should be favored in the $100,000 Eddie Logan Stakes on Sunday at Santa Anita. But the main reason is Artislas, the field’s only stakes winner, happens to be the best horse.

Two months after a bad-trip eighth against tougher, Artislas will be strongly backed in the Logan. The mile race for 2-year-olds is the final turf route stakes for the division (3-year-olds of 2025) until the Pasadena Stakes on March 9.

ARCADIA, Calif. – With one predictable result, and one far from expected, trainer Doug O’Neill won two of the six stakes on Santa Anita’s opening-day program on Thursday with an established sprinter and an older horse meeting expectations.

Raging Torrent was the 5-2 favorite in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs and ran to expectations, winning by 1 1/4 lengths for his fourth win in his last five starts.

Earlier on the program, J B Strikes Back, an 18-1 outsider, led throughout the Grade 2 Laffit Pincay Jr. Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.

Crab Daddy, winner of the restricted Pennsylvania Nursery last month, tackles open stakes competition in Monday’s $75,000 Parx Future Stars for 2-year-olds at seven furlongs. The card includes three other stakes for 2-year-olds.

Crab Daddy finished second in his debut when racing for the waiver restriction at Laurel Park on Nov. 9, but overcame his inexperience and some traffic trouble to rally up the rail in the Nursery.

The National Thoroughbred League has not come close yet to meeting the grand ambitions the company announced when it was launched early in 2023, but to co-founder Randall Lane, the concept has been successful at its main goal.

“We want everyone to love racing as much as we do, and we think [the National Thoroughbred League] gives people a very easy entry point to that world,” Lane said. “When we’re creating fans, we’re creating fans for all of Thoroughbred racing. That’s ultimately the goal, where everyone succeeds.”

White Abarrio headlines the last Saturday of racing during 2024, and if you think the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector is too short for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, you didn’t watch his seven-furlong comeback race last month.

Another Breeders’ Cup-class horse, Motorious, heads the Santa Anita turf-sprint feature.

Both those favorites look like winners at a short price, White Abarrio especially. We’ll try to make something more from a trio of hundred-granders coast to coast.

Blue Norther

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Aside from an eight-pound weight difference, very little seems to separate Bank Frenzy and El Grande O when the two in-form runners clash in Saturday’s $100,000 Alex M. Robb Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct.