HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Spirit of St Louis and Carson’s Run are both multiple Grade 1 winners entered in Saturday’s $175,000 Appleton Stakes at Gulfstream Park, but they’ve both been away a while and the one-mile distance seems shorter than their best distance.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A one-mile maiden special weight race in late January doesn’t figure to be a harbinger of what to expect in the marquee event for 3-year-old fillies here each winter, the $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks. But, sure enough, the first two finishers that afternoon, She Be Smooth and Prom Queen, will meet again nine weeks later as the favorites going 1 1/16 miles in a quest for crucial Kentucky Oaks qualifying points Saturday in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – A race around a mere two turns is not enough to start the Racing Festival of the South stakes action on Saturday at Oaklawn Park.

Racing secretary Pat Pope went for three.

Cadenza scored a handy one-length win in an allowance sprint for fillies on Feb. 21 at Turfway Park, with Hen Party rallying for second. They were flattered when third-place Lorelei Lee stretched out to win last week’s Bourbonette Oaks, propelling her toward the Kentucky Oaks.

Cadenza and Hen Party remain at a sprint distance, with each making their stakes debut in the six-furlong, $125,000 Serena’s Song Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, the closing-night feature Saturday at Turfway.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Far Bridge has raced for three seasons, each one beginning with a narrow victory at Gulfstream Park.

A multiple Grade 1 winner and earner of $2.4 million, Far Bridge is back for a fourth season. Naturally, it begins with a start at Gulfstream Park in the Grade 3, $225,000 Pan American Stakes, the same race he won last year by a neck. Far Bridge is 4 for 4 at Gulfstream, having begun his career with two wins there in 2023.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Full Serrano established himself as a world-class miler in 2024, and he will be returning to the distance Saturday when he leads a deep and diverse cast of eight older horses in the Grade 3, $500,000 Oaklawn Mile.

The stakes, which will end at the sixteenth pole, is one of 14 races on an Arkansas Derby Day card that gets underway at 11:35 a.m. Central Time.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – The points plot thickens Saturday in the Grade 1, $1.5 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.

The 1 1/8-mile race led by Derby Watch members Renegade, Silent Tactic, and Litmus Test will reward its first five finishers Kentucky Derby points on a scale of 100-50-25-15-10.

“Litmus Test, we got to get him there,” said trainer Bob Baffert. “We got to run first or second.”

ARCADIA, Calif. – Behind the scenes at the Santa Anita stable of trainer Jonathan Thomas, an internal conflict unfolds. This is not a bad thing.

“I’m in the good or unfortunate position, however you look at it, we have a small barn, but a lot of horses are fighting for similar spots,” Thomas said.

He was referring to a trio of graded stakes-winning turf mares that he wants to keep separated – Mrs. Astor, Rashmi, and Tirupati.

Several trainers are loading up for the Winter Starter Championships card on Saturday at Aqueduct, but no one will come close to outgunning Ilkay Kantarmaci. Across seven starter allowances, the prolific claiming trainer entered 10 horses, an all-out blitz in which he was only limited by a cap on entries.

“I think this is our day,” Kantarmaci said. “Like, the exact day. If I could enter more, you were going to maybe see 20 from me.”

Trainers are limited to two horses in each race in the Starter Championships.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There are very few races left on Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott’s bucket list. One of those is the Grade 1 Florida Derby, a prize he’ll hope to add to his résumé Saturday at Gulfstream Park. There, Mott will send out the lightly raced Chief Wallabee against recent Fountain of Youth nemesis Commandment and Holy Bull winner Nearly in what is indisputably the strongest of all the Kentucky Derby preps to be decided this spring.