If first impressions mean anything, longtime Southern California mainstays Drayden Van Dyke and Kent Desormeaux may be calling South Florida home before very long.

Van Dyke and Desormeaux each spent one weekend riding at Gulfstream on a trial basis over the past several weeks with both finding considerable success in a short period of time.

Van Dyke, 29, won with five of the nine mounts he accepted locally last weekend, all for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. Desormeaux won with two of the four rides he had at Gulfstream the previous week.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After Leave No Trace returned to her stakes-winning form in last month’s Grade 3 Vagrancy at Aqueduct, trainer Phil Serpe set her summer goal as the Grade 1 Ballerina at Saratoga on Aug. 24. His choices on how to get Leave No Trace to that race were Saturday’s Grade 2 Bed o’ Roses or the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap at Saratoga on July 24.

Serpe chose the Bed o’ Roses thinking it was going to come up a short field. Naturally, the Bed o’ Roses drew 10 fillies and mares when it was drawn on Tuesday.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Bill Mott is surprised Geopolitics is still a maiden. He won’t be surprised if her first win comes in Friday’s $150,000 Cupecoy’s Joy division of the New York Stallion Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

Yes, Aqueduct. Racing is back in Queens for four weeks, or 15 cards, following the raucous Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga last week and before racing returns to Saratoga for its regular summer meet that begins July 11.

The Alameda County Fair meeting begins a four-week run at Pleasanton on Friday under the direction of a management team tasked with the not-so-simple job of salvaging Northern California racing in coming months.

Golden Gate Fields in Albany, near Oakland, closed permanently on Sunday. The track served as a regional hub, hosting more than seven months of racing annually since the closure of Bay Meadows in 2008.

It’s been nearly a year since Runninwiththeboyz last won, taking an allowance race on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita in June 2023 after a three-month layoff.

Runninwiththeboyz starts on the unique course Friday for the first time since that win in a higher-class allowance race at about 6 1/2 furlongs.

This time, Runninwiththeboyz returns after a layoff of seven months, a gap that does not concern trainer Phil D’Amato.

“I think she’s pretty fit and fresh,” he said Wednesday.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Rafael Hernandez climbed atop the Woodbine jockey standings when he took last Sunday’s nightcap on Speedy Hans, who gave him his 19th winner of the meet. He rides probable favorite Summer Commander in Friday’s sixth race, a 6 1/2-furlong main-turf sprint for Ontario-sired and $40,000 maiden 3-year-olds.

Smokemonthecliff is the one to beat in Friday’s $15,000 claiming feature at six furlongs. The Scott Tubbs trainee was the runner-up in his most recent start on May 19, a 5 1/2-furlong race from which four of Friday’s contenders return.

It’s hard to imagine the Ignacio Correas-trained Argentine mare Didia could have run much better Friday at Saratoga winning the Grade 1 New York Stakes. And it’s hard to imagine the Correas-trained Chilean horse Super Corinto running anywhere near as badly in the featured eighth race Wednesday at Churchill Downs than he did in his most recent start.

Choose Joy will be making her case in the later stages of the seventh race at Gulfstream Park on Thursday.

The conditioned allowance is for fillies and mares at 5 1/2 furlongs on Tapeta. It carries an optional claiming price of $50,000.

The race is part of the Rainbow 6 jackpot sequence on races 3-8 that will have an estimated pool of $525,000 There will be a mandatory payout on Saturday. The 20-cent wager has not been hit in 20 days.

Choose Joy could get a decent setup Thursday behind Tator Made, Cousin Kristi, and Drum Roll when she starts from post 2.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Missed the Cut, winner of two Grade 3 turf marathons at Santa Anita earlier this year, worked five furlongs on dirt in 1:00.20 on Monday in advance of a scheduled departure on Wednesday for the Royal Ascot meeting in Britain later this month.

Trained by John Sadler, Missed the Cut is rated as a 12-1 chance with British bookmakers for the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes for older horses at 1 1/2 miles at Ascot on June 22.

Sadler said on Sunday that Missed the Cut will be ridden by James Doyle, who is based in Britain.